I’m settling into riding the new Bacchetta Corsa, so as promised, I’m putting the Bentech on the market. Will post in the ‘for sale’ section with pictures, but thought I would give advance notice to followers of the ‘recumbent forum’.
The bike is a Bentech SWB with above seat steering. It was scratch-built from plans, which were obtained from http://www.bentechbikes.com/index.htm. There is a picture of my just completed bike on page seven of the builder’s gallery. My frame was built in 2007 by a fellow recumbent rider and forum poster, John Lewis from WA. He built one for himself and a frame for me, and did an excellent job in the process. I have used the bike as my regular commuting steed, and estimate it has travelled somewhere around 10,000km. It was an experimental foray into recumbents for me and proved to a perfect introduction. It is very easy to ride, stable, and mixes well with traffic and other bikes.
The frame is made from mild steel (muffler tubing) with braised joints and has proved to be very durable. The boom is adjustable to accommodate different riders. John left the boom quite long so there is plenty of adjustment. Running gear has had several iterations; current configuration is:
Ultegra road triple crankset (53-42-30)
A520 SPD touring pedals (also have several sets of platform pedals if preferred)
XT front derailleur
8-speed cassette 11-32
XT long cage rear derailleur
Combi brake/trigger shifters (same as fitted to a Giant Cypress city bike)
Terracycle power side idler gear
Wheels
Front 20 inch (406) Velocity Aeroheat rim and Velocity hub (32 spoke)
Rear 26 inch (559) Velocity Synergy rim and Formula hub (32 spoke)
Both wheels were custom built for the bike. Front hub rebuilt around 1,000km ago. Rear was a more recent upgrade and has done about 5,000km. They are very strong and run perfectly true. Tyres are Conti GP4000 (excellent tyres – highly recommended), about 500km old.
Brakes
Shimano V-brakes. New pads around 1,000km ago
Seat
Custom fibreglass rigid seat with Ventiseat pad. Also have the original mesh seat. Both are very comfortable but the rigid seat is quite a bit lower to the ground - my wife at 165cm can reach the ground quite comfortably.
Adjustable and foldable steering stem. With the handlebars folded, the bike can fit in the back of my Subaru Forrester without needing to remove the wheels.
It is currently fitted with a pump, Topeak rear rack and a Cateye Strada wired computer.
There are some paint chips from parking in the bike racks at work and a brake lever and pedal were scratched during a low speed fall on wet leaves on a bike path (I used my hip to protect the bike and sacrificed some skin in the process..).
Asking around $700. Bike is located in Hornsby, Sydney.