Recumbent Cyclist News - Steve Briggs

A Front Wheel Drive For the Masses?BIKE: Cruzbike FreeriderPRICE: $995CONTACT: www.cruzbike.comBy Bob Bryant“The Cruzbike is a comfortable, fast, andefficient all-purpose recumbent bicyclewith several features that protect yourhealth and safety. It’s also a blast to ride!The Cruzbike truly will renew your love ofcycling.” — CruzbikeI’ve been intrigued by front-wheeldrive (FWD) for years — since I firstsaw photos of Tom Traylor’s uniqueFWD bikes back in the late 1980s. I firstsaw the Cruzbike FWD kit advertised onthe Internet a few years ago. I then foundout that two new production models wouldbe unveiled for the 2007 season. The twomodels are essentially the same, with differenthandlebar set-ups: the Freerider, haschopper bars that slide on the boom and theSofrider has begging hamster “T” bars thatmount to a stem in the head tube. Our testis of the Freerider model.Our test bike is one of the batch of completeCruzbikes shipped from Cruzbike’snew facility in North Carolina. The Cruzbikewas designed by Australian JonathanTolhurst who’s been marketing the kits forseveral years. The new USA team is led byCruzbike co-owner Jim Parker, MD andMarketing Manager, Rob Redfearn.USE: This is an entry level recreationalcasual cruiser type recumbent.SEAT & COMFORT: The seat is minimalist,but also quite ingenious. It mountsto a seat plate at the base, and the backmounts into an upright style seat tube. Theposition is fairly laid back, so the comfortwas okay. It's not the most comfortablerecumbent seat, but it does work well forthe intended design.RIDE: The ride of this bike is veryunique. Getting started takes some patience.The pivoting FWD front-end swings to theleft with a right pedal stroke and visa-versa.You have to be light on the pedals until youachieve balance. Once rolling you’ll needto learn to put opposing counter-pressurewith each arm to overcome the front-endswing and conrol the opposing forces.For me getting rolling and balanced waseasy — but mastering the technique wasdifficult. I spent a several hours riding theCruzbike and while I got better each time,I never could track it perfectly straight. Ihad no idea that FWD made for such aserious upper body workout.The FWD steering geometry highcenters slightly when tracking straightforward, and wants to fall away whensteered. When you walk the bike you haveto hold onto the bars (not the seat) or theFWD will scissor back and hit the frame.FRAME: The frame is your basicimported aluminum “Y” frame mountainbike style with a soft front suspensionfork (40 mm of travel) and rear suspensioncombined with a steel FWD (frontwheel-drive)swinging style front end. Thesteering is via chopper bars and you canadjust both height and closer or away fromyour body.WEIGHT: Our Cruzbike was a bitoverweight at around 36 pounds.FRONT-WHEEL DRIVE (FWD):RCN readers should recognize this typeof FWD, the “pivoting boom” or “movingbottom bracket” pioneered by Tom Traylorback in the 1980s. Tom is an RCN reader,well known in human powered vehiclecircles and has sold plans for his homebuiltFWD for many years.One added benefit of FWD as the bikepacks well. It fits in a regular bike box andthe front end can be folded under the bikeonce the quick release telescoping boom(rider height adjustment) is released.COMPONENTS: The componentry onthis bike is very entry level. While the bikeThe Cruzbike Freeriderpedaled, shifted and braked just fine, thebike has only 8-gears, the rims are singlewall, and the rear wheel is bolt-on (noquick release). The spec is not as good asother $1000 recumbents we've reviewed.GEARING: With just 8-speeds, therange is limited to just 33-102 gearinches. The bike needs a lower range forany serious climbing. The chain managementworks great. There are no idlers onthe bike, and the chain is the length of astandard bike.The bike comes with 152mm crank armswhich, based on previous RCN discussions,promote spinning and require lowergears according to “short crank theories.”I didn’t mind the 152mm cranks on thisbike, as FWD is totally different from anyother short crank recumbent I’ve ridden.However, the bike desperately neededlower gears if you want to climb any serioushills.BRAKES: V-brakes are ideal for thisbike, but the the bike comes with inexpensivebrakes and pads.WHEELS: Our bike show demo bikearrived with both wheels out of true. Thealloy hubs and Weinmann 7M19 singlewall rims are really entry-level or casualrider spec.TIRES: The tires are one of our favorites— Kenda Kwests, but these are the 1.5” 65psi version — which don’t make sense on asuspended bike. Future Cruzbikes shouldhave 100 psi Kwests.ACCESSORIES: The bike will take- 20 -