Trying out the "competition" - M5 Citymate/CMPCT

JonB

Zen MBB Master
Hi

Today i vent to try a M5 Citymate/cmpct which can be seen here: http://www.m5-ligfietsen.nl/site/EN/Models/CMPCT

I biked up there for 1,5 hour, and then around on the M5 for 30-40 minutes in a small town. No climbing. I immediately felt that i probably would not buy it, but i am glad that i tried it. I had to try it out alone, because the guy had to take his daughter to the hospital because she broke her arm. Maybe my experience would have been different if the owner was there, and not just his wife. But i doubt it, because the bike was largely unused, so i dont think he could give drive technique on that bike anyway.
I am aware that half an hour of trying cant compare to the year and a half i have experience with my Freerider, but here is a go:

Turning is awkward. The front wheel is so far out, and so small, that i feel insure turning on gravel. It feels harder to turn at slow speeds and keep the balance. You have to move the handlebar much more to the side. In the beginning i had a hard time keeping my hands still.

There was less space for my legs, and ofc. my pants got dirty on the chain. I didnt hear much idler noise, but reportedly the bike wasnt used much.


Going over speed bumps was much better and softer, probably because my entire body is not lifted up immediately. Going up angled curbs was the same.

Suspension is much much softer than my Freerider. Part of the reason could be that my Freerider tires are always at maximum pressure for lower rolling resistance. The M5 tires did not seem to deform though, so they did have some pressure. The suspension was bouncy. I could feel it for a few seconds after going out over a vertical curb. Another explanation could be that the M5 is made of chrome-molybdenum steel, which has some different properties than aluminium which the Freerider is made of. Maybe it was the elastomer suspension?


I have toyed with the idea of getting a steel LWB with dual suspension, because i expected it to be much softer. But now i wont, because i dont like the turning. I am unsure if a M5 Citymate/CMPCT is a real LWB, it might be a CLWB, but i expect a real LWB to turn even more awkward.

When i got back to riding on my own Freerider it felt so wrong, and i felt myself locking up to handle the turning. After some minutes the right feeling got back and i handled the bike much better. Maybe i didnt test the M5 for long enough time?

This experience have led me to believe that having 2 or more vastly different 2 wheeled recumbent bikes will make it harder to shift between them?


Going home brought me out some bad trails, and right when i was really wishing for better suspension, then my wheels got caught in a groove between the road and the grass. SLAM! so now i wish for 3 wheels and suspension so it wont fall over. This fall also bended the handlebar :-( (i guess i will go Sofrider style).

Further ahead and closer to home, i got passed by a racer uphill, and when i passed him downhill, we got into chatting. He was alone, and i didnt feel the normal resentment that i often feel from racers. Maybe it's his history and because he wasnt the usual kind of racer, he didnt wear spandex. Maybe the reason is that we both recognized each others accents subconsciously, since we both grew up at Bornholm, a little danish island. Though he was a decade older than me.

I enjoyed riding with someone else. We could pace each other, and still talk, so i guess we wasnt going fast enough ;-) I usually ride alone, because none of my friends are riding bikes. And there are not many recumbent riders near me. The one i have tried was into riding, no talking. I wanna do both.
 

Gromit

Guru
I test rode a M5 Citymate some years ago. I hated the "tiller" effect of the steering too.

Maybe you should try the Cruzbike Sigma. ;) :)

Sorry to hear about your crash. :cry:
 

JonB

Zen MBB Master
Gromit wrote: I test rode a M5 Citymate some years ago. I hated the "tiller" effect of the steering too.

Maybe you should try the Cruzbike Sigma. ;) :)
It does not have suspension. And i wonder why they put it on a separate website??
 

Gromit

Guru
JonB wrote:
Gromit wrote: I test rode a M5 Citymate some years ago. I hated the "tiller" effect of the steering too.

Maybe you should try the Cruzbike Sigma. ;) :)
It does not have suspension. And i wonder why they put it on a separate website??
I used to own a bike E CT. That was a compact long wheelbase bike without suspension. I feel that the longer recumbents don't suffer from a lack of suspension that much.

Did you notice that a fairing is available for the Sigma? :)
"The Sigma and a front fairing is a match made in heaven. Gone are the days when a front fairing on a long wheel base is attached to the fork and handle bar. On Sigma it attaches to the frame to create a solid mounting. A lightweight low cost custom fairing is available and is guaranteed to improve high speed performance as well as deliver the comfort benefits you are looking for."

JonB wrote: And i wonder why they put it on a separate website??
I guess that I had better let JT respond to that. ;) :)
 

JonB

Zen MBB Master
Gromit wrote: I used to own a bike E CT. That was a compact long wheelbase bike without suspension. I feel that the longer recumbents don't suffer from a lack of suspension that much.
Oh, well, that sounds great.

Gromit wrote: Did you notice that a fairing is available for the Sigma? :)
"The Sigma and a front fairing is a match made in heaven. Gone are the days when a front fairing on a long wheel base is attached to the fork and handle bar. On Sigma it attaches to the frame to create a solid mounting. A lightweight low cost custom fairing is available and is guaranteed to improve high speed performance as well as deliver the comfort benefits you are looking for."
No, i didnt notice that. Maybe i should try it out. But i am still reluctant, because of my experience that changing between bikes was weird.
 

Gromit

Guru
JonB wrote:
Gromit wrote: I used to own a bike E CT. That was a compact long wheelbase bike without suspension. I feel that the longer recumbents don't suffer from a lack of suspension that much.
Oh, well, that sounds great.

Gromit wrote: Did you notice that a fairing is available for the Sigma? :)
"The Sigma and a front fairing is a match made in heaven. Gone are the days when a front fairing on a long wheel base is attached to the fork and handle bar. On Sigma it attaches to the frame to create a solid mounting. A lightweight low cost custom fairing is available and is guaranteed to improve high speed performance as well as deliver the comfort benefits you are looking for."
No, i didnt notice that. Maybe i should try it out. But i am still reluctant, because of my experience that changing between bikes was weird.
I agree that changing between a moving bottom bracket recumbent and a recumbent without a MBB feels strange at first. When I test rode my new bike, I felt comfortable again after ten minutes or so though. :)
I assume that you are thinking about the Sigma as a replacement for the Freerider so I don't believe that the strangeness would bother you for too long.
There are a lot of positives for you with the Sigma.
It has a hub gear like your custom Freerider. There is lots of space between the wheels to hang your luggage. Then there is the fairing as well.
 

JonB

Zen MBB Master
Gromit wrote: I agree that changing between a moving bottom bracket recumbent and a recumbent without a MBB feels strange at first. When I test rode my new bike, I felt comfortable again after ten minutes or so though. :)
yeah, but it came as a big surprise to me.

Gromit wrote: I assume that you are thinking about the Sigma as a replacement for the Freerider so I don't believe that the strangeness would bother you for too long.
There are a lot of positives for you with the Sigma.
It has a hub gear like your custom Freerider. There is lots of space between the wheels to hang your luggage. Then there is the fairing as well.
Actually i was thinking of keeping and using both, + having one as a backup should something happen. I would assume that i could mount a fairing on my Freerider as well. I dont need more luggage than what i can have on my Freerider.

I wanted to have something faster and comfortable for long rides. So i figured that a LWB might do the trick, but we dont have many of those here in Europa. Most have low/mid racers or velomobiles. I find them too low, and a velomobile is even harder to try because there are so few.

One thing i did notice on the citymate is that even though the chainline looks pretty nice when not moving, then once moving it buttom part of the chain started svinging from 5-10 cm from side to side.
 
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