Friday, May 29, 2009

Free of Cycle Lust, I love my Raptobike

Raptobike Mosiac
When planning to go to the Human Powered Challenge at PIR I expected to drool and lust after a number of bikes, trikes and velomobiles. When I was there I saw the Quest velomobile, the Carbent Sea Dragon and Raven, numerous Bacchettas, streamliners, the M5 Carbon Lowracer, a Challenge Fujin SL2, various homebuilts, lots of trikes, Easy Racers Gold Rush LWB, Rans LWBs, Lightning F40s, etc. Yet even though I sat on a number of bikes and even rode a few, I was unmoved. In fact my velomobile desire is now lower than it was pre-event.

I think this is due to a number of factors. First, the raptobike is wonderful, it performs well and is very reliable. I raced in a number of events and the only thing holding me back was my own performance, the Raptobike was eager to move as fast as I could give it. In fact during the criterium style road race I was first off the line. The raptobike just jumps into action as soon as I apply power. Secondly, velomobiles are higher maintenance than my raptobike. There are lots of finishing touches that I would want to do and most of those touches are custom work.

There were no performance style mid-racer recumbents there or I might not be able to get away with this statement. A performer hi-racer such as this one below would be harder to resist.
ready to ride 2

As would the soon to come Raptobike Mid-racer. But that is neither here, nor there. I am currently free from cycle-lust and very happy with my beautiful and very fast Raptobike "White Rabbit"

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