For years I rode a traditional diamond frame bike.My last DF bike was a Trek 1420. My butt always hurt. I was the queen of seats. I bought every new saddle and tried positioning my seat fore and aft without noticeable results. I loved cycling enough to put up with the pain.

I checked out recumbent bicycles and kept them in the back of my mind for years. They were pretty expensive and I'd never seen one in person.

When I did multi day tours, I was good for 2-3 days before a painful rash developed. I tried the best of shorts and used all of the common remedies.

Finally I had had enough. I ordered a RANS Stratus sight unseen from Kelvin Clark at Angletech Cycles in Woodland Park, CO. Kelvin is wonderful with new riders and knows just the questions to ask to fit the rider to the bike. Months later my bike was finally in and I made the long trek to pick up my comfortable wheels.

It was a week or so before I could confidently ride in traffic or down a hill. I had a new appreciation for the trials young children face when their bicycle training wheels are removed.

It was love at first sight. I had all of the benefits of cycling and none of the previously known pain. Yes, my recumbent was long and difficult to transport. But there is nothing better than being physically tired at the end of a long days ride and still not having any body parts hurt.

I put 20,000 miles on my first Stratus. At that point I wanted to repaint and put all new components on. I thought the bike deserved it. John at Recumbent Brothers Cycles pointed out that he could sell me a new Stratus for less than the cost of refurbishing my old one. I couldn't pass that deal up. I decided to order an XL length as my 1998 Stratus seat was back as far as it could go and all of the weight was on the rear tire. I also sweet talked John into retrofitting the old style C Bars and cloth fairing on the new Stratus. The new ones come with 'regular' T Bar handlebars.

You would think it would be no problem to adjust to this new bike. I never did like it. It didn't feel good at speed. I took it back to John. He rode it and loaned it out to several other people to ride. All said it was rock solid and they could not feel the 'front end is not connected to the back end' feeling. I rode a few more miles for a total of 5,000. About the same time I signed up for the L & C trip. If I could have remembered who I sold my original Stratus to, I would have paid double to get it back! I put out an all points bulletin for a 1998 Stratus. I found one in Wisconsin. It had a fraction of the miles and was in far worse condition than my original. But I was happy. That rock solid feeling was back.

I sent the bike off to Spectrum Paintworks in Colorado Springs for a new paint job. It seems they thought I was a bit strange for asking for the new paint to be the original eggplant purple color. It just happens to be my favorite! I changed the brakes out to Avid Arch Rivals and put on a Sugino 46-36-24 crank for those low, low gears necessary when riding mountains loaded.

Now I had the wheels for the adventure!

Heart

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