Lightweight bike with suspension for road use

paul.skibum

I've never used a recumbant but my gut reaction is I would not want to ride one in traffic or hilly terrain. I would also not wish to use them on anything aside from a well finished road. Also I am not sure that re-learning to ride is all that enjoyable, they seem incredibly difficult to strat and stop on.

The Moultons do appear to fail the OP's criteria neither the small wheels or the limited suspension and tiny tires do much to absorb impacts to the wrists.

I'd go for a Surly Moonlander - run the tyres at 6-8psi and you can run over children without noticing and they appear to have some perpetual motion machine in them - two pedal strokes and they travel for miles on tarmac. I am partly joking but they are pretty nice and have a reasonably upright position.

andy_welch

If you can ride a bike then riding a two wheel recumbent takes about a day to get the hang of and a couple to get comfortable. I had one for around 18 months about 12 years ago. Rode it around the North East of Scotland and from John O'Groats down to Lands End on a mixture of quiet roads and forest trails. Despite what the evangelists claim I never found it as quick over hilly terrain as an upright bike (which is a big part of why I got rid of it), but boy was it comfortable and lightning fast downhill. I also spent a year with a Windcheetah trike, which was even slower on the hills but huge fun going down. Never had a problem riding either in traffic (went through London once and commuted into Aberdeen countless times). Drivers manage to see the white lines OK and they're not that tall and there is a huge WTF factor. In fact it's fair to say that getting noticed isn't a problem.

Not for everyone. Not for me at the moment. But if I had a condition that made riding a normal bike painful I'd take a recumbent over not riding any day.

Cheers,

Andy