Cruzbike - kit to convert "regular bike" to recumbent

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reikiman
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Cruzbike - kit to convert "regular bike" to recumbent

I was doing some research looking for possible recumbents .. and Cruzbike stood out with some interesting possibilities.

It's a little funny looking.. the design paradigm is to take a regular "y-frame mountain bike" and do a bit of conversion to make it ride in a recumbent style. In place of the seat you attach a recumbent style seat to the top tube. And in place of the normal pedal location there's this contraption bolted to the front of the bike, and there is a drive train that ends up powering the front wheel. It's a recumbent due to the resulting seating position.

So, yeah.. pedals and drive train that powers the front wheel. Yup. Apparently it's most effective to steer with your feet and the handlebars just become a place to rest your hands. Yup.

But it's occurring to me this offers an interesting option for electrifying.

For example an issue with using the high power hub motors (Crystalyte 5xx) is the need for a torque arm because front forks aren't designed with those stresses in mind. But since the rear wheel doesn't have its own drive train you can use a plain hub motor and not worry about using a torque arm because the rear end of a bicycle frame is stronger.

Another option is that the place holding the bottom bracket is not used for pedals. This spot could then be used as a jackshaft location, so that a drive train could go to the rear wheel.

dogman
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Re: Cruzbike - kit to convert "regular bike" to recumbent

That actually looks like it would work. But to my eye it looks a bit prone to rear wheelies in a hard stop. A big fat rear hubmotor and 20 more pounds of battery stuck to the back of the seat would cure that in a jiffy. One place where recumbents and trikes both need to catch up is full suspension. With my back I can appreciate a soft ride. Oh yeah, I just realized what you meant about a drive train. That would be a chain drive, with the gears still on rear sprocket, giving you low gears for hills and high gears for speed, on both wheels. Sweet! The only thing I don't like about the chain drives is they tend to bolt on in awkward places where you don't want to lose the clearance if off road.

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