can i convert this bike and should i ride across america on it

[simonfman]

my sister and i are going to ride across america in about 2 years and i would like to do it on a recumbent. will this frame work or should i get a different/better frame for such a long ride? will the conversion kit hold up for a ride across america? should i even use a cruzbike for that long of a ride? tell me what you think about this bike and if you would trust it (with the conversion kit added) to ride across america (the ride will be, at most, 3,000 miles long). if you need measurements on the frame, i will provide them. thank you

 

[simonfman]

also, is it possible to use a

also, is it possible to use a diamond frame on the conversion kit? i would definitely prefer using a diamond frame over a Y frame, if possible

 

[Charles.Plager]

Hi,
A lot of people have

Hi,

A lot of people have converted non-Y frames with much success (often folding bikes). As I understand it (since I've never converted anything), the biggest concern when picking a frame is the seat height. A lot of bikes don't have suitible forks, but getting a new fork apparently isn't too hard.

As far as riding it accross the country, I think you are right to pick a recumbent. David Byrne rode his Sofrider over 48,000 km, effectively around the world.

I'm assuming that you will be riding self-supporting, so you want to make sure that whatever you pick, you can carry what you need. You are going to want comfort and reliability. I think that you could get all of this from a conversion, but you'll want keep this in mind as you are making various choices about components, tire sizes, etc.

Good luck and let us know how things go.

Cheers,
Charles

 

[John Tolhurst]

You can certainly world tour

You can certainly world tour on a conversion, its been done before:
http://cruzbike.com/world-tour

 

[simonfman]

thank you for the comments

thank you for the comments something i forgot to mention is that i will most likely be using a bike trailer to haul my crap

 

[Doug Burton]

That frame should convert well

Including the fork, which looks to be ideal to accept the adapter brackets.

While a horizontal top tube might be a little better, that one has a relatively gentle slope to it, and the top tube joins the downtube below the bottom of the head tube - these are good things.

Most diamond frame bikes will result in excessively high seat height. The bike will be hard to manage at a stop.

This is a good donor bike.

Much of completing a long distance ride successfully is in planning and resource management, and will be similarly challenging regardless of what you ride. You will be more comfortable on a recumbent, which becomes more and more critical as your mileage increases.

David and Julie Byrne's blog should be a valuable resource for you.

Let us know how we can help you further.

Best,

Doug

 

[nerys]

sorry to leech the thread but

sorry to leech the thread but want to be clear

the ONLY reason to use a y tube is ride height at stops ? (I plan to convert it to a trike as well so that won't be relevant to me)

why does it need rear suspension? my issue with RS bikes is I fear my mass will shread that lower joint at the original crank location without that down tube being in the loop so to speak.

 

[John Tolhurst]

stoppies for amusement, anyone

Not the only reason. The other reason is that if you are higher then you can dive over the handlebars in an emergency stop. (Or do stoppies for amusement.) You need to be able to deaccelerate at 0.5Gravity, which means the center of your mass, down to where the front tire meets the road, should be less than 60 degrees.