What to do when the winter skies are here?

Well, it is sunny today, but it was not for the New Moon. So this month is a dud for imaging. I expect the next 2-4 months to be just a bad.

Decided that I had to find something to do during the off season as well as during the month when imaging is not reall feasible.

I had a couple of bicycles and I have ridden them a bit, but the pain in the butt from the seats as well as the arm, wrist and neck pain, made riding much less fun than when I was young.

Began reading about recumbent bikes and trikes. They have a upright seating and no pressure on the hands and wrists as do the normal bikes where you are leaning on your hands and they absorb the bumps. Thought about it and figured that I had to give it a try. I bought both a two wheel and a three wheel for me and a three wheel for the wife. She needed to get out more too.

Got to admit, this is much better, more comfortable and I can ride for 20+ miles with out any pain or discomfort, just get a little tired.

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Then the two wheel Easy Racer Tour Easy.

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Floyd Blue said:

Well, it is sunny today, but it was not for the New Moon. So this month is a dud for imaging. I expect the next 2-4 months to be just a bad.

Decided that I had to find something to do during the off season as well as during the month when imaging is not reall feasible.

I had a couple of bicycles and I have ridden them a bit, but the pain in the butt from the seats as well as the arm, wrist and neck pain, made riding much less fun than when I was young.

Began reading about recumbent bikes and trikes. They have a upright seating and no pressure on the hands and wrists as do the normal bikes where you are leaning on your hands and they absorb the bumps. Thought about it and figured that I had to give it a try. I bought both a two wheel and a three wheel for me and a three wheel for the wife. She needed to get out more too.

Got to admit, this is much better, more comfortable and I can ride for 20+ miles with out any pain or discomfort, just get a little tired.

Floyd, You're just not spending enough on a regular bicycle: http://budnitzbicycles.com/

Floyd, I have more bikes than telescopes, but recently went through the same lament as you did about the comfort level on bikes. I decided for a low price, high labor resolution. My bike is about 50% done now, but here's a photo of it a couple weeks ago under construction. I hope it's as comfortable as everyone says. When it's done I'll probably have about $500 into it.

George

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Floyd,
I've been riding a recumbent for 9 months now. A Bachetta. No more sore back, no more numb hands, and no more sore crotch. And it's faster than regular bikes on level terrain.

I've tried a trike once. A Catrike 700. It was a blast. I didn't want to get off. I like to ride on the road a lot, though, and don't feel as safe on a trike because I can't see over cars.

Added a pic of it.

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Went for a ride yesterday and took a picture of the West end of the bike path here. It goes from this point about 22 miles and then another 10 miles of street and path from there for a total of 32 miles.

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I finally broke down and bought a Garmin GPS 500 bike computer for my recumbent. This seemed to be a good one for my bike because it was easy to mount with the screen facing me and it's very easy to move around if I don't like where it is. And I prefer that it's smaller than the newest 510 model. I tried it today and downloaded the data and viewed it with their online analyzer. I got a heart rate monitor, too, because I was getting curious about what the ticker was doing going up and down hills. Here's my first track data using it:

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Although it's only about 95% complete, I was able to take a few short shakedown cruises up and down my road today. While the weight is heavy (wicked heavy, about 50lbs) and the turning circle is large, it takes bumps like a 66 Caddy and feels great going downhill at speed. I won't know if it's a keeper or not until it's done and I log a few hundred miles on it, but I'm guessing it will be decent for backroads and not so much for the city. It should be fun in any case.

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