THIS is the primary reason many of you have never tried a recumbent bike

Like any sought after sports gear, the general public tends to buy bikes similar to those that successful competitors use. Fast riders want bikes that are lightweight, aerodymamic, have well designed components and most importantly, they want similar brands and models to bikes they see WINNING RACES. 

Most recumbent riders know that recumbent bikes are actually FASTER than traditional diamond frame bikes, but the general public doesn't know this or hear about it because you DON'T SEE competitive cyclists using recumbent bikes in popular race events. That's because a long time governing body of bicycle racing, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), BANNED recumbents in 1934 and since then the UCI's rules have been adopted by many other cycling organizations. These days recumbents aren't allowed at events run by USA Triathlon, USA Cycling and the National Senior Games... just to name a few.

Francis Faure shocking the UCI
in his Velocar Recumbent in 1934

People don't realize how fast recumbent bikes are because they're NOT ALLOWED at most popular cycling events.

I found the story of how the first competitive recumbents upended the bike racing world in 1934 and were ultimately banned to be pretty compelling. So I copied a previously published account of that into this post, tweaked a few parts of the story with some minor edits and wording updates (it was originally written in German), added some new information and threw in a couple pictures.

This account is primarily pulled from another blog poster, Mark Rackow, who's blog "Crazy on Three" posted the majority of this story in a post entitled "UCI Bans Recumbents".

Crazy On Three - UCI Bans Recumbents

Note - If I've copied a photo or any other content that you'd like properly sourced or even removed, feel free to contact me and I'll do my best to update this post.

UCI Bans Recumbents

The History of the Recumbent Bicycle:

The history of the recumbent bicycle was first documented in a German article titled "Winning Forbidden" written by Anfried Schmitz for a 1990 issue of Cycling Science. The original article was translated into English by Gunnar Fehlau which was then edited by Wade H. Nelson. Mr. Nelson's adaptation of "Winning Forbidden" provides a perspective on the history of the recumbent bicycle.

April 1, 1934. Recumbents Banned from all UCI Sanctioned Racing:
Recumbents' Darkest Day

The history of the recumbent bicycle is filled with intrigue. Only a few people today realize that current interest and ownership of recumbents (in the 1990s when this article was originally written) is a "renaissance" of what occurred at the end of the 1800s and in the early decades of the 1900s. The banning of recumbents from bicycle racing in 1934 had the effect of putting the recumbent bicycle design in the closet for fifty years until it was re-discovered primarily by MIT professor David Gordon Wilson and his students. We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Wilson, but let's go back to before the ban in 1934 and look at the story of three recumbent pioneers: Charles Mochet, his son George Mochet and cyclist Francis Faure.

Charles Mochet 

Before World War I, Charles Mochet built small, very light cars. His wife had decided the common bicycle was far too dangerous for their son George, so Charles built him a pedal-driven four-wheeled vehicle. The 4-wheeler indeed reduced the danger of falling over. Nobody had guessed what else it might lead to. The 4-wheeler proved to be exceedingly fast. Little George was delighted with his "Human Powered Vehicle" (HPV) when he easily left the other kids on bikes behind.

This soon led to a demand for the vehicles and Charles Mochet ultimately decided to give up the building of automobiles in favor of devoting himself to the construction of HPV's. He built a two-seated, four-wheeled pedal-car for adults that he called the "Velocar". They had the comfortable seating position and trunk of a car, with the pedal propulsion of the bicycle. The technical equipment included a differential, three gears and a light fairing made of the airplane windshield material Triplex. After the First World War the poor economy in France aided their sale when buying a "real" car was an unreachable dream for many Frenchmen, but Mochet's Velocar was affordable. So Charles Mochet was able to sell many of his HPVs and saw sales of the Velocar steadily increase until the 1930s.

30s promotional picture of a Velocar

In practice Velocars turned out to be very fast. From time to time they were even used as pace vehicles in bicycle races. Velocars soon reached their limits though. At higher speeds, cornering got very dangerous. Every curve meant having to brake hard and then re-accelerate. One had to pedal hard to be fast on a curved path. So Charles Mochet began experiment with designs to lessen that flaw. He built a vehicle with three wheels, but its tendency towards falling over in curves was even worse than the four-wheeler.

Mochet's New Recumbent Bike - The 2 Wheeled Velocar

Finally Mochet had an idea: Divide a Velocar into two halves. He built a two-wheeled version, in effect a recumbent bicycle. The bike had two 50 cm wheels, a wheel-base of 146 cm and a bottom bracket / boom that was about 12 cm above the seat and adjustable to the drivers height. It was possible to change the elevation of the seat and an intermediate drive provided the necessary gearing. During the development of his recumbent bike Charles Mochet acted deliberately: long and careful planning and much thinking preceded the actual building. He wasn't the first to come up with the recumbent bicycle design, but his was arguably the most efficient recumbent design to that point in time. Mochet not only wanted to show that the recumbent bike is faster than the common bike. He also wanted to convey to other cyclists that a recumbent bicycle is also highly suitable for touring and every-day use.

French advertisement for an early 2 wheel Velocar

On the racing side Mochet was looking out for a good rider to ride his new recumbent bike in cycling events. At first Mochet had Henri Lemoine, a pro cyclist, riding it. Henri was astonished at the comfort and how easy it was to steer. Even so, he couldn't be convinced to ride the Velocar in contests. Perhaps it was the ridicule of other cyclists that kept him from riding it in competition. In any case Henri Lemoine never entered a single cycling event on a recumbent bike, much to his loss.

Francis Faure

Mochet's second choice of riders was Francis Faure, brother of the famous cyclist Benoit Faure. Francis was a decidedly lesser rider than either Lemoine or his brother Benoit. But he was the first serious cyclist who really took an interest in Mochet's recumbent bike. After a few test rides he decided to enter a race riding it 

Francis Faure

At the start this event the other riders laughed at him and said: "Faure, you must be tired and want to go to take a nap on that thing. Why don't you sit up upright and pedal like a man?" They quit laughing when Faure poured his annoyance into the pedals and left them all behind. They couldn't even get close to him. Afterwards they were upset that they couldn't even draft his funny bike.

Francis Faure lined up to start a cycling race next to Henri Lemoine

Francis Faure mid ride at a cycling event on a Mochet recumbent
(in front of Henri Lemoine)

Paul Morand in the Paris-Limoges race
on a Mochet Recumbent in 1933

One after the other, Francis Faure defeated every first-class track cyclist in Europe, taking advantage of recumbents' clear aerodynamic superiority.. The following year Faure was practically unbeatable in 5000 meter distance events. Even in races against three or four top riders, who would alternate pacing a leader, Faure would leave the Velodrome in the yellow jersey. In addition to the successes on the track, Velocars and their riders won a lot of road races. Paul Morand, a road racer, won the Paris-Limoges in 1933 on a recumbent bike constructed by Mochet. 

The Hour World Record

From the beginning of the century until the thirties the French cyclist Marcel Berthtet and the Swiss Cycling-idol Oscar Egg battled over the hour record... the farthest distance a cyclist could pedal in 60 minutes. In 1907 Berthet established a record of 41.520 kilometers. During the next seven years the record passed six times from Egg to Berthet and back before Egg ultimately reached the sensational distance of 44.247 km (27.4) in 60 minutes in 1913. This record lasted almost 20 years - up to 1933. Keep in mind that during the war many cyclists lost their lives, were disabled or neglected their training. So it's understandable that there might not have been as many serious record attempts during or immediately following WWI. Nevertheless the record by Oscar Egg had to be classified as one of the all time endurance performances to that date.

After Faure had established new world records on various short courses and other cyclists on recumbents had handily beaten their competitors at road races, Faure, Charles and George Mochet  decided to attack the hour distance mark. At that time, it had long been considered the "ultimate" bicycling record. Before making the attempt, Mochet wanted to be sure that a record with his split Velocar would be properly acknowledged by record keeping authorities. So he queried the UCI (Union Cycliste International) in October 1932 and ultimately received a positive reply to his letter: "The Velocar has no add-on aerodynamic components attached so there is no reason to forbid it."

Add-on aerodynamic components were of significance because various designers and bike enthusiasts had begun experimenting with cloth fairings. In 1913 the French man Etienne Bunau-Varilla began offering a fairing that could be fitted to a regular bike. German bike manufacturers like Goericke and Brennabor let riders of their teams take part in races with cloth-faired vehicles and in the following years various faired bikes competed with each other. A significant race with faired bikes took place in Berlin in 1914. The Dutch world champion Piet Dickentman and the European champion Arthur Stellbrink from Berlin raced. During the race Dickentman ended up crashing and died (Editor's note - other sources indicate that Dickentman lived until 1950. It's possible the original author was describing that someone else died during this race but the English translation of this piece skewed the details). Possibly because of that race fatality, the UCI actually changed their rules in 1914 to specifically prohibit add-on aerodynamic devices such as fairings and nose cones. As a result faired racing events soon fell into oblivion.

Faure setting the world record for distance in an hour on a Mochet recumbent

So with the UCI's original acceptance of record attempts using the Velocar, Francis Faure made his historical attempt at the hour distance record on July 7th 1933. It proved decisive as he rode 45.055 km (27.9 miles) in one hour on a Paris velodrome and thereby smashed the almost 20 year old record previously held by Oscar Egg. Faure and Mochet's Velocar abruptly grabbed the media's attention. In journals and cycling magazines pictures of the record setting vehicles were being published. Soon questions were asked: Is this actually a bike? Will the Faure record be acknowledged? Will the common bike soon be obsolete as a result of the Velocar? Statements, interviews, comments and "political" cartoons all addressed this issue.

It was utter chaos. Then to complicate matters on August 29, 1933, Maurice Richard, also bested the Oscar Egg hour record with a ride of 44.077 kilometers (27.4 miles) on a traditional upright bike in one hour in Saint Trond France (not as far as Faure's 45.055 km (27.9 miles)). Which record was legal? The recumbent's or the upright's? Who was the world record holder -- Richard or Faure? Would the recumbent be legitimized as a legal bicycle to ride in UCI sanctioned competitions, or be banned forever from the sport? A decision had to be made.

It had become apparent to all that the hour record set by Francis Faure riding the newfangled half "Velocar" developed by Charles Mochet was going to be hotly debated at the 58th Congress of the UCI (Union Cycliste International) on February 3, 1934.

An amateur rider demonstrated the "Velocar" to the Congress by pedaling one around the officials' conference table. The officials were all amused and interested, but their opinions on the bike's legality for racing diverged sharply. The English UCI representative was surprised that the recumbent was so safe to ride, (another positive attribute of recumbent cycles that's not as well known today as it should be) and prophesied a great future for it, saying that it could be the bicycle of the future. The Italian Bertholini, on the other hand, was of the opinion that Mochet's invention was not a bicycle at all.

In addition to factual arguments presented for and against "allowing" recumbents, non-technical issues also entered the discussion. Some officials were of the opinion that a second-class cyclist like Francis Faure hadn't earned the right to participate in a world record setting event. Faure had only shown his skills in short races and sprints. How could such a cyclist now presume to hold the highest of all records, the hour? These critics preferred the clearly stronger rider, Richard, over Faure.

Rousseau, the French UCI commissioner, brought the issue back into focus. He stated that the UCI and its rules were intended to regulate races, define the legal length and breadth of the bicycle, to prohibit add-on aerodynamic aids, but not to define the bicycle itself.

The other commissioners apparently disagreed, and designated a task force which would define, or in effect, re-define exactly what was or wasn't a bicycle. They then voted to recognize the (upright) record of Maurice Richard. Immediately thereafter the [new] definition of what constituted a sport bicycle was accepted by a 58-to-46 vote. The following rules would be in effect in UCI sanctioned racing from that point in history on:

• The bottom bracket had to be between 24 and 30 centimeters above the ground.
• The front of the saddle could only be 12 centimeters behind the bottom bracket.
• The distance from the bottom bracket to the axle of the front wheel had to be between 58 and 75 centimeters.

According to these rules, a recumbent wasn't a bicycle, but something entirely different, despite having two wheels, a chain, handlebars, a seat, and human propulsion. The ruling would take effect on April 1, 1934. It was to be recumbents' darkest day. Faure's record was shuffled into a new category called: "Records Set By Human Powered Vehicles (HPV's) without Special Aerodynamic Features"

Embittered by the decision of the UCI, Charles Mochet wrote an appeal letter to the Union de Cycliste. No luck. Rumors at the time were that the decision "banning" recumbents had less to do with sportsmanship than with economics: The upright bicycle manufacturers and professional riders had money and contacts and together formed a powerful lobbying force.

Had the UCI ruled differently recumbents would have undoubtedly been raced more frequently post 1934. Better riders would have been using the more aerodymanic bikes and they would have won many more races. Recumbent bike designs would have flourished and been refined and there would be a whole lot more people interested in and riding recreational recumbents today.

The UCI's decision did, however, make Richard and Faure famous, and left Henry Limone behind in cycling obscurity. Promoters were organizing races between the two of them all over Europe. Francis Faure was unbeatable on his Velocar, but the fame belonged to Richard. The public loved to watch the races of these "forbidden" machines and their infamous drivers! 

Mid 30s signed post card from famous recumbent rider Francis Faure 

Recumbents also became somewhat popular for a period in Europe and there WERE recreational recumbent riders in the 30s and 40s. But their popularity would wane as fewer racers used recumbents at well known race events.

During the mid-1930s, recumbents were quite popular among French cyclotourists

The Streamlined Velocar

The idea of a streamlined bicycle was not new. Marcel Berthet demonstrated an upright bicycle with a fairing in 1933. At the time he wanted to be the first cyclist to break the 50-kilometer-in-one-hour (31 mph) barrier. He almost did it: On November 18, 1933 the measurement at the end of the hour showed 49.992 kilometers. And Berthet was 47 years old! His record was also placed in a special category created by the UCI for "sport bicycles" with aerodynamic components.

In 1938 Francis Faure and Georges Mochet decided to try to better the record of Marcel Berthet in the special class. Francis Faure also wanted to be the first cyclist to ride more than 50 kilometers in one hour. They produced a faired Velocar. The frame was modified: Faure sat lower and a smaller front wheel was installed to reduce drag.

The two men tested the first model by doing laps on the 4000-meter track at Vel d'Hiver a Paris. The first timed lap took place with Faure's head exposed and no bottom fairing. Faure achieved 48 kilometers per hour, (29.8 mph), able to complete a lap in five minutes - 20 seconds faster than a cyclist on a normal racing bicycle. This was significant in light of the fact that the faired Velocar weighed 11 kilograms (24#) more than your typical racing bicycle of the day. Still, this lap speed would not be sufficient to beat the one-hour record, so modifications to the Velocar were made. In the next run the vehicle was modified to have a smaller opening for Faure's head. His average speed rose to 49.7 kilometers per hour, saving an additional 10 seconds per lap.

A bottom fairing was added for the third attempt. Francis Faure was now able to shave an additional 18 seconds off his lap time. The fourth run took place with the track having been polished. This time Francis Faure beat the 55-kilometer-per-hour mark, requiring only four minutes and 20 seconds for each 4000 meter lap. It was decided to make the attempt at the one-hour record with this configuration. The record attempt had to be aborted, however, because the wind in his eyes was causing Francis Faure to lose control of the vehicle.

Francis Faure in a streamlined Vélocar in 1938

A fifth attempt was going to be made. Georges Mochet built a Triplex fairing to enclose Faure'shead. It worked fabulously. On March 5, 1939, Faure rode 50.537 kilometers in one hour requiring under 4:15 minutes to circle the 4000 meter track!

On March 5 1938, the eve of WWII, Francis Faure became the first cyclist to travel 50 kilometers in less than one hour without a pace vehicle. He rode 50.537 kilometers on the Vicennes Municipal Cycling Track. The press went wild, both in Europe and the U.S. Pictures of Francis Faure, Georges Mochet and the Velocar appeared in all the bicycling journals.

When the war broke out, Francis Faure moved to Australia, where he died in 1948. George Mochet continued to build Velocars and moped versions thereof. These sold well clear into the 60's, because they could be driven without a driver's license. Eventually a change in the law spelled the end of the motorized Velocars.

photos of Velocars in use during the 1930s and 40s

Still Unbeatable

Velocars are still in use. In Marseille you can rent these old HPV's and tour the city in an ecologically sound fashion. The rental-shop manager has let it be known that he is looking for a manufacturer because, after 30 years, some of the bicycles are starting to wear out beyond repair. He feels few manufacturers can come close to the quality of the Velocars, so in the mean time he has chosen to continue to repair the old ones as much as possible.

Francis Faure, Charles and Georges Mochet showed the bicycling world what recumbents are capable of. The UCI ban showed the world the power a few misguided, narrowly focused individuals can have on the future of a sport like bicycling. Their decision set back the acceptance of a safer and more aerodynamically efficient bicycle by 50 years. The formation of the IHPVA and other organizations dedicated to racing and promoting human powered vehicles regardless of their recumbent or upright configuration is largely responsible for undoing that damage, as the present renaissance of recumbent bicycles so clearly demonstrates.

Georges Mochet is retired now, and lives with his wife Francine in St. Aygulf in France. He is involved with the French HPV Association, which has now been in existence for a year. His one-hour record from 1939 remained unbeaten in France until last year. (by??)

The current IHPVA 1 hour record is held by Sam Whittingham who rode "Varna Diablo" to 86.752km (53.917 miles) - an amazing 75% further than the current UCI record. 

1996 Update

The USCF has for all practical purposes "continued" the ban on recumbents in the U.S. bicycle races they sanction, although more sympathetic? commissioners will persuasively argue that recumbents aren't "truly" banned. Those recumbent riders who have attempted to enter recumbents in UCSF races (through 1995) have been disqualified for a variety (and seemingly endless) of "safety" issues such as exposed gearing, bicycle overall length, and so on, all in the "name" of safety, but having the overall effect of banning recumbents from competing. Not that there are that many recumbent riders strong enough to enter USCF events, but those few who have been so bold to attempt to do so have in general given up after being given such a inhospitable reception. Most of these 'bent riders have retreated to IHPVA and Midwest Streamliner racing events where 'bents are both welcomed, and the norm. An attempt to get the USCF to come out and flatly say whether recumbents are or are not allowed in their races fell flat. A letter I wrote requesting a "simple decision"; faxed, copied, and emailed to several USCF officials went largely unanswered. One friendlier official responded; he quoted me all the various minutia and rules that apply. In effect, what this says to me they (the UCSF) is (still) saying "We refuse to come out and make a decision as to whether a recumbent is a "legal" bicycle." Wake up guys, it's 1996. WHN

'83 Gold Star

I wanted to document the story of my main banjo. a 1983 Gold Star GF-100HF

I got really fortunate with the original purchase on this. I picked it up in Feb of 21 during COVID at an auction near my home in Towson MD. Because of quarantine conditions, Alex Cooper (the auction house) wasn't having in person auctions. Everything was being displayed and sold online. My Dad had noticed there was a Gold Star banjo for sale and sent me a link. The current bid on it was $300 and I guessed it was a newer Taiwanese made model and probably worth around $600. You could make appointments and go inspect the items, but I thought, what the heck, I'll put a max reserve of $500 on it and if someone bids higher, I'm not gonna worry about it. Ultimately I got lucky and ended up getting it for $375. 

When I picked it up, I immediately noticed it was in pretty good shape and felt pretty good about the purchase, but then I got home and took a look at the serial number and discovered it was a 1983 model which made it in an outstanding pickup.

As I do with every other banjo purchase, I took it up to my buddy Mike Munford's shop in PA. On top of being a super nice guy, he's an amazing player and the ultimate banjo setup specialist in the mid Atlantic. I'm extremely fortunate to live less than an hour from his place. So the first thing he noticed was that the string packs in the case had some interesting handwriting on them which led the to following post in Facebook...

"The Kids are Alright...

Back in the mid 80s, two kids stocking the store at Baltimore Bluegrass would put custom sets of banjo string packs together. When I bought an old banjo at an auction last week, there were lots of remnants from the old Baltimore Bluegrass store still in the case. When I showed the new banjo and accessories to Mike Munford (pictured), he was immediately drawn to the two sets of custom string packs in the case.

The one on the left with green lettering was labeled by Mike Munford (awarded banjo player of the year by the International Bluegrass Music Association in 2013) the pack on the right with the red lettering was labeled by Ned Luberecki (IBMA banjo player of the year in 2018)"

So after reminiscing a little bit about Baltimore Bluegrass, Mike began his usual setup. He replaced a couple frets, put in a new nut and pip, tightened the head, made sure the tension and fit was good with the rods, the ring and rim in general and he did a little slot work on the bridge. As he worked through all this, the tone really started to pop. But we decided to experiment with bridges a little and when we tried a Scorpion bridge from Silvio Ferretti suddenly BOOM! That was it. It had this perfect quintessential vintage tone that I look for in bluegrass banjos and it became my #1 banjo.

To describe it a little more, it's got a mahogany neck and resonator, a Presto tailpiece, rosewood fingerboard and again, at the time of purchase it was in really nice shape. There were very few (if any) scratches in the finish. (I've put a couple dings in it since then). It does have some cheap elements about it. For instance the binding on the side of the neck is actually painted and there's a few other things about it that wouldn't be there if it was made by a quality luthier. But it's a beautiful sounding banjo and it's always felt fairly easy to play.

One of the things I immediately liked about this banjo was it's slender neck. I had previously owned an 80s Gold Star that didn't sound as nice and had a really bulky neck. The dimensions of this neck felt really comfortable in my hand. But it also had a slight ridgeline or what I thought was a crack/bump in the finish that ran below an area from about the 4th to the 7th fret and seemed to get more noticeable the more I played it. And also, during the summer months, not only did that ridge line seem to pop out but the finish on the neck got really sticky. (way more so then the finish on other banjos I've owned over the years)

As that ridge line grew more and more noticeable I decided to get something done about it and took it to my friend Frank Schoepf in Manchester. Along with being another incredibly nice guy, he's a tremendous wealth of knowledge on all sorts of vintage banjos and he does really nice wood work and instrument repair. We decided to remove the finish on the neck and he immediately noticed that the ridge line was actually the truss rod cover popping out of a slight crack in the very thin neck. Apparently a previous owner had actually worked on the profile of this neck and in filing it down he accidentally got too close to the truss rod. 

So Frank ended up cutting a shim of mahogany wood, plugging the crack and gluing it in place and then he removed the original finish which he said had been applied after the neck alterations and were probably the cause of the extra stickiness that I'd felt when using it during the humid summer months. 

Now the neck feels AWESOME, no stickiness or weird bumps, it's got the slender profile that I like and the tone of this thing is just incredible. It's got a 40 year old vintage sound that has qualities about it that I don't think you can get from a newer instrument. I'm sure that some day I'll run across another banjo that will just knock my socks off, but for now I feel pretty content playing my 83 Gold Star and I don't have any desire (currently) to seek out a pre-war Gibson. 

Here's a clip of me playing my '83 Gold Star on a Bob Dylan cover that I did with some friends in the summer of '21... a couple months after picking it up and restoring this banjo. 

Let me know what you think.

Roxy

(Originally posted on Facebook - 8/22/22)

I never had a dog before Roxy. I was a cat person

About 11 years ago (early 2011), Ellen approached me about getting a dog for JJ and her to run with. I immediately thought of family friends who had dogs and seemed to constantly be training their pets, doing long daily walks, cleaning up after them and getting up in the middle of the night for bathroom breaks (regardless of the weather). I told Ellen I wasn’t a fan of being a dog parent, but if she and JJ would be responsible for 100% of its care, I wouldn’t stand in the way. So Ellen and JJ went looking for a dog... seeking out good running companion traits... and eventually found a cute little border collie mix picked from a group of rescued puppies out of Tennessee. She had a white head, pink speckled nose and brindle markings on her body. I think we called her Peanut for a little while but eventually named her Roxy.

When we first brought Roxy home there were suddenly two huge issues. First of all, unbeknownst to us, she was in extremely poor health and we spent a significant amount of time and money just keeping her alive the first two or three months. Secondly, for reasons we've never been able to figure out, our son Koby has always had a serious dog phobia. So when Ellen and JJ selected Roxy it was in part because she seemed calmer and more “laid back” then the other puppies in her litter. Ellen thought that was her personality and it might be easier to get Koby acclimated to us having a dog if she was less lively than a typical pup. Unfortunately, we soon learned that Roxy was more sedate because she was deathly ill and as soon as we were able to nurse her back to health, she was just as rambunctious as any typical border collie. So no matter what methods we tried, Koby’s anxieties with dogs intensified as we broke Roxy into our daily home life and they didn't improve for years to come.

On top of that there were other typical new dog issues with bathroom training, dealing with our cats (who weren’t big Roxy fans) and household items getting chewed up. It was pretty chaotic being new dog owners for about a year at our place. We thought many times about giving her up for adoption with another family. But ultimately, we had concerns about her ending up in a pound and we felt committed to making our family’s dog situation work.

I’m glad we did.

Ellen and JJ did eventually begin running with Roxy in the trails behind our house and she proved to be a great companion. She could run five miles or more, staying close by and easily keep up with her running buddies. I wasn’t running at the time, but I was doing a lot of mountain biking. I discovered that Roxy could actually keep up with me on mountain bike rides too. I started to enjoy bombing down the fire roads and single-track trails in Loch Raven with my border collie running right in tow.

Over time, even though I had sworn away from it at the start, I began to help with Roxy’s day to day care and grew to appreciate having a family dog. She would get so excited when you fed her or took her for a walk or really did anything just to engage with her. It was hard not to appreciate her enthusiasm. I learned that dogs actually smile when they’re excited about something. (For some reason I didn’t realize this until I had my own dog) and that made her enthusiasm all the more infectious. She LOVED to take rides in cars and trucks. She LOVED when our cleaning lady Laura would come over. She LOVED visiting my parents. She LOVED it when any family member or girlfriend would come home and she could hear the garage door opening and closing as they came in. She LOVED it when musicians would visit and play at our house with me. She LOVED going to our bedroom every night and sleeping with Ellen and me. In general, Roxy just loved doing STUFF… and stuff was doing literally ANYTHING with her family that didn’t involve sitting idly and staring at a computer for hours at a time.

As I grew more comfortable with Roxy, I was eventually diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. In addition to diet and exercise recommendations, my doctor advised me to take more frequent walks. So in 2018 I started taking daily hikes to the lake behind our house with Roxy. It was therapeutic and Roxy loved it. I felt like we had always made efforts to get her out as much as we could, but now I was religious about it. Day in, day out, Roxy and I did our little 1.5 mile loop by the lake, usually in the late afternoon, but sometimes late at night using moonlight to see the trail. It felt like we owned that path. Over the past couple years I’ve taken countless pictures and videos of Roxy documenting the different scenery back there as the seasons change.

Roxy even helped me with music. During the pandemic I made a lot of remote videos to help satiate my desire to make music with friends. Instead of having everyone play in place at the same time, I filmed people playing individually with click tracks and then I’d combine them into multi panel videos and make it appear as if we were all playing together. No surprise, half a dozen of those clips have guest appearances from my favorite canine.

My parents were also big Roxy fans. They live about 10 miles down the road and always seemed to enjoy it when Roxy would come over for visits. My mom would keep dog treats at their house and always made it a point to feed Roxy when she showed up. As my mom began to struggle with a heart condition in the months before her passing, I would bring Roxy over for visits and I think the dog treat feeding ritual helped Mom feel a little better as her health began to fail.

Roxy’s own health began to fail her earlier this year. She was diagnosed with some form of dog lymphoma in June. She still displayed the same enthusiasm and doggy smile when you would do STUFF, even if she had thrown up minutes before and was obviously feeling sick. She was a doggy smilin trooper and would do everything in her power to join me on our daily walks through Loch Raven. But as the cancer got worse, it ultimately made everything in her daily life more difficult and painful and we finally had to put her down today.

I’m gonna miss Roxy like crazy. We’ve recently lost both our last cat (Pikachu) and Roxy and we’re probably gonna be without pets for a while at this stage in our lives. But if we decide to get another pet in a couple years. I’m probably gonna push for a dog. I’m a dog person now.

RIP sweet girly

Roxy Bonta

3/2/11 – 8/22/22

Why I Got Bent... (a.k.a Save the tiny planets... hug a recumbent)

It's taken me a while, but I finally realized that I should be doing more long rides on a recumbent bike. 

Background - My First Recumbent

About 10 years back my dad called me about a weird bike that he thought I might be interested in at a local auction. It was a Sun EZ Tandem recumbent and as he described it to me over the phone, I looked it up online and thought, hey that might be fun to fool around with. So I ended up getting the highest bid at $325 and later that afternoon it was sitting in my carport.

"What could you possibly want with that?" my wife Ellen asked. She wasn't too excited that I'd just dropped a couple hundred on a bizarre bike that she had no interest in riding herself.

                       JJ and I riding through Loch Raven                           

Over the next couple years I got the recumbent in decent mechanical shape and would take friends for rides on various bike routes near us, most often on the NCR trail that goes about 42 miles from just north of Baltimore and finishes in York Pa. It's fun to have passengers (stokers) in the back seat and casually talk with them while you take in beautiful scenery and listen to music (I usually carry a nice bluetooth speaker on the back rack). 

Over time I've just grown to love this bike. It's possibly my favorite material possession aside from a couple banjos ;)

With Ellen and Andrew on the Western MD rail trail 

Andrew and I on the Great Allegheny Passage

Issues With Other Bikes

But the tandem recumbent was mostly a novelty thing. My main biking was still on traditional diamond frame bikes where the rider leans forward over the handlebars. I did some commuting on a road bike. I'd ride a nice mountain bike through trails around Loch Raven behind my house and I often went for more physically demanding road rides with my wife or other friends on a lightweight road bike.

Within the past couple years though, I've noticed a couple issues with my various bike rides. My back, neck and shoulders were constantly getting sore and most alarmingly, my hands/fingers would often go numb after intense rides. 

Ellen and I actually set up some appointments with specialists to examine the fit on some of our bikes and make recommendations to help eliminate some of our sore areas. And while the "bike physiologist" (that was his actual title) did seem to fix the primary numbness in my hands issue, I would still get sore shoulders/neck/back after 20 miles of riding and will often find myself sitting up with no hands and doing stretches while riding to help ward off some of the more intense soreness.

I Need Something Different

A couple weeks ago, I started looking into a European bike ride with my wife that could potentially last 3-4 weeks. She doesn't really like riding on the back of the tandem (it scares her not to be in control of the bike), so if we do this multi-week ride, I'd probably be dealing with 3 weeks straight of bent over solo bike riding and lots of soreness.

This prompted me to start looking at touring bikes with more relaxed seating and high handlebars.I was surprised that most of the bikes with components and features I was looking for would still put my body in a fairly aggressive forward leaning position that would keep me sore for the bulk of our European trip. There were a couple tour bikes from Germany and the Netherlands with higher handlebars and gear boxes and belt drives instead of chains that looked really nice, but they were priced to start around $5K before shipping and taxes which was kind of a non starter. It just seemed silly that I couldn't find any relaxed fit bikes with the types of components I was looking for.

Another thing I started to think about... If I got a mostly upright relaxed fitting bike. It would probably be a lot slower then other bikes. The more upright you ride, the less aerodynamic you are which can make a big difference with the speed of the bike. I'm not a speed demon, but I like to be able to keep up with most groups without expending a ton of energy pedaling too hard.

I started thinking a little more about my tandem recumbent. I'm always comfortable and relaxed when I ride the recumbent. It's got nice bucket seats and backrests. So I usually feel GREAT when I hop off the bike... no soreness... even if I've ridden 40 plus miles for the day. I've always attributed my preference to ride the recumbent tandem on long trips with social aspects of having a friend along for the ride. But subliminally, I think I was also appreciating long comfortable pain free rides.

Waitaminute... my tandem recumbent is comfortable and relatively pain free. I can ride long distances without getting sore. Why haven't I been looking for a new recumbent (single rider) bike?

I started thinking about it. My recumbent tandem can move pretty quickly, but we always fall behind other riders when we start climbing hills. Maybe there are tandems that attack hill climbs more efficiently. I also feel that lots of recumbent riders tend to be lower and harder to see for cars when you're sharing the road. But I think my current tandem recumbent is relatively large and easy to see and maybe I should be looking for a recumbent that sits a little higher. And for the most part, I think for the purposes of my next touring bike, I'll probably still ride on trails with no cars or in larger groups on roads where it should be easier to see me in a cluster of riders. 

So I began looking into recumbents that were a little more upright and good at climbing hills. Soon I found a specific brand of recumbent that has an interesting front wheel drive train supposedly giving you better than average hill climbing capabilities and these bikes also seemed to have a rabid following...

The Cruzbike...

I joined some forums and discovered Cruzbikes were fast. They win lots of races, set lots of records and their fanatical user base were doing long pain free rides in comfort that weren't possible with traditional diamond frame bikes they'd used in the past. I started thinking I'd like to try a Cruzbike. This might be my magic answer to multi day pain free tour rides on a solo bike that would allow me to keep up with faster riders... even on steeper climbs. I think this is what I've been looking for. 

Great! Let's look into getting a Cruzbike... but waitaminute... it's not that easy. Recumbent bikes aren't that widely bought and sold and therefore generally more expensive than traditional bikes. Even more daunting, the Cruzbike company has a patent on their front wheel drive train configuration and consequently they're the only brand making front wheel drive train recumbents and they're even more difficult to acquire. Cruzbikes are also significantly more expensive. The specific Cruzbike that I think would best meet my touring needs (pictured above in blue and orange) is $4-5K new (Yikes!)

How Do I Get One of These Things?

So I started looking into used Cruzbikes. Maybe if I was lucky I might be able to pick up a used Cruzbike for half price, (which is still a fairly large chunk of change for me to spend on a bike). So I'm wondering if I could try one out somewhere before committing to that type of money. However, the nearest dealer I could find with Cruzbikes available for test rides was in Northern NJ. So I started asking on forums if there were any Cruzbikes in the Baltimore\DC area that someone would be willing to let me try... I didn't really get any responses. 

On top of difficulties finding a test ride, most of the classified listings I'm seeing for used Cruzbikes are from states like California, Oregon, Washington, Texas and Florida. I'm not seeing any used Cruzbikes near me in the mid Atlantic region. So I'll probably have to deal with shipping or maybe I'll be looking at a long trip in the mini van to pick one up a couple hundred miles away.

It's getting more and more complicated for me to think about getting my hands on a Cruzbike. But I'm not really in any huge rush, maybe it will take a couple months before something pops up for me.

Boom! Got One

Then lo and behold, last Monday someone in Northern Virginia listed a 2014 model Cruzbike for $700 in the Cruzbike forum classifieds. I got an alert feed for the listing and I quickly called the guy and told him I'd like to buy it. I think he listed at 9:42 AM and I talked to him and had agreed to buy it by 10:15 AM... modern technology in action.

I drove down to Chantilly last Friday and picked it up. The guy selling it was super friendly and insisted on taking me for a couple of loops around his neighborhood giving me some riding tips. With the front wheel drive train and moving bottom bracket, it feels a lot different than traditional bikes and you almost have to re learn to ride Cruzbikes from scratch. It usually takes folks a 100 miles or so before they get really comfortable on these things. 

My new (to me) Cruzbike Q559 3.0

I took it for a small ride around my neighborhood when I got home, then made some seat adjustments and took it out for a 20 mile ride on the NCR Sunday. I'm still working on fitting the seat and handlebars to my body specs a little better, and I'm having difficulty when I first start pedaling, especially if I'm headed up hill. But already I can tell this is gonna be a killer bike that will be GREAT for long trail rides.

Can't wait to do some more rides with friends as the weather warms up around here

Summary - Benefits of a Recumbent

So to wrap this up, I just wanted to leave you with a quick list of benefits gained by riding recumbents as opposed to traditional diamond frame bikes. Maybe some of you might be interested in trying a recumbent.

1. Less pain/soreness
2. More overall comfort 
3. Less chance of developing ED and related issues which are increased with heavier traditional frame bike riding - Study on Bicycling and ED
4. Easier natural viewing angle for your head. Your head's naturally at a comfortable angle to look up and out when you're riding a recumbent in a laid back position. When you're bent over, you're generally looking down and it requires more effort get your head up and looking around especially towards the end of long rides.
5. Less harmful crash positions. When you're on a recumbent, your feet are in front of you and unlike most crashes on traditional bikes, it's very difficult for you to go headfirst over your handle bars. Unfortunately I've had a lot of experience with crashes on both types of bikes and I can attest to this.
6. Recumbent bikes are less likely to get stolen. There's fewer people riding recumbents and there's much less of an aftermarket for them. I had a guy break into my carport a couple years back and steal my mountain bike. It seems like he used it to just ride around the neighborhood while he broke into other cars and tool sheds. He ultimately ended up dropping it in a neighbor's front yard and I got it back. But I guarantee you if he broke into my carport today, he wouldn't be able to take my new Cruzbike out for a joyride.
7. More comfortable clothes. Specifically you no longer need to ride with tight padded shorts and you also don't have to worry about slathering your nether regions in chamois butter