First time on a Cruzbike

[Osiris]

As of last Sunday, I have roughly 80 miles on my Vendetta V20. To my surprise, it's actually much easier to ride than I'd been led to expect. I have several years of experience riding a Bacchetta CA2 and M5 CHR, but I'm not sure whether that helped or hurt me, because pedaling and steering an MBB takes quite a bit of mental reprogramming if you're accustomed to a RWD. At this point I'm so used to the alternating push-pull on the handlebars that I can keep the V20 tracking perfectly straight without having to think about it any longer. I have not yet discovered the art of climbing hills with it, so I may work on that next weekend. Ironically, the thing it seems to do best is just what I thought would be the most difficult: steering around tight turns. It actually negotiates turn beautifully, and seems to require less lean angle than my other bents. There's something very natural about pointing your feet in the direction you want to go, and the fact that there's no danger of my pedals hitting the front wheel, or my handlebars (in the case of the CA2) hitting my thighs, takes away the two things that bothered me the most about riding recumbents. Hopefully the perfect riding weather we're having will last through the weekend so that I can get some more saddle time.

 

[LarryOz]

Thanks for the report. So glad you have mastered it so quickly! Can not wait to hear how you tackle the hills.

 

[telephd]

Thanks for the report and welcome to the tribe!

 

[bladderhead]

Welcome to the tribe. You are right about the leaning.

 

[DavidCH]

Yep. The hills will blow the cobwebs away for sure... love the acceleration and all those chasing you go smaller and smaller

 

[jond]

Yes welcome and congratulations on a great bike.

I reckon and recommend no matter your experience doing ratz,s drills / skill acquisition as mandatory to help your cycling safely including low speed hill climbing.

The nuances of the bike are rewarding. And fast. Enjoy.

 

[Osiris]

OK, so now that I have almost 200 miles under my belt, I can honestly say that I feel just as comfortable riding the Vendetta as I do my other bents. To be honest, I experienced some trepidation at first that trading my faithful Bacchetta CA2 for the V20 was the right move. I had no prior experience riding a MBB, so I didn't know what to expect. Happily, I had a much easier time reprogramming my brain to ride one of these bikes than other people apparently have, at least judging by the numerous reviews I encountered. I can now say without the slightest reservation that the V20 is superior in almost every respect to the CA2. It handles better, brakes better, and is more comfortable. When it comes to comparing their performance, the jury is still out. Unfortunately all my outings on the V20 so far have been plagued by heavy winds, so I have not been able to do any power/speed testing. My seat of the pants impression is that the two bikes are fairly close when it comes to outright performance however, and the three coast down tests I've done seem to confirm that. Hopefully the weather will be more cooperative this coming weekend so that I can gather some useful data.

 

[Osiris]

I've got over 400 miles on the V20 now, and felt at home enough on the bike to do my first group ride on it yesterday. No drama ensued. In fact, the lower seat height and zero possibility of heel strikes has taken away what little fear I still had of executing sharp turns from a stop. We had quite a few new members in the group who were clearly uninformed about the performance potential of a recumbent. Fortunately it only took a few sprints to straighten them out. This weekend I'll be bringing it to the shop to have the Di2 system installed, which should result in perfect shifts every time. I'm also having a set of tubeless tires installed, so no more worries about getting a flat in the middle of nowhere. I really can't think of anything more to be done after that, which speaks highly of the V20. I had to spend much more money swapping out stock parts for aftermarket parts to get my other two bents the way I wanted them.

 

[Osiris]

I've been wondering from the start how the Vendetta compares to my dearly departed CA2 in terms of efficiency on the flat roads I ride, but high winds over the past few weeks have made it impossible to get an accurate comparison. My 'seat of the pants' impression is that they're roughly the same, but I wanted some hard data. One place where I was able to get an accurate comparison is on a .6 mile long Strava segment with an average slope of -1%. This is the segment I've been using for years to do my coast down tests because it's perfectly straight and flanked on both sides by heavy tree growth and a tall berm, making it possible to get accurate numbers even on windy days. Sure enough, the top speeds reached when coasting down this hill on the V20 were all 19 mph, an exact match for the CA2. Still, a top speed of 19 mph doesn't tell the full story, because that's slower than my average cruising speed, which tends to be in the low to mid 20's. For that, I'd need a long flat road in near windless conditions. Fortunately my chance came on Wednesday, while crossing a Strava segment 4.07 miles long. On that segment I averaged 22.7 mph @ 184 watts. I looked up my previous numbers on the CA2, and found that they were almost identical: 22.7 mph @ 182 watts. Only a 2 watt difference over a 4.07 mile stretch. I doubt I'd see numbers that similar in a wind tunnel test!

 

[LarryOz]

Nice - interesting that they are so close. Did you have the same wheels and tires on the CA2 when you collected the data on it?
Too bad you do not have the CA2 where you could take them both to a close loop track and take some measurements side by side.

 

[Osiris]

Nice - interesting that they are so close. Did you have the same wheels and tires on the CA2 when you collected the data on it?
Too bad you do not have the CA2 where you could take them both to a close loop track and take some measurements side by side.

Same tires, same power meter, but the wheels on the CA2 were much more aero than the ones currently on my V20. I had a full disk on the back and a deep section front wheel. I could probably squeeze a bit more speed out of the V20 with similar wheels, but my experience with aero wheels suggests the difference is pretty marginal. I'm very happy now that I decided to make the trade. The V20 beats the CA2 in every relevant comparison but outright speed.

I had to ride the M5 this afternoon while the V20 is in the shop having your Di2 stuff installed. What a scary ride that was! I'm so used to pushing and pulling with my arms to compensate for the V20's pedal steer that I couldn't hold a straight line with the M5. It was a white knuckled ride for the first few miles before I got it under control. Now I'm wondering if I'll have to re-learn riding the V20 when I get it back.

 

[LarryOz]

I had to ride the M5 this afternoon while the V20 is in the shop having your Di2 stuff installed. What a scary ride that was! I'm so used to pushing and pulling with my arms to compensate for the V20's pedal steer that I couldn't hold a straight line with the M5. It was a white knuckled ride for the first few miles before I got it under control. Now I'm wondering if I'll have to re-learn riding the V20 when I get it back.

Yes - it is hard to go back and forth between the 2 formats!