Evox Semi-Recumbent Review

CCM_Evox

Get the alloy seat tube from http://www.quetzal.ca/vente.htm at the bottom of the page. You'll appreciate the difference immediately. The backrest is larger and fully adjustable. I also switched to a wider gel seat with a cutaway center-channel from Velo WebSpring.

Hull 697

First, good decision on "ride them all"! One of the great things about the recumbent market is there is so much individual treatment of the basic idea. We had a ball with bent shopping, driving over 1,000 miles over several weekends.

Rode a number of brands in LWB, SWB and CLWB. Bacchetta for us, obviously others think differently.

On the climbing issue, there exists a video of a guy on a Lightening passing a bunch of DF's on a fairly nasty looking hill. Having a little over 300 miles on my Strada now I can state with some degree of accuracy that the engine, not the bike, is the major issue.

Sure, if you get some 50 lb touring LWB with full suspension you are going to be paying a penalty on the hills for all that comfort. There are alternatives if you want quick and hill climbing ability. I can raise my seat back and approximate the angles of the Lightning and really do some climbing, until my 53 year old abused cardio system stops my legs. All that is changing for the better so I am not intimidated by hills like I was at first. It's conditioning, which was a major reason for getting back into bicycles in the first place.

Put an older guy who does not have any desire to compete with a bunch of 25 year olds on hill climbing and you are likely to see some impressive spinning which requires good cardio, although he may not be burning up the inclines speedwise, watch out for the distance he will eat up in a day.

Put a Cat 1 rider on almost anything and those Cat 1 legs are going to be leaving most anyone in their wake.

Bents are great. Hope to hear your story on your new bent sometime.

__________________
Charlie Dwyer
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."
– Sir Winston Churchill

blazingpedals

I'll refrain from ridiculing your reading abilities if you can show where I claimed to be incapable of riding more than 100 miles per year.

CCM_Evox

I assumed that you were speaking from your experience about riding an Evox LE when you stated that it couldn't be ridden for more than 100 miles per year but I see now that you have no experience in riding a machine of thi s caliber. The Evox LE is a fine bike with Shimano Deore components and I find it quite comfortable and since I actually own and ride my Evox LE daily, I found your uninformed opinions ignorant. Take a look at the links in my original post and try to put together a better opinion before you dish out more garbage.

Black_Blade

Hi, was just following this thread with some interest since I have owned an Evox 140 for a few years now and have totally enjoyed it from the get-go. I am still getting the "cool bike" from all kinds of people whenever I cruise around. I was reading about the Evox LE etc and have went to the evoxcycle.com site but it has never changed from a few years ago and has only basic info about the basic line with no mention of any mid range line etc. I have always been a bit disappointed by the fact that they neglected their website (it doesn't even have an email link to contact them) I am curious as to how people got/get the information on the other lines of Evox as well as parts and accessories. The bike shops here in Oshawa, Ontario are little help, one fellow was telling me that CCM has dropped the Evox line from lack of sales. My model has no idler wheel to take up the slack of the long chain, and I would very much like to be able to get one and attach it. I have attached a carrier and saddle bags to mine which works fine but I may be playing around with a new design of my own soon.

Now if only the Evox could incorporate a shock absorber of some kind to take it from a "hard tail to a soft-tail" that would be totally sweet!

I tested a Burley Spider and was very tempted, but the price tag kinda made me cringe, not to mention my loyalty to the Evox, she has been a comfy gal to ride around!

Bentriderlon

"Dumped" the EVOX was what I heard! Sam's Club $170.00, I heard. We all lost big on that one. I won't even try to sell it under these circumstances. As for CCM, NEVER, NEVER, EVER AGAIN!!!

Charles

__________________
"If something is worth doing, it's worth doing poorly."

"My other car's a Bianchi!"

Black_Blade

So, if you wish to have an Evox or get parts, you need to contact Mikado? Only other issue with the Evox 140 is its a bit heavy...but since my kids are pressuring me into getting another bike, so one can inherit the Evox..the Quetzal LE would be the way to go

Black_Blade

wonder why I can't use Firefox to post....kinda sux having to go to IE but can deal...lol

CCM_Evox

I have heard the rumours about the Evox line being discontinued or rebranded. There is a site in Montreal that claims to sell the Evox line at http://www.quetzal.ca/vente.htm and at the bottom of the page, they sell some upgrade parts for the Evox lineup. They even have an Evox seat now. One day while adjusting my handlebar stem, I broke the stem bolt by over tightening. It was purely my own fault but my local bike store contacted Procycle (Evox's parent company) and they sent me a whole new stem assembly by courier within 48 hours. There was no cost to me and I was impressed with their response. As I have mentioned before, I replaced the 'Drifter' seat with a wider, more springy seat from WebSpring and the adjustable back support is a nice feature. I am currently running Schwalbe Marathon tires front and rear and I am happy with the kevlar belting. I took a piece of glass the size of a fingernail out of the tread and the tire still holds 100 PSI no problem. I am looking for a replacement chain idler pulley for my Evox LE because the one that comes with it does not have a sealed bearing so constant lubrication is required. Someday I might replace the chainwheels and cranks to get some higher gears. Please post any other upgrades or modifications that you find available.

Bentriderlon

Mine weighs 45 lbs. I find that it is relatively easy to ride in spite of that. Don't get me wrong, I like the bike and it will remain part of my stable. I currently have a vintage Bianchi Celest and a brand new Giant Iguana which just sings on the local single track trails. My main concern is the drop in dollar value suffered as a result of the vendor dumping the brand. As for spares, I don't know if the Evox website still markets parts. It's probably worth a try.

Charles

__________________
"If something is worth doing, it's worth doing poorly."

"My other car's a Bianchi!"

Inoshiro

I figured I would mention that I purchased an EVOX 140 in the early part of 2003. I have since put over 3,000km on it. It's very important to note that the EVOX 140 does NOT come with quality components on it. If you want to do serious cycling, you're going to be replacing everything.

Example: my rear derailer that came with it snapped off and destroyed itself digging into the frame about 600km into riding it. I replaced it with a Shimano Deore rear derailler (paid the difference over the free replacement part). I replaced the front crank set at the same time with a Sugino one that can have its separate cogs easily swapped.

Other parts replaced: the included seat snapped apart in 2004 (1 year into riding it, around 1,800km). I replaced it with a nice gel seat that is far supperior, and much more comfortable. The default brakes and brake levers were replaced; I now have Shimano Deore brakes with Deore LX brake levers.

I replaced my front grip shifts (which were failing this year, 2006) with Deore rapid fires, and I also replaced the rear tire at the same time with a new one, more suitable for daily touring. The new rear tire is designed to be puncture resistant (to the point that going over glass is no problem). The original chain wore out at 2,700km. Every time you replace a chain on this bike, it's 2x the normal cost since you need a double-length chain.

The only OEM parts on the bike are: the frame and front fork/handle bars, the seat post (I removed the backrest which broke within 800km of riding), and the front tire. All brakes, levers, shifters, cables, chain, crank sets, rear tire, etc, have been replaced. I'm still sitting below 50 cents per km, though, given I tend to ride very heavily in the summer seasons (between 10 to 80km/day). It's a very pleasant ride to head to some of the towns near my city (1 hour out, 1 hour back, covering about 80km). I haven't done any major touring outside where I'd have to camp out overnight.

If you're interested in this kind of bike, buy the frame if you can (given the EVOX 140 is now 300$, I'm guessing you can get the frame for below $200). The Evox LE looks like it has a lighter frame (given it's aluminium, not chromoly), which I would say is the best way to go. That plus a Shimano Deore set of equipment will not be too expensive compared to some of the recumbants. If I purchased a replacement frame, I could construct a second EVOX out of discarded, lower quality parts Unfortunately for me, I didn't bother to hand-build my bike from the start, but I'm very happy with the easy, enjoyable rides where I get to look out at the world, instead of my knees.

The next things I plan on doing with my bike is to replace my quick-releases with lugs (it's less trouble to carry wrenches than it is to deal with people who might want to steal my rather odd-sized, expensive tires, or locking them up), and probably replace the front tire with a higher pressure, more substantial piece of rubber than the OEM part.

Ray Haynes

cc
Thank you for the well written review of our unique and very enjoyable rec vehicle.
My wife and I have had a 140 and now a LE for less than a year but love 'em.
But they did need the sort of mods that you speak of. I took the opportunity of emailing Pro Cycle with pictures and marketing suggestions by so far they have been un-responsive. I don't think they realise yet what they have here.
ie the safest and most confortable seniors bike in the world.
MODS I have made to the LE include:
Twist Shifter (8) on shortened 23" bars, wider grippier front tire, "Q Rings" (52) with 170cm peddle arms, improved chain guide wheel, locking carrier box, lights and lock, and full length fairing.
At the moment I am working with other owners in the area to exploit the bike's profile to create several parade floats promoting our local cheese products (see photo) and hope to establish a Guiness land-speed record record for "Human Powered Cheese"
Ray Haynes