Episode: 3178
Title: HPR3178: Finishing the Recumbent Bicycle
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr3178/hpr3178.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-24 18:20:51

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 3178 for Wednesday 7 October 2020. Today's show is entitled
Finishing the Reconvent Bicycle
and is part of the series Bicycle Hacking. It is hosted by Brian in Ohio
and is about four minutes long
and carries a clean flag. The summary is
while channeling Stephen Hawking. Brian in Ohio describes finishing and writing the bike.
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Hello Hacker Public Radio, Brian in Ohio here. I am out from under my rock
and doing the last of the Reconvent Bike Build episodes. My wife and I are visiting
the land of our youth Colorado, so my recording stuff is at home, hence the eSpeak rendition
of the show. I finished building the bike a while ago and have been writing it around
town to do errands and get exercise. I love this bike. The comfort level is unparalleled.
It's like sitting in a chase lounge. No more neck train or pain in the barrier.
You don't need any fancy bike clothes, like padded hiking shorts, in order to feel comfortable.
The bike is fast and a responsive handling. Some things I have learned so far while writing
the bike. First, a rear view mirror really helps when riding on the street, and like a
bright bike turning your head to look actor clear for traffic is not as easy.
Next, the handling takes some getting used to. The long lever arm of the steering tube makes
the bike feel jerky when you first ride it. After a while you'll see after light hand
on the tiller goes a long way to swooping out the ride. It took me a bit of practice
to gracefully get the bike started after coming to the top, because you can't stand
up and hammer on the pedals, coming to the top requires a bit of work on the gears.
Being in easy gear and shifting up as you get moving is the way to go.
If you build one of these bikes, and why won't you, you will have to think about
storage, because throwing a backpack on is not really an option. I found a bike rack
that attaches to the back of the bike, a grocery store plastic basket and an instructive
video tutorial by CJ Hoyle on YouTube took care of my storage needs. A link is in the
show notes. The last parts that need to be fabricated to complete the bike were
a seat and the handlebars, and all of their associated bits and pieces that make up
these assemblies. Instead of narrating through all the pictures, I leave you
Dear hacker public radio listener, that's interested to look at the pictures and
read the captions yourself. My general impressions of building the pieces are as follows.
The handlebars are relatively easy to fabricate, but the big problem for me was the
metal on the handlebars you used to make her tiller did not raise well with the conduit.
In the end I had to resort to pop rivets and to through old to get a safe, study
connection. The seat is a collection of many parts, and at first glance can be
a bit overwhelming. I am examining the photos on the recycled
recumbent website, and studying the plans, focusing on each step the seat came out
fine for me, yours will do. The side rails are bent using a conduit
and the challenge is getting the two sides close to match. Take your time and
get some extra conduit, you're probably going to need it. The seat backstay is
pretty easy to make, but it is made up of quite a few parts, requiring simple cuts
and raising to fashion it. The rest of the seat parts, the various fittings
used to clamp the seat to the frame are pretty easy to make, and I can't
compliment Mr Carson highly enough for his ingenious design. Fitting out the
bike, getting wheels, brakes and drive train together are going to be unique
to every bike, and we'll depend on how much money you want to spend,
what parts you have laying around, and what fittings you might have to
create to attach the parts. I opted to use used parts at work, and so
I could get the bike up, and running. I plan on upgrading parts,
making changes, and improvements after I've ridden the bike for a few months,
and got a good number of miles under my belt. I'll do an update show in the
future to let you know what I've done. Will I do this again? Yes, definitely
I will build another bike, maybe a mark 2 or 3, the building is fun for
bike rides great. Mr Carson sells parts. Kids and completed bikes on his
website. When I do it again, I may opt to buy the seat from him. I would
recommend this project to anyone. You can go out and build one yourself.
This is Brian in Ohio signing off for now reminding everyone to go fast. Take
chances.
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