sun bicycle speedster

bikingarcola

Yes it is a bit heavy but if yu want light you will have to pay for it. I just rode mine on a 40 mile ride. Avged 14.25mph not bad for the heat today. It would be perfect for a touring bike. It is tough as they come, some things could be changed to lose some wt. Maybe different cranks, chain, and seat could be lighted I think with a little thought. Good luck. Rusty

cjengineer

The Sun SWB Speedster was originally designed by Gabriel DeVault, shortly after Easy Racer owner Gardner Martin died. Althought built like a tank, it suffers poor handling and cramped ergonomics. The absents of trail and lack of tiller means this bike's handling is squirrelly and overly sensitive at nearly any speed. Less than a year after the bike hit the market, Sun (J&B Importers) received numerous complaints its unplesant attributes. So many in fact, the Speedster was eventually dropped from production. I would encourage perspective buyers (especially firsttime owners) to test ride this bike extensivly BEFORE buying.

bikingarcola

I wouldnt disagree with this assesment entirely, but for a seasoned bike rider it does serve a purpose and can be ridden. My experience has been that it took a while to get used to. Now it is not a problem to ride, if the handlebars are in line with the front fork and the seat in the most upright position it handles very well for me. Then from there tweek your position. It wouldnt do for a first bike and maybe not as a first recumbent for someone who has not ridden a lot of miles. It has worked for me and I still think it would make a good touring recumbent, as stated above it is built like a tank with good components. Besides who wrote the above article?? The bentrideronline gives it a decent review and as with all reviews I would prefer to try the bike in question myself. There are many socalled experts with there own opinion, but most opionions do not cover all riders and thier needs.

cjengineer

You can start here first: http://mnhpva.org/Meetings/2005/aug_05/pages/12.html

1.) when a publication such as bentrideronline gives a review of a paying advertiser's product on the same site, do you really think the reviewer is being entirely honest?

2.) were you aware that BROL is an Easy Racer sponsor?

bent-head-greg

Thank you all for some very good input. I will defonetly take it all into consideration. I do still figure a test ride shouldnt hurt too much (depending on how squirly - I am new to recumbents).

bikingarcola

When you ride it line the handlebars up with the front forks and the seat in the most upright position you can. This will make the bike more stable to ride. Relax the shoulders and back, just ride it easy. Put enought power in the pedels to keep you upright. Just remember, if you havnt riden a bent before. The front wheel is under you and not in front of you. This and relaxing was the hardest things to remember. Good Luck

bikingarcola

Well I can ride it if the experts cant.

cjengineer

Some rear wheel steering bikes (RWS), have in fact, been ridden, when the "experts" claimed they could not be - but usually at the expense of numerous hospital visits.

bikingarcola

This sun ax is not a rws bike!

cjengineer

I didn't say or imply that it was. You missed the punch line.

Slugster438

I have one of the early-2004 versions of this bike. I never noticed anything disastrous about the steering but then I am taller (6'2") and so I had the seat moved all the way back, and the riser was basically straight at the pivot. It did tend to ride squirrelly, but not much differently than other SWB's I test-rode. The handlebars seemed rather too wide, but I never changed them.

A short person probably couldn't set it up that way. That hardly makes it defective however; most bents (and other bikes as well) won't fit a really wide size range of riders effectively.

The front wheel was jittery in gravel at first, but that was because both tires were inflated to 100 PSI (their max). If you drop the front tire down to 80 PSI or so the steering gets a lot nicer on bad surfaces.

I got tired of the chain tube noise, and got rid of most of mine: why doesn't this board software allow you to paste text???? what's this stuff about editing mozilla config file? no other website seems to need that.....

As it happens mine is for sale but only because the frame turned out to be a bit too short for me; I got knee pain that did not occur on a second LWB bent that adjusted to much longer than I needed. (-I was asking $500, and got no interest--so I guess now I know why.... but a Speedster is still a big step above a BikeE however, and BikeE's commonly trade for $300).

The next year (2005) they offered two sizes of frames; the larger one is two inches longer, but I was not certain that two more inches would have been long enough. If they had offered a frame six inches longer, I would have considered it.
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