Hi all,

Hope I post this in the right section. I recently joined the club and the forum, and I thought I'd quickly introduce myself. I started riding recumbents in my native the Netherlands about 25 years ago (on a bike I built myself from recycled parts), and I currently have six (and about thirty other bikes of all kinds). I live in Bath (and in Dublin, and I have a workshop in NL), and anyone who knows Bath will agree that recumbents are perhaps not the the most practical bikes around here due to the hills. I've been living here for about 8 years, but I only recently discovered the brilliant Odd Down cycle circuit. I brought my M5 Low Racer over from NL last month, as the track gives me the opportunity to finally ride a recumbent on a more regular basis again. I like going fast, but I'm not a competitive rider, so if anyone wants to join me for some social riding on the track, give me a shout.

Below is my Optima Stinger, a fully kitted out commuter bike. Bought brand new in NL 20-odd years ago, and used 5-6 days a week for a 27 mile round trip until I moved abroad in 2009. I've also done a fair few long distance trips (> 150 miles) on it. All in all a very capable and versatile machine. I've only sporadically ridden recumbents since I moved abroad, until I got stuck in NL early 2021 when the borders temporarily closed due to covid lockdowns, and I had a chance to dig this bike out of storage. Riding it again made me realise how much I'd missed it, but also that I wanted something a bit faster (that quickly turned into two of the faster things!).

This is my Baron; it's a very early pre-Optima one with a welded frame. Only got this last summer, and I love it. It's pretty fast on the long and straight Dutch polder roads (without any training, I managed close to 19mph on a 100 mile trip), but it's terrible in city traffic. I now have a carbon seat for it, and I'll fit narrow handlebars and get rid of the current gear shifters/ brake levers when I have time.

In the photos, the front caliper sits at the rear of the forks; this turned out not to work very well for me as it resulted in a nasty leg wound after a few laps on the track. I'll swap it to the front, and if that doesn't work either I'll see about fitting a centre pull caliper from an aero/ time trial bike if there's enough space for the cable under the frame. This is when I got it:

And this is how it currently sits. I found that the corners on the track are too tight to run the chain along the front wheel, so will unfortunately have to revert to using pulleys as the current set-up is slowing me down too much when cornering.

My other recumbents are two Challenge Hurricanes, and an Escape Thjes (no, me neither). They all need work, and I've never ridden any of them. This is one of the Hurris, which I got with a mishmash of incompatible drive train parts and I haven't got round to sorting, and the Escape, which has clearly lived outside for a while, but deserves recommissioning. I may bring a Hurri over to Bath this summer, do it up, attempt to ride it up the hills, regret it, and put it up for sale, we'll see.

We'll be having a BHPC event at the Odd Down circuit on the 23rd of April, so do come and say hello, even if you don't participate in the racing.

That said, if you like going fast, then you're more than qualified to enter one of our races - There's a bit of friendly competition at the sharp end of some of the classes, but most people who participate are more interested in personal bests, refining their designs or simply having fun riding unusual machines on a good quality surface without having to worry about motor traffic.

I'm definitely planning to pop by on the 23rd April if I can, but I may be overseas, not sure yet.

Not sure what happened with the photos in my opening post, they showed in the preview. Will try and fix later.

The bit from Box to Bristol is as I'm sure you know pretty flat, the test was the last few miles of my commute home that's where the hills were. I've been up all the major climbs apart from Brassknocker, and a few of the smaller lesser known steeper hills, there was one that I couldn't climb on my upright road bike, I steered clear of that one on the 'bent.

Ian

EDIT: Tuesday evenings  https://www.chippenhamwheelers.org/club-activities/castle-coombe-circuit/" rel="nofollow - https://www.chippenhamwheelers.org/club-activities/castle-coombe-circuit/

Yanto wrote: Neither, I think stupid is the correct term .

That's what I thought but wasn't going to say. 🤣

In all fairness, even cars struggle getting up Brassknocker Hill. I certainly know Ralph Allen Drive, it's not even that steep compared to e.g., Widcombe Hill, just very long. I have great difficulty getting up even the slightest incline owing to a rare bone disease, but I can still push it on the flat for whatever reason, so that's why I'm so happy to have discovered the track. I get around town and to work on a crappy 15-year old Raleigh ebike that gets me up the hills. As much as I hate riding an ebike (or better: as much as I love riding under my own power!), it's been a real game-changer after years of barely being able to cycle in Bath at all. I've seen a Mango velomobile around town, wonder if that has e-assist?

I know about the Castle Combe Wheelers sessions, I heard it can get quite busy on a good night? Sounds fun!

I bought a skinny TRP T925 front brake caliper on eBay today, hope that solves my brake issue because I'm itching to ride again. Unfortunately there's no way I can fit a centre pull caliper, there's just not enough clearance under the main frame tube. Swapping the Campa Veloce caliper from the rear to the front of the forks isn't going to work either because the cable interferes with the chain now I've reinstalled the pulleys.

A new velomobile rider in the area has a DfXL, he's contemplating going e-assist.

I honestly think e-assist has great merit for people who would benefit, like yourself by the sounds of it, but also it's good to read that you can give it some welly on the flat. 

Castle Combe from distant memory can be busy, but the track is wide and long and so there is never a problem with jostling, even when there's a chain gang going!

Unfortunately I have no words of wisdom about the brake situation for you. 

http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/topic7709_post70571.html#70571" rel="nofollow - My M5 Low Racer is now for sale if anyone's interested. It will be replaced with a green 406/559 pre-Optima Baron that I'm currently building. Pics to follow when I get a chance to take it to the track!

My red Baron is also pre-Optima (built by Dries Baron), but with 451/622 wheels. Later this year, a black Optima 406/559 Baron will be added to the fleet. I love the red one, and it will be very interesting to see how the others compare.

The red one now has a much nicer cockpit without the ugly brifters spoiling my view. The fairing still needs some nice new graphics, not sure what I'll do with it yet.