New bicycle: Alligt kruiser¶

Tags: cycling, nelenschuurmans

Yeah, I bought myself a new (well, second hand of course) recumbent: an Alligt Kruiser. (So one of my existing bikes is now for sale at 250 Euros. Actually, it is sold (2010-05-04).)

Ever since I started working at Nelen en Schuurmans in January, I’ve been on the lookout for a new bike. I had two (and a half). One was a bit high to put your feet to the ground at traffic lights. The other one (with both a 1 and a 2-wheel back part) started developing mechanical problems (the 2-wheel backend suffered some broken spokes and the seat itself started cracking last wednesday).

I found a nice-looking Alligt Kruiser. I didn’t know the type, but it turns out only a couple dozen were made as the market segment was too crowded. The bike was rumoured to be solid as stone, but heavy.

I bought him today at Maia ligfietsen in Dordrecht. Friendly service, cup of coffee. I tried it out and bought it right away. And cycled it back home through pouring rain. 60km. Only the last 10 km was dry. Soaked, but real happy with my new bike!

• Not too heavy. Perhaps I’m too used to my 20+kg iron square beam flevobike...
• Semi-low. Easy to put your feet to the ground. Aerodynamically better than what I’m used to. I’ll have to keep an even better eye on the traffic as in certain circumstances you’ll be seen less well than on a higher recumbent. (No, I’m not going to put a flag on my bike so that I can poke out other cyclists’ eye. And I’m not going to put a flag that signals “toddler that goes 5km/h max” on something that goes 20+km/h.)
• Above-seat steering. The main reason why I wanted that: easy to place a rear view mirror in a spot where you don’t continually hit it when mounting the bike. And the best spot for actually using it continuously.
• Bonus: the bike just got his periodical maintenance. So new gears and chain, ready for 10.000km of cycling pleasure.

So: happy. Got to make a few adjustments, though:

• Front brake doesn’t really brake that much. I’ve got a spare brake of the right type lying around, so that’s no problem.
• Add a holder for a bidon.
• See if the rear light is good enough. And mount a front light (I’ve already got one).