Cycle Genius LTX-Falcon

Price Paid:  $550.00 at Easy Street Recumben

Model Year:
2006

Favorite Ride:
Little Miami Bike Trail

Bike Setup:
Dingie Bell; Cateye lights front and rear; Schwalbe Marathon Plus 26x1.25 rear and SMP 20x1.5 front tires; Fastbak underseat pak for innertubes, etc. underseat; fanny pack on seat back (until I find something better); Tektro disc brakeset; SRAM 7.0 twist grips (hope to upgrade to rapid fire shifters).

Summary:
Long wheel base recumbent in the spirit of the Rans Stratus or Easy Racers Tour Easy or Gold Rush. Seat height is 23.5, wheelbase is 69, weight is 34 lbs. Aluminum frame. 26/20 wheel configuration. I bought this one used, in excellent condition. I've owned several SWB, CLWB, and LWB bents and a Wiz Wheelz trike. The Falcon is great for shorter riders (as is the standard Stratus or the smaller Easy Racers) as you can sit flat-footed on the seat and the adjustability fore and aft of the seat and handlebars is almost indefinite. This seat has 6 different ways to get comfortable and the quality of the foam pad and mesh back are comparable to the ER and Rans seats, which are the best of the best. The Falcon feels like a merging of the Stratus and the Tour Easy. Original price of the Falcon LS is now about $1200, same as the Stratus LE. My Falcon is the LTX, which has disc brakes and SRAM 7.0 components on it. My frame is aluminum, vs. the chromoly of the RANS and ER. All offer a smooth, compliant ride quality. I really like this bike! It is comfortable with it's chopper bars, adjustable seat, light and fast feel, and nice component package. It is light enough in weight that I can heft it up onto a rear rack on my car. I plan to use this for long recreational rides, but this one would also be great for touring as it is fast, low, light, and comfortable.

Strengths:
Acceleration for a LWB is excellent! It really gets up and goes. Seat sits low, is comfortable, and very adjustable. If you can't get comfortable on this seat, you can't get comfortable! Chopper bars and stem combination are quite adjustable too. Hand placement on the bars is relaxed and bars do not jab into your thighs when you do sharp turns. Paint job on the frame is a nice, thick, glossy powdercoat. (Mine is "Tequila Green", here's to ya!) Nice decal positioning and not gaudy. Will accept a rear wheel of 700cc or 26 inches. Disc brakes came stock on mine, but LS will accept disc brakes. I did not experience the dreaded "tillering" on this bike nor did I feel the also dreaded "fork flop", so often characteristic of longer wheel base bents. It just felt "right" from the first peddle off. Stable at low speeds, even turns, and fast like a jack rabbit on the take off.

Weaknesses:
CG website does not offer CG specific items such as racks and bags for the bike, which would be nice to see. Also, a fitting and maintenance link on their website would be nice for specifics to the bike. Having a seat pan that offers the option of replacing seat pads would be better than the wooden seat platform with the foam pad glued on. I don't care for the kickstand length or placement, but one can always upgrade to a Greenspeed long stem kickstand in the rear of the frame. Otherwise, I find no weaknessess. The things that I find challenging on a LWB (fork flop, unstable at low speeds, tillering), just aren't on the Falcon.

Similar Products Used:
Easy Racers Tour Easy, Sun EZ1, Sun EZ Rider, Sun EZ Sport, Rans Stratus, Rans Tailwind.

Price Paid:  $1090.00 at COVENTRY CYCLE in Po

Model Year:
2006

Bike Setup:
Zzipper Fairing, fenders, kickstand, Jandd under seat panniers and Trek bike computer.

Summary:
I bought a new Cycle Genius LTX/Falcon about three months ago for commuting to work. After a couple of days I noticed the handle bars were not straight, and strangely I had no Owner's Manual for this bike. So I called Cycle Genius about the problems. They said they would send me a printed Owner's Manual and to return the bike to my dealer and they would take care of it, so I did. The owner of my bike shop took one look at it and said no problem they would order me new handle bars under warranty. But then Don, the owner of Cycle Genius, denied the replacement warranty claim on the bars. So I called Don he told me to again take it back to my bike dealer to have it straighten. If they are unsuccessful, then and only then would they replace the handle bars. Guess what? They tried straightening them out but no luck and still no bars from Don and no Owner's Manual as of yet. It's odd wouldn't you say after spending close to $1,100.00 dollars on their bicycle Cycle Genius doesn't think I deserve a straight set of handle bars new out of the box.

It really is too bad. I really do like the bike and my next bike this spring would have more than likely been their next step up Raven bicycle for my weekend rider, but after this eye opener I now have lost confidence in Cycle Genius' warranty and customer service.

Strengths:
AVID 5 mechanical discs brakes. Six way adjustable is really great.

Weaknesses:
Some poor quality components. Warranty and customer service is very poor.

Similar Products Used:
This is my first recumbent.

Price Paid:  $0.00

Bike Setup:
Right away I ditched the OEM combo pedals (Shimano/platforms) for my usuals (Speedplay Frogs), and used the Knee Savers off my previous bike. After about 3 months I paid for some longer handlebars (RANS adjustable chopper bars), I didn't really change the seating position but with the OEM bars I couldn't reach the brake levers without moving my shoulders forward.

Summary:
(Model owned is a 2006) The CG LTX is a low-priced LWB that is easy to learn to ride and best for touring or casual use. Many people who had not ridden a recumbent have been riding in less than 30 seconds or so. Most riders will have room to recline the seat at least 45 degrees or so but the bars may be too short for that (more on that following) and the low bottom-bracket results in a very open position, rather defeating the aero advantage of reclining far back.

Strengths:
The aluminum frame resists rusting (in most locales), disk brakes stop well when wet, frame can accept 2.3-inch wide tires front and rear. There's bosses for disk and rim brakes and fenders as well (though we note that many fenders have problems taking a 2.3-inch wide tire). The rear end has two sets of cantilever bosses for two different sizes of wheels, giving a choice of rear wheel sizes you can run (upper bosses are 26" and lowers are 700c). The frame can also fit a wide range of rider heights, from 5" to fairly-tall riders (6'6"+). Overall the bike doesn't weigh a lot (about 38 lbs; mysteriously, the manufacturer website doesn't give the weights of their bikes-???)

Weaknesses:
The OEM handlebars aren't very suitable for taller riders (I'm about 6'2"), the bars are about 13.5 inches tall and taller riders will want ones closer to 18 or 20 inches. The Avid BB5 brakes only have a pad adjustment on one side; BB7's would be better having both adjustable.

Similar Products Used:
This is the first LWB I owned; only the second recumbent and the first was a SWB, a totally different type. So comparisons are a bit difficult.