Recumbent Muscles?

I’ve had the Grasshopper for more than a week and I’ve been putting in some effort preparing myself and the bike for the first big tour next week.

My first priority has been to give my recumbent muscles a bit of a workout.

11 days is not sufficient time to alter your fitness, you need around 6 weeks for proper payback from exercise, but I did need to test my recumbent muscles and at least wake them up after several months riding only upright bikes. So my plan was to do three short but testing rides over 5 days, then relax and hope for the best. I picked an uphill route  and planned to go further (and climb further) each time.

Just about on the road – Recumbent Brompton Project 2

Whooeee! It all seems to work.

Having overhauled my old red 2003 Brompton and re-installed the Juliane Neuss recumbent kit, with a single chain drive to replace the old belt and chain setup, I’ve ridden it round the block and it all seems to work.

Our New Pino

Between Penzance and Marazion, don’t we look pleased with ourselves!

After a seven week wait it arrived two days before we set out for our annual holiday in Cornwall. We had just enough time to set the bike up and have one quick ride into Sheffield centre (to pick up some inner tubes and other bits from Decathlon) and then we had to pack the bike into our trusty camper van for the long drive down to the West Country.

A Proper Ride on the Hase Pino

A day’s worth of relationship acceleration
(Tandem Dreams Part 3)

Yesterday we spent a few hours with the Hase Pino. This was our main opportunity to test it and decide whether we will buy one. The plan was to ride it from JD Cycles’ shop in Ilkley along the back roads to Bolton Abbey and back (google map) a ride of about 13 miles. By the end of the day we were convinced that it was the right bike for us.

First experience of the Hase Pino

Our first look at the “relationship accelerator”
(Tandem Dreams part 1)

Yesterday we (Isobel and I) went up to JD Cycles in Ilkley to have our first look at the Hase Pino. We have been thinking for the past year or more about tandems and recumbent tandems as a joint project as we approach retirement. Recently the Hase Pino has come into focus as possibly the most practical choice, so this was our first chance to see if the practice might match the theory.