Humanize the Earth!

new (to me) Burley Django recumbent bicycle

April 13, 2006 at 10:47 pm | In bicycle |

Written today at work:

I bought a used Burley Django last fall and with the exception of riding it home, haven’t ridden it since then … until today. My Dahon needs new pedals and my commuter needs a wheel true that I was too tired for last night, so I dusted off the Django and off to work I rode. About 5 miles. To downtown Chicago. Foolish? Yes, probably.

Anyway, it doesn’t seem to fit right. The handlebars are so close to my chest that my elbows were a bit sore from being so bent, nowhere near the 90 degree recommendation.

I’m not sure how to fix that.

Then tonight:

Okay, I rode it home in that crunched position, then took out some allen wrenches and found the bolt you mention. I was able to adjust the stem so it’s quite a bit further from my body. Then I found another adjustment place that made the stem shorter, because with it more upright, it was too long to see over.

How far away from my body should the handlebars be? And how high should my hands be when riding?

update 4/14/06:

I got about two pedal strokes from the house this morning when I realized this wasn’t going to work.  My knees were hitting the brake levers.  So I increased the stem-tilt further, and lengthened the stem (opposite yesterday’s adjustment).  The difference it made today to have my hands away from my body was amazing!  I felt so much more stable and able to manuver. 

I also noticed that I was sitting on a metal bar.  Turns out I was sitting more upright than the seat was adjusted for.  When I slouched down, I found I was actually sitting on the seat!  This meant the seat needed to be moved away from the pedals so I stopped to do that, too.

I’m thinking this afternoon’s adjustments will be to rotate the handlebar toward me to provide a more natural placement for my wrists.  I may also need to lengthen the stem a bit more as my knees were still making contact with the brake levers just a bit.

Today was a really fun ride!  Totally different from yesterday.  What a difference a few adjustments make!