[itself]

Thanks Blazing pedals! Yes, Lightning is truly a good company, just want to make sure no bad rumors are spread. I think we are all now well informed on both sides of the issue.

Lisa

[BlazingPedals]

So, Lisa... did it arrive yet? How many speeds and how's it ride? We need pics!

[itself]

I am sooooo mad...the bike did not ship until Wednesday. It arrives tomorrow, but the darn thing is set up for a 38 inch x seam, so I will try to push the boom out a bit, but I will have to get to the bike shop on Monday to add chain link, grrrrrrr.

Short or not, she's going to get a small test ride tomorrow. I will FOR SURE post pictures and a report. I can't stand myself right now....tick, tock, tick tock, get the f.... here!

Lisa

[BlazingPedals]

I've seen the pics you posted on BROL and was relieved to see it had the brace. Can't see how many cogs on the cassette, though. Don'cha know, garage door pics are supposed to show the starboard (drive) side of the bike! It looks to be in very nice condition. Is that a 349 16-inch front wheel?

[itself]

Yes, it does turn out to be a 16 inch front wheel.

The bike was seriously piecemealed together. XTR rear deraillur on a road bike.

It's at the shop and being completely refitted, new cables and housing, new rear cassette and chain. It will be a really worthy ride once complete tomorrow. Also, the front chain ring came tacoed, the guy who shipped it packed it poorly. So a new large chain ring and new front deraillur.

I will post pics tomorrow. Oh, yes, it is the more sturdy frame a good thing!

[BlazingPedals]

A mountain derailleur would be pretty common for a recumbent, since stuff for road triples used to be hard to find. Many still use SRAM stuff, which is primarily for off-road. My V-Rex came with LX derailleurs. So, yours was either stock that way or an upgrade. XTR is the Good Stuff(tm). Too bad about the bent chainring.

The 16-inch front wheel is for standover height. I guess the 20" front wheel made the seat tall enough to be awkward for <5'10" riders to get their legs over the corner of the seat & to the ground.

[itself]

Well, this bike is come and gone. The seat was terribly uncomfortable. And now Lightning is marketing their "new" midracer??? Same bike just a different seat. I don't care for that kind of deceptive marketing. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

[BlazingPedals]

Originally Posted by itself

I don't care for that kind of deceptive marketing. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

There's marketing, and there's truth. You have to be able to pick the latter out of the former. Bike-Es were anything but fast. But rather than coming out and saying theirs were fast (that would have been an outright lie; ) what they said was that recumbents held all the speed records and theirs was a recumbent.

Litespeed showed up at one of our big club rides, with a trailer-load of their bikes to loan out. When everyone finished, I remarked to the rep that although everyone tried, the older, slightly-overweight guy on the lowracer won all the sprints. He looked at me sheepishly and asked, "what did you expect?" But it would be bad for marketing to say "we're almost as fast as a recumbent," right? So instead, they tell you that lighter is faster, and theirs are light. Draw your own (hopefully incorrect) conclusions.