RecumBum

I’m a bit slow on the draw with this, but I’d like to introduce you to the newest steed in my stable:

No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you — it’s not a recumbent.

And no, I’m not planning to give up recumbents or anything. I still love my Burley Django, and it’s still my main steed. For riding on roads in reasonable comfort and efficiency, I’ve found nothing better.

But there’s some things it can’t do, and other things it doesn’t do particularly well.

You might recall that last autumn I switched the Django over to fat tires and rode some gravel roads. I even tried using the fat-tired recumbent as a mountain bike. Riding the recumbent on gravel worked well enough, but the singletrack experiment did not work at all.

So this winter I’ve been watching the local Craingslist for used mountain bikes, but the pickings have been pretty slim. I was looking for a basic mountain bike, nothing fancy or complicated, mid-range in price, no more than $300. It seemed like all the mountain bikes coming up for sale were either department store bike-shaped objects or high-end rigs costing over $1000. I was just looking for a solid, quality bike, something that I could experiment with without sinking a bunch of money into it, but something that I could build on if I decided I liked it.

Eventually, I gave up on Craigslist, and took a drive over to Lawrence to check out The Re-Cyclery, a bike shop that sells reconditioned used bikes. At the shop, I told them what I was after, and they pointed me to a bike that, quite frankly, didn’t look like much.

The bike had no paint, no labels, no identifying markings of any kind. The frame was just bare aluminum. I was told that the frame was made by Balance, probably in the mid-1990′s. The name didn’t mean anything to me, but I took a closer look, and saw that the old frame was surrounded by mostly new components — new brakes, new derailleurs, new chainrings, new cassette, new cables, new tires. There were a few old parts — the front fork, the saddle, the rims — but everything seemed pretty solid. The frame appeared to be in really good shape, with no visible damage, and very nice-looking welds.

I took it for a test-ride, and wow, I was impressed immediately. It just felt right — very natural. Took the bike back in the shop, looked at a few other possibilities, but came back to the Balance. The price was $275, including tax. I was told I could bring it back and they’d swap out anything I didn’t like. Sold.

Once home, I did some research, and found that Balance was in business from approximately 1993 to 1998. I found a scan of their 1995 brochure, and could definitely recognize the frame, though some of the details were different. So it’s not a ’95 model, and I found pictures of the ’98 models, and it doesn’t quite match that, either. So I suspect that it’s a 1993 or 1994 frame, and I never could quite nail down which exact model it was.

I ended up dubbing it the “Tabula“. The name’s a bit of an inside joke, but think of the phrase “tabula rasa” — Latin for “blank slate” — and perhaps you’ll see the appropriateness of the name.

I bought the bike at the end of March, and in almost two months, I’ve put a little over 300 miles on it. That includes some singletrack, some pavement, and a lot of gravel road riding. I’ve added a seat bag, pump, and water bottle cage.

I find the bike comfortable to ride, for the most part, though I’m still trying to work through some saddle issues. Coming from a cushy recumbent seat, any upright saddle would be a big change, and that’s where I’ve run into most of my problems.

My longest ride has been about three hours, and I was definitely happy to be done with it on that day. Even with padded shorts, I was experiencing some discomfort. I’m still not sure whether I need to experiment with new saddles, or just get acclimated to the saddle I have. Time will tell, I guess.

I do love the feel of the bike on gravel. Compared to the recumbent, the higher center of gravity of the mountain bike feels way more stable, particularly on loose rock or a soft surface. I don’t think I’m any faster than I was on the bent, but I’m much more confident.

Wish me luck — it’s a new adventure!