Thoughts on hill-climbing and riding "no hands"

{This was a post I made on the Cruzbike yahoogroup and some suggested I move a copy to this blog for general reference. -Jim}
I will leave the technical/gearing aspects of hill-climbing to Doug and others who know a lot more about that than me. Here is my take on the Cruzbike rider and hill-climbing:

The first point I'd like to make is that everyone in this yahoogroup is on the cutting edge of a new technology, the attributes of which we are still discovering. The Cruzbike Sofrider/Freerider are the first production pivoting-boom FWD recumbents in the world and they have only been around for about a year. The more I learn about and experience what they can do, the more inspired I am to promote further development and research into this design.

Any beginner on a Cruzbike will notice on their first ride that there is a tendency of the arms to "fight" against the legs for control of the steering. This is due to a lack of coordination of the lateral control muscles of the legs. As an analogy from the world of weight-lifting, if you have been doing your bench presses on a universal-type machine where the motion of the lift is predetermined in a fixed track, you can develop great strength on that machine. But then if you switch over to a dumbbell press, where the weights are free to move independently, you will feel very weak, wobbly, and uncoordinated until you develop the smaller lateral control muscles in your upper body. It's for this reason that serious weight-lifters prefer free-weights over weight-machines.

Following this analogy, pedaling on a Cruzbike is like lifting free-weights. .. you must develop and coordinate both large and small muscles groups in your legs to pedal efficiently. So how do you develop this coordination? I find the best way is to practice riding with only a very light touch on the handlebars, and eventually "hands-free" riding. Those concerned for my safety, keep in mind that when I ride "no-hands" on my Cruzbike, I still have steering control of the front-wheel of the bike with my feet and can run a slalom course if I wanted to. As I've gained more experience, I can pedal 20 mph on a flat surface with my hands folded on my lap, all while keeping the bottom-bracket rock steady. I am not a particulary graceful or athletic person. This is a skill anyone can do if they practice gradually at it. My wife and my 13 y.o. son picked it up within a couple of months of me suggesting they begin working on it.

So what's riding "no-hands" have to do with hill-climbing? Once you have trained your legs so that your arms don't have to fight them, you will be better able to use your arms to assist your legs. When I climb or sprint, my hands are definitely needed... in effect, I overcorrect the pedal steer effect by pulling back on the ipsilateral (same-side) handlebar during the forward power stroke- bringing the pedal closer to the forward-moving leg, just as a road biker pulls up on the ipsilateral handlebar during the downward powerstroke while leaning the bike to bring the pedal closer to the downward-moving leg. Both actions allow upper body strength to assist with hill-climbing, and both actions involve complex dynamic motions that are easier to experience than explain. It's sort of a "flick" of the handlebar that helps you eke out more climbing power. My wife has very low body-fat, and if you ride behind her when she is hill-climbing, you will see an amazing display of back and shoulder muscles working. In October, she participated in the CNC "Ride Across North Carolina" on a Sofrider V1 with a double chainring. On the mountain climbing sections, she passed every other recumbent and a lot of road bikes. These were serious, long, steep hills that many roadies and bent-riders were walking up. Certainly her low bike/body mass helped, but I believe it was also her well developed Cruzbike skills.

In conclusion, don't neglect your own training when looking for better hill-climbing performance. For me, the ability to ride "no-hands" has become one of the more pleasurable attributes of Cruzbike riding. It's not only of practical utility in freeing your hands to fetch or adjust something, but an exhilarating experience of joy and freedom.

Best Wishes for a Happy Holiday and Great New Year,

Jim Parker, M.D.

Silvio Frame Numbers

I'm happy the first lot of Silvios are now in customers hands and on the road. We promised to track frame numbers, so for the record, here they are:

001 JP (display bike)
002 MP (demonstration bike)
003 HC
004 DI
005 JL
006 RL
007 KL
008 MH
009 DS
010 DC
011 JR
012 LG

We were going to put actual individual numbers on each frame, but in the end settled for a Certificate of Authenticy:

which reads:
Manufactured for Cruzbike Inc., North Carolina, U.S.A.
Designed in Perth, Australia by John Tolhurst.
Manufactured under license by Yoan Technologies, Taiwan.
Production Date: 10 August, 2007.
Original Edition: The presence of this certificate on your
Cruzbike Silvio indicates that your product is one of the first
batch of twelve produced for the commercial market.
Description: The Cruzbike Silvio is the world's first
commercially produced pivoting boom front wheel drive
recumbent bicycle built to accommodate today's leading road
bike components.
Cruzbike Silvio encompasses the best technology available.
The rear suspension system is a patented system by Yoan
Technologies, Taiwan and was awarded a prize by the Taiwan
International Bicycle Design Competition in 2001. The same
panel awarded a similar prize in 2007 for the front air shock
suspension system, developed by Kind Shock Hi-Tech,
Taiwan. The integrated frame and seat shells and the front
triangle system is subject to a patent by Cruzbike Inc.

Silvio rear rack, tail box

People are asking about a rear rack for the Silvio.

I included an M5 hole near the rear axle (left and right), and on the seat stay near the rear brake (left and right). I will design a special rack but until then it might be possible to find a rack that can be adapted.

The other question people raise is for a tail box. This is a little tricky, there are some interesting design concepts I am exploring. I don't like the pointy tail sock, I find it is pure structure and lacking in form: I want something more shapely, so as usual I am setting the bar high and will have to invest quite a bit of time to generate a good, lightweight result.

Silvio Released

This week Silvio began shipping.

Silvio is a significant step in the evolution of the bicycle. For the first time, a moving bottom bracket bicycle with full body ergonomics has been designed from scratch for commercial production, encompassing all the learning and experience of building hundreds of mtb derivative cruzbikes. The mtb derivative bikes perform exceptionally well, no question, and capture excellent manufacturing economies in the bicycle industry. But Silvio is different, its starting point is a group of components for a road bike with the aim to retain full compatibility with road bike parts.

As Tom Traylor said when I visited with the Silvio: "Its a really good bike. It works really well, it handles well, it incorporates all the good features of standardization - its got everything!" That is an important testimony, Tom Traylor has 25 years experience building and riding moving bottom bracket bikes.

Silvio Fenders

Here

is a link to the fenders/mudguards I have sometimes used on the Silvio. They work well and are nice and narrow.

Silvio Metric Century

The blood sugar level plunged after 70 kms, but apart from that a fantastic ride, completing 100 km in under 4 hours.

Its a mild winter's day in Perth with showers passing over. The chosen bike path runs 45 km south of Perth beside the Kwinana Freeway. The last 30 kms out and first 30 kms back are without any traffic hazards at all so must rate as one of the best bike paths for this kind of ride.

With the windwrap fairing on the front the occasional showers presented no problem, just a little sand collecting on the frame, see pictures.

There was barely any wind movement noticeable in the vegetation, but that probably suggests 5 km/h. The ride out was in the mid 30 kph to long sections of 41s and 42s. The ride back found a strong cross wind, plus being tired the last 30 ks, the speed dropped to around the 25 kph mark.

Silvio, a different frame for your road bike

All road bikes have components that follow a very strict formula. There is very little variance between components in terms of their form and function.

The Silvio strategy is to keep ALL the standard road bike components/wheels and merely mount them on a different frame that solves the ergonomic issues. We take this purist approach because we can. No other form of recumbent can achieve this in such a pure sense.

Take the last road bike you saw, there are many hundreds of models that are identical to that in all important respects. There are only two things that can change that would affect the suitability as a parts donor for Silvio.

1) some front dérailleurs clamp around the tube (clamp ons) and some bolt into a brazed on lug (braze-ons). Silvio requires the braze-on.

2) there are two main handlebar clamp widths, 26.0 and 31.8. Silvio needs the 26.0.

For obvious reasons both cannot be accommodated on the bike! Other than that, you can strip ANY modern road bike and build a Silvio from it. You may need a new cable here or there.

Looking under the bell curve of leg lengths, the medium Silvio frame caters to about 3/4 or perhaps more of adult males. We will do a small frame and possibly a large frame over the next year. Once we have feedback on the new frames, we will ramp up production.