Cruzbikes for Sale

These Cruzbike Quests have been on some adventures! The photo at left was taken on a tour of the Yucatan. We've replaced the stock tires with Schwalbe Duranos, and these tires have been used for just over 1,000 miles, so they have lots of life left. We've also replaced the rear derailleurs with Shimanos. We've used these bikes mainly for relatively long tours -- one in Georgia, another in the Yucatan and Chiapas, Mexico, and most recently in Cuba (2012). There are no kickstands. With heavily loaded panniers, the stock kickstands eventually collapse under the weight, and we've not bothered to find replacements.

Packing the bikes for a tour in Cuba, 2012. Packing these bikes is more difficult than it looks in the Cruzbike video. In fact, the more you disassemble the bike -- especially by detaching all cables -- the easier it is to fit everything in the suitcase; but the longer it takes to reassemble and readjust everything.

To be practical, we found it worthwhile to pack up the Cruzbikes for flights to destinations where we are doing a substantial tour, but not for just a day or two of riding. On the other hand, you can fold them just a little for stowing in a car, and they are easier in this respect than any other recumbent we know of.

I referred to "wear and tear" above, and I promised some potential buyers to add detail photos as soon as possible. (The bikes were in storage at Discovery Bicycle Tours shop facilities, and I had to go get them yesterday.) I'm trying to show the worst stuff so noone will be disappointed. Some cyclists might be horrified by the scratches and gouges; perhaps others, who tour in odd places under difficult conditions, might take them for granted. Anyway, I'll start with the very worst.

There are bad scrapes on the front forks of both bikes. (It's a good thing these frames are aluminum!) Most are from constantly leaning the bikes against curbs and walls. (Check the photo at the beginning, a fully-loaded bike against a curb in the Yucatan. The front forks are particularly vulnerable to this kind of treatment. We are guilty, guilty, guilty.) The worst gouge, on the second photo, came from a fall. The frame was otherwise undamaged.

The photos below show scratches, chips (also dirt) on the swing arms of both bikes. Some come from leaning the bikes against hard objects -- esp. stone walls in Cuba -- and others may be from packing without enough padding.

Below, you can see the same kind of scratches -- also chain scrapes -- on the chainstays.

These are the bikes on our deck this morning. Please notice that spring hasn't really arrived in our part of Vermont -- it was in low 30's when I took these shots! This is by way of excusing the fact that the detail photos show that the bikes are still fairly dirty. It needs to be warmer before I'll clean them outdoors or in our unheated garage!

Fortunately the forks are black gloss enamel, and I seem to remember that the orange is a stock color available from Ford. As you can see, we've never tried to correct the appearance. For what it's worth, our other pair of recumbents -- Rans V-rex's -- are just as bad cosmetically, but they took us on a fabulous tour in South Africa last winter.

By the way, the reason we're selling the Cruzbikes is that we can't justify keeping four recumbents when we're trying to scrape together money for a new car.