my new recumbent

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my new recumbent

Postby onemanbander » Wed Jul 29, 2009 7:26 pm

So, I scored a fantastic deal on a recumbent bike off of craigslist.
$200 for a fantastic long wheel base (lwb) under seat steering (uss) bike.

I've never owned a recumbent before and only recently got interested in the idea of owning/riding one.

Now that I am a proud owner, I was wondering if anyone could help me identify it. I figured I would start here and if no one could help me out, I would join some bicycling forum and get their input. But I like you guys.

The only bit of information that I can give besides what you can see in the pictures is that on the back of the frame tube is a plate that reads "CA333".

Thanks in advance for any and every little bit of help.

On to the pictures

Full Bike
Image
Steering
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Seat Adjustment
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Pedals
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Close up of handlebars and chain
Image

Image
You can kind of see the pedal adjustment here- makes the bike longer and shorter.
Image
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Postby Greg M » Wed Jul 29, 2009 7:37 pm

Judging by the seat horn, I'm thinking it's an old Vision. A well respected but sadly defunct brand. I'd suggest asking on the forums at Bentrider online someone there will be sure to be able to give you a definite ID

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Postby Fenlason » Wed Jul 29, 2009 8:09 pm

yeah a Vision is the first thing I thought of..
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Postby kennyrayandersen » Sun Aug 02, 2009 4:21 am

could be a Vision -- but surprising there wouldn't be some kind of sticker or placard on the bike? Could it be a home-brew? Looks like you got a lot of hardware for the money. HOw much does it weigh -- I"m guessing 38+ lbs with the bags.
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Postby Senior Ninja » Sun Aug 02, 2009 1:13 pm

WOW!
$200.00?
I hope it's not hot.
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Postby Arne » Sun Aug 02, 2009 1:29 pm

That is an excellent price for a recumbent... I'm sure you will enjoy 'sitting in a beach chair' when you go on your rides... stick to fairly level ground for a while...

The knees take a beating on hills..... if you push too hard.
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Postby kennyrayandersen » Sun Aug 02, 2009 5:48 pm

Arne wrote:That is an excellent price for a recumbent... I'm sure you will enjoy 'sitting in a beach chair' when you go on your rides... stick to fairly level ground for a while...

The knees take a beating on hills..... if you push too hard.


I second that comment from Arne about the knees -- it's the reason (that and speed) that I gave the recumbent up and switched back to a standard (diamond) bike. Keep to the lower gears and concentrate on keeping your cadence up. I recommend a bit higher than most, around 90. It's the way me and most of my friends were able to stay up with the faster guys. When I started pushing the peddles is when I ran into some serious problems. As long as you keep the cadence up, you should be alright -- if you can't keep the cadence up you should back off on the steepness of the hills. With a recumbent you can push pretty hard as your back is up against the seat so you get extra leverage, but that's where the trouble can start.
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Postby onemanbander » Mon Aug 03, 2009 11:24 am

I don't think it's stolen.
The whole transaction seemed very legit- the woman I bought it from said it was her brothers who died from cancer a year ago - (I offered my deepest sympathies) - No one in her family had any interest in riding it, they were moving to a new house, and so it was time to get it out of their garage and avoid the hassle of moving it themselves.

I don't think it's home built because of the serial number on the plate in front of the back wheel. Of course - I could be wrong.

I'll join bentrider and see if they have any more information for me.

Thanks for the help- now all I have to do is clear some time to get some more miles under my belt.
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Postby onemanbander » Fri Aug 07, 2009 1:56 pm

Bentrideronline confirmed what you all already said- it seems to be a Vision R40.
The interesting thing about this bent is that it can be reconfigured to a SWB or LWB as well as USS or OSS (with a factory kit). It's kind of like 4 bikes in one. Of course it takes some amount of adjusting to get it all set up each time you switch from one configuration to another... so I think I'll be riding a LWB USS for the time being.
Thanks again for all your help!
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