A review of the process of fitting and outfitting my new P-38.: Celebrating with 140 miles to Aspen.

November 10, 2017

Short version - This is a fun bike to ride! You should buy one!

Slightly longer short version - The Lightning P-38 has been around for 30 years. Tim Brummer hit one out of the park on his first try. Lightning's background is in speed records, but the P-38 is also a proven touring bike. In 2016 Tim introduced the ROX version with a reinforced frame and a bigger fork to accommodate wider tires.

Good bicycle buddy Marty was the first to suggest I might like the P-38 as a touring bike.

Jorge cemented the deal when he let me test ride his P-38 ROX Voyager. The Voyager is a coupled bike for airport travel.

After test riding Jorge's P-38 when he was in Colorado for our tour, I spoke with Tim from Lightning and asked questions. My 41 1/2" Xseam was right on the line between sizes. Factoring in my height and weight, Tim suggested a large frame. When I told him I occasionally ride dirt roads, he recommended the heavy duty ROX frame. I mulled that over for a few more weeks and placed my order on Friday, July 14th. Tim processed my half of order deposit as we spoke on the phone. I expected some sort of email recap of my order, the deposit amount, the amount due, and the estimated delivery date (3-4 weeks). No email was forthcoming, so I wrote a recap of our conversation and added a few clarifying statements that the guys had helped me with - zip ties in addition to lacing the seat, Voyager seat attachment, matching rims front and rear. I received a reply from Tim saying he'd had a family member in the hospital, but that was all good.

I made a concentrated effort to not ask for any extras that would inflate the price. Just getting the bike was a treat for me. One extra I did ask for was a Q ring in the granny gear position where I am most likely to mash the pedals. I went with a 23 tooth. That combined with the 36 tooth in the rear gave me a hill climbing gear of 15.9 gear inches according to Sheldon Brown's Gear Calculator.

Children have Christmas to wait for - adults have new bicycles! Finally on September 8th my bike was delivered. Tim seemed rather surprised I wasn't going to assemble it myself, he said it came 'practically ready to ride' right out of the box. Knowing my capability, I made arrangements in advance with Henry at Board and Buckle to do the assembly. It is a very good thing I did, it took all afternoon for a qualified mechanic to assemble. I was so excited to ride my new bike, but I had a chance for only six miles before dark. I was quite nervous to be riding a sports car of a bike after having a plush SUV type bike for so many years (Marty's apt description). I expected the bike to prance around like a green broke horse if I so much as glanced at the scenery or accidentally hit a crack in the road. It was a relief to find out that the P-38 was equally solid to my long term ride, a RANS Stratus. As Tim spec'd the bike out for me, this was no prima donna of a ride. My P-38 was a different ride than I was accustomed to, but in a good way.

The first thing I noticed was how my rear end slid back in the seat, just right. The seat back fabric is laced on for customized tension. I also had zip ties as I like a taunt seat back. The handlebars were much closer to me than the extended Superman position on the Stratus. At first my wrists hurt, but I rotated the brake levers up. That was an easy fix. My foot position was definitely different. It seemed so high at first. I anticipated a little trouble getting started and clipped in. But it took only a few tries before starting seemed second nature. Whew. Once headed down the road, I felt . . . zippy . . . in control, but still quicker moving.

I've had a number of people ask me about speed. I have the same 55 year old engine on both bikes, so my speed is about the same. It seems to be a disappointing answer. After all, Lightning Bikes are known to be fast. Frankly, I'm not a fast rider or a fast climber. I'm the Energizer Bunny of cyclists. I can go all day today and do it again tomorrow and the next day. All with a smile on my face. But speed? Not so much. Climbing? Oh yes, I climb. I live in Colorado I have to climb or not ride. I'm just not a fast climber. It doesn't matter what bike I'm on. If you put someone else on the P-38, it could be a rocket. Remember all of those speed records?

I have had difficulty arranging storage. Here is the original version, a rack pack. This was my first good test ride. 38 miles and 2,200 feet of climbing. My quads were sore the next day. I could tell it was a different riding position.

I've had several issues with the bike components/accessories that now seem small, but at the time were quite frustrating and required a number of trips back and forth to the shop. There was a rear brake that was defective. Henry took one off of a shop bike so I would have a brake. When I went back with the new brake Tim sent, then the rack wouldn't fit around the new brake. A bicycle tourist needs a rack! I had Henry order me a disc brake accommodating rack. Speaking of disc brakes - man, did these squeal! People for blocks around were turning to see what that noise was. Henry was apologetic, but said some pad/rotor combinations are quite 'harmonic'.

What would I do without the guys for advice? Jim Fitch said he'd already been through the harmonic brake issue and the best solution was organic pads with Centerline rotors. I delayed on spending even more money, but finally could not stand the noise anymore. I told Henry to order the replacements. In the meanwhile he installed the Planet Bike Versa Disc Rack. I approved Henry's choice - but I haven't liked the rack at all. You can see that the deck is curved. Panniers are not curved, they have a firm, straight backing plate. In addition to the deck curving, the rack bows out to clear the disc brakes. I don't see how anyone can use panniers with this rack. Planet Bike is a solid company with an excellent reputation. This rack is a puzzle. It's sexy looking, and feels solid, but IMO, it can't accommodate panniers.

Over the years I have discovered that touring is more fun if I'm not packing as much weight up the hill. I've lost almost 80 pounds off of my body! I next looked to the bicycle and how to par weight. I successfully started using dry bags rather than panniers. I had ridden some version of a RANS Stratus for 19 years. It is a very accommodating bicycle. I've carried home a watermelon in it's seat bag! I've loaded one pannier instead of two. No problem.

I knew that an underseat rack wasn't available for the P-38 because of the chainline, a rear rack is necessary. The backing plate that I used with the dry bags wouldn't fit with the curvy Versa rack, but my dry bag seemed pretty solid with my computer inside. I strapped nine pounds of gear in one dry bag on the rack and took off for an overnight trip to Aspen.

The P-38 did not like having only one dry bag velcroed to the rack. I had a low level vibration the entire trip to Aspen and back. John Saxby wrote and mentioned he had a 'wave' up through his handlebars when he tried front dry bags on his diamond frame bike. Yes! I felt validated that I wasn't the only one having this issue.

I had intended to write this journal about the first Aspen trip - but it felt like a big failure. How was I ever going to tour on this new bike if I couldn't even load it with nine pounds?

I had been in contact with Tim a number of times about the small issues. He was most patient and helpful, offering good suggestions. There is a reason he has been in business for 30 years. Several weeks previous to the Aspen trip, I was commuting home from work on a slight downhill with one dry bag (see the common link?) with perhaps 2-3 pounds of tools. I had a lightweight pair of shoes on top of the rack and a seat bag with a 50 oz bladder. I had what felt like a real shimmy come up through the handlebars. I barely managed to come to a stop.

After that incident, every little bobble was a shimmy. Or was it? Marty was a saint, holding my hand through the breaking in process. He had mentioned before I ordered the bike that I had nineteen years of LWB karma to overcome and to give the new bike and myself plenty of time. I held that thought in the back of my head as I second guessed every move of the handlebars.

I continued to ride and love the P-38. Despite all of the little things that I whined about, I always wanted to ride the P-38 and couldn't force myself onto the Stratus. Remember, I had ridden the Stratus for 19 years. I knew exactly where the water bottles went, my telephone, the rack/panniers, etc. I had bought new Strati over the years, but they were the same, so everything installed the same. There was no fine tuning to be done. What many people would consider to be a fun part of the process, such as figuring out how to carry water, I found frustrating. I just wanted to ride my new bike!

Marty suggested taking absolutely everything off of the bike and slowly adding things back on, to see when the shimmy comes back, if it does. He was quite amazed at my loading one bag on the bike. What's with that? Everyone knows you should balance the load. Marty also gave me a lesson on braking technique. It is not appropriate to grab the brakes and hang on, no matter how steep the downhill. Correct brake usage is 75% front, 25% back and keep pulsing. I do believe the 75% front applies to recumbent riders.

I sent Tim a long, detailed email about the shimmy/vibration. He suggested that I try yet a third rack. Tim felt the Versa rack was too flimsy, even though it was rated for 55 pounds. I didn't like it anyway, because of the curves, so I did go ahead and order his rack. Which is the one I should have received with my bike in the first place. I don't know who packed the box, but I got the wrong rack and only one fender. When I got the rear fender, it wasn't for a disc brake. Those were annoying things. The big picture is that I think this bike is the cat's meow.

I've often heard that recumbent riders fall into one camp or the other - long wheel base or short wheel base - and people don't generally go back and forth. I was pleasantly surprised how good Jorge's P-38 felt when I took it out for a test ride. I only went 3-4 miles, but I was hooked. HIs bike seemed twitchy, but I expected that. I'd often heard SWB bikes described as twitchy or responsive, depending on how the person felt about the bike. Jorge and Marty both had Bacchetta handlebar bars installed. When Tim and I were going over my choices, he suggested I try his standard bar to start. I'm so happy I did that. The bike felt solid from the first pedal stroke and I went straight down the road. I anticipated wobbling around the neighborhood getting used to the SWB ride, but it was no issue at all.

A major factor in my considering the P-38 was the relative levelness of the pedal to seat height. Some SWB bikes have very high pedals. That makes stopping and starting more difficult and is known to be a problem for people with delicate knees, like me. I had slight knee pain while dialing in the seat position and boom extension, but was relieved to find that my picky knees liked the P-38 as much as I do.

I've been all over of the place, telling the story of my beloved new bike. The process of tweaking and outfitting wasn't fun for me. As I stated, I've ridden the same bike for so long, I just want to ride, not fiddle with things. I hadn't heard of anyone else who had shimmy issues with a P-38, especially the touring ROX model. Did I have a shimmy? The first incident I felt very sure of. After that, I was second guessing myself. Perhaps it was my manner of braking. Grabbing a handful of brakes tends to make the seat vibrate which can be interpreted by a panicked rider as a shimmy. Not loading the bike properly can cause a bike to handle poorly. Or perhaps it was just part of the expected learning curve, going from a LWB recumbent to a SWB.

I reluctantly ordered a set of Arkel Dry Lite Panniers to use instead of dry bags. I needed a soft, flexible bag to fit that curvy rack. Genny Fox had a pair of them on our last tour and liked them. I looked high and low for something comparable. I didn't want to buy Arkel brand because of my unhappy warranty experience. Arkel was the only one making this style of bag. I bought them and grudgingly have to admit they are perfect for their light weight touring purpose. I like their amazing weight, but I would have liked a square bottom to the bag so my computer would slide all the way down. I have them installed backwards on my rack. Installed with the heel cutoff facing forwards puts more of the bag behind the axle. It's a low level irritant to have them installed backwards. I imagine other riders thinking I don't know how to properly install my gear. Horrors! This trip to Aspen I had minimal gear and both bags were full.

Speaking of this trip to Aspen. Finally I felt that I had conquered the non existent shimmy. The brakes were quiet. Oh, I didn't mention the rear shifter - I had the cable and housing replaced. Marty assures me that these are all breaking in/adjustment issues - but, oy vey, way too much fussing for me.

I decided reaching 1,000 miles on my new bike was a milestone and I needed a re-do on the Aspen trip. I scored a $95. including tax, room at the Tyrolean Lodge.

John C. with Recumbent Brothers Cycles told me years ago that I can consider a bicycle paid for once I have ridden a mile for every dollar spent on the bike. I am keeping careful track of my mileage. There, I've just helped you out. The next time you need an excuse to use with your significant other about the reason for a new bicycle, you can say that the current one is paid for.

912 miles. Panniers on the bike and six pounds of peanut butter in each side as a test. What? You don't have that much peanut butter at your house?

My clothing for the trip. I try to be very conservative and save weight, but I want to be comfortable. In this photo there is one complete set of clothes, but three pairs of gloves. I wore all three in my sub 24 hour trip. I also had a vest (shown) and a jacket (wearing at the time of the photo).

I have several flags from Sound Wind Arts. Others may see a flag as dorky, but mine always brings a smile to my face. Under my seat you will see an insulated water bottle holder and also a nifty little bag that just holds a patch kit and two tubes, the Equinox pack pocket. On the top tube is an excellent solution to my cell phone holding problem - suggested by Jorge - this bag holds my phone at just the right height. There is a zipper pocket on one side for my wallet and a mesh/velcro pocket on the other side. The yellow seat bag is a Lightning product. It is very light weight. What is on the rear rack? A pumpkin pie. It is almost Thanksgiving, after all.

Between dinner and breakfast, I did a good job of finishing off the pie. Touring cyclists get to eat what they want, right?

It was 33 degrees at 8 AM as I left Aspen, starting a 3,000 foot descent. Brrr! I had on the warmest of my three pairs of gloves.

I have said in general terms how much I like my new touring bike. Some people like specifics.

Positives -

Made in the USA. I am helping feed a fellow American.

Easier to transport and get into motel rooms.

The seat to pedal height is user friendly for a SWB.

The seat is extra comfortable.

The seat back fabric is taunt and the pad is shaped so the rider slides back into position.

Downhills are solid.

Uphills are steady, no wobbling around, even at very low speed.

I like how the brake levers and the bars curve together.

I like the chain line. The drive chain doesn't flop around and slap the top tube.

Negatives -

The common SWB issue of heel/wheel overlap. I unclip when making tight turns.

At stops, only my tiptoe goes down rather than my flat foot.

Two sizes of tires/tubes to carry.

The cockpit is tight. After bruising my thigh 6-8 times with the bar end shifter, I figured out I needed to turn the bars to enter/exit.

Today's ride: 138 miles (222 km)
Total: 138 miles (222 km)

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