Report: Learning to ride the Cruzbike V20 (by a Bacchetta recumbent bike owner)

Cruzbike Vendetta V20 owner, François Audet, checked in on day 2 of learning to ride his new Cruzbike V20 this summer. He told us we could publish it here to encourage others to go for it with a Cruzbike. Enjoy!

Here is how things are progressing with the V20:

Day 1 (yesterday)

I did the drills (the 7 steps of the tutorial). That took me 10 minutes, and then went for a 25 km ride on a quiet rolling hills route. I live next to the Gatineau Park, which is closed to traffic because of Covid-19. It is much like a miniature Blue Ridge. I find the bike very nimble. I can make a U-turn on a dime, something that is quite hard on the Bacchetta. When I sit, I can also go very slow (walking speed) and still feel in control. Based on some comments on the Web, I was worried about pedaling when going downhill, but that is not a problem. I can put as much power as I want. After the ride, I went for a ride on the Bacchetta Giro. For the first 2 minutes I had trouble going straight until my brain switched back to Bacchetta mode!

Day 2 (today)

I went for a 50 km ride climbing most of the hills in the Gatineau park. This thing climbs much faster than the Giro! I noticed that I don't have to downshift as often, and the hills seem so much shorter! I was still using the flat pedals. This afternoon, I removed them and installed the road SPD pedals and rode in the neighbourhood. Wow! That makes the bike even easier to control, and will further help in hills! I also watched Robert's video on how to change the front wheel, and then put that to practice to gain confidence in case of a flat.

In retrospect, what I had anticipated as a long and frustrating learning process turned out to be painless and fun. I still have some learning to do to ride perfectly straight all the time, as well as riding with no hands! What is nice is I already feel confident to ride anywhere I had planned to go with the V20. I thought it would take me months of baby steps to reach that state. In my opinion, Cruzbike's reputation as hard to ride is simply not true. I also found that the ride is not harsh at all; quite the opposite in fact, and certainly as good as my Giro, with its steel frame, 1.5" tires and mesh seat!

- François Audet

Get your Cruzbike V20 Frameset here and build it up with your local bike shop to get in on the fun.