Filter
Top Products
Adjusting to load
The luggage carriers of the Street Machine GT
are mounted to the suspended part of the fra-
me.That way your luggage is also fully suspen-
ded and it spares the material. Most notably,
even under heavy load the suspension will
compensate an uneven road much better and
quicker compared to a design where the lugga-
ge carrier would be mounted to the unsuspen-
ded parts, e.g. the rear swing arm.
Additional luggage changes the load of the
wheels and their suspension.The suspensions
are more compressed through the load.That
way, there is less suspension travel for bumps
while riding.Your suspension could seize up
more often.
The suspension of the front wheel is less affec-
ted since luggage at the rear rack almost only
puts weight on the rear wheel. Only in case of
heavy luggage on the lowrider under the seat
is there an influence on the front wheel.
In order to compensate the variations in the
load you can change the pre-load. For details
see the following chapter.
Theoretically this can compensate for a load
change of approx. 10 kg (23 lbs) at the rear
wheel. In case of higher variations in the load
you would have to exchange the spring for an-
other spring with another spring stiffness. In
practice you can often do without it: the
Street Machine GT offers with 90 mm (3
1
/2") a
lot of suspension travel for a touring bike.
When you choose the spring stiffness so that
the full 90 mm are at your disposal when your
recumbent is under maximum load, you will
have a somewhat smaller but still very comfor-
table suspension travel when you ride without
luggage.
Adjusting your new bike
17
HP
Velotechnik
You should always set the damping as low as
possible to give the bicycle the possibility to
quickly react even to several bumps in a row.
You can ride the Street Machine GT with a
considerably lower damping than for example
a MTB: due to the relaxed and steady position
of the body the recumbent does not experien-
ce extreme variations in the load as it is
known from dancing on the pedals while riding
uphill on a mountain bike.
In addition to this, varying pedaling forces have
very little influence on the suspension of the
bicycle due to the No Squat design of the sus-
pension system of the Street Machine GT. So
when you adjust the damping, always start with
a low damping.
It is necessary to choose the correct spring
stiffness to have a well operating suspension
system.The spring stiffness is a measure for
the compression of a spring at a certain load.
It is either given in "N/mm" (Newton per
Millimeters) or "lbs./inch" (Pounds per Inch).
Sometimes you only find "lbs." printed on the
springs.
The suspension is designed in a way that the
spring compresses considerably when you
mount your bicycle.This is called negative sus-
pension travel and it enables the bicycle to de-
compress on bumpy roads. (Which is in fact a
definitely positive feature.) You should choose
a spring stiffness with which this negative sus-
pension travel takes up around 30% of the
overall suspension travel.This value usually
provides a very comfortable ride on your fully
suspended recumbent bike designed by HP
V
ELOTECHNIK.