Recumbent in Antwerp

I have to travel to Antwerp about 4 times a year, acting as a taxi driver for my wife. This is normally over a weekend, leaving me with a free Saturday afternoon to do as I please. Searching the Internet for a possible bike hire, I came across a website where I could hire a recumbent. Now, I’m always looking for something new, and different, so this was right up my street. The bike was on hire from a shop called de Ligfiets, which turns out to be one of a chain of 2, the other one being in Gent. They sell recumbents, and keep a number available to ‘try before you buy’ or in my case, just to try.

I guess that most of you will know what a recumbent it, but just in case you don’t, its one of those strange looking bikes that you lie down on, with your feet up in front of you, and they often carry a flag, to stop you getting knocked off. They are Almost invisible to cars ! Before setting off to Antwerp, the Internet came up trumps again with a detailed description of ‘how to ride a recumbent’ plus a 3.5 minute you tube video as well. The guy on the video made it look very easy!

The shop is in the centre of Antwerp, and is packed full of weird and wonderful contraptions that turn our idea of a bicycle on its head. The shop owner was an easy going guy, and handed me an old looking model, with a canvas seat that reminded me of a deck chair. Go and try it out, down that one way street (down the wrong way) he said. At least he was not going to stand and watch! The technique, according to the video, was to sit/lie down astride the bike, then push yourself along the ground, Flintstones style a few times until you get used to the balance. Then starting with one pedal up in the vertical position, focusing on where you are going, push off. Once rolling easy your other foot onto the pedal. This actually worked quite well. Steering is very wobbly until you are moving, but at least I did not fall off. Pleased with myself, I returned to the shop, only to be handed a much more sporty looking piece of kit. Try this now, he said. The handlebars were closer to my chest, seat a lot lower, and feet higher. Help! The model was a Challenge mistral, made in Holland. After five aborted attempts at pushing off, I finally managed to weave along the road, fortunately with no cars around. With about 10 minutes practice I felt more confident, and had not actually fallen off. So this was to my machine for the afternoon.

The route was supposed to be signposted, which it was for a while, but then the signs suddenly disappeared. Asking help from a couple of ‘upright cyclists’ they suggested an alternate route which they were following. So I crept behind them for a while, until they lost the route too. We eventually picked up a road that led us back to Antwerp, and another tunnel back under the Schelde.

I only fell off once – trying to start on a slight up slope. The good thing is that you are close to the ground. With practice, you could free wheel down to a pretty slow speed, but getting round tighter corners seemed difficult/impossible. I saw/passed 100’s of ‘upright cyclists’ during the afternoon, but saw not one other recumbent. Apparently there are about 100 in Antwerp, and 200 in Gent. It was an interesting experience, but I don’t think I will be rushing out and buying one anytime soon.

Steve Riley

Bike hire www.ligfiets.be

Bike supplier www.challengebikes.com