Spot the changes
2011
2012
2018
Time for a new paint job
Spot the changes
2011
2012
2018
Time for a new paint job
Compared to the earliest bikes, today’s road bikes represent a quantum leap in both design and engineering. How much room is there for improvement? CTech editor Matt Wikstrom investigates.
Geared recumbents , as distinct from early front-drivers , first appeared in the 1890s, soon after the pneumatic-tired safety bicycle. Charles Challand , a professor in Geneva, built what was probably the first geared recumbent (Swiss patent 11,429 of 1895, British patent 6,748 of 1896). He called it the Normal Bicycle, because the rider‘s posture…
Microshift’s prototype 11-speed electric eXCD drivetrain was on display at the Taipei 2016 Cycle Show. Said to be available sometime in 2017, it looks promising. 2020 Update More than three years later and still waiting for delivery. Meanwhile . . . There is a competing product from Archer Components available now that seems to deliver…
I first spotted the Toxy ZR online in about 2005 and commissioned a friend to make me a similar machine but it never really handled satisfactorily. It was decidedly scary at speed.
Geared recumbents , as distinct from early front-drivers , first appeared in the 1890s, soon after the pneumatic-tired safety bicycle. See Early Recumbents Jan Heine has discovered recumbents. “While the racing world outlawed recumbents soon after Francis Faure set an hour record on a recumbent in 1933, cyclotourists and randonneurs couldn’t have cared less about what the Union Cycliste…
A recumbent bicycle places the rider in a laid-back reclining position. Recumbents come in many different sizes and configurations usually with either two or threes wheels. Most recumbents are rear-wheel-drive but there are many FWD models available. A well designed recumbent is far more comfortable than an upright bike; the rider’s weight is distributed comfortably over a…