Lightning's website - www.lightningbikes.com - is the single best information source on Lightning recumbent bikes. Though Lightning's site lacks a moderated forum where Lightning riders - and would-be riders - can freely exchange ideas. Recumbent sites with forums already exist, like www.wisil.recumbents.com and www.bentrideronline.com. But why bore all the non-Lightning folk to tears with endless writing about our favorite recumbent marque? We need a place of our own.
Curious about recumbent bikes, and considering a Lightning? Want to modify a Lightning, or fix a problem that puzzles the local wrench? Post your questions here, and draw upon the collective experience of other cyclists. Got something Lightning-related to buy or sell? Let us know. The discussion can range freely, as long as the focus stays on recumbent cycling generally, and Lightning bikes in particular. Just one ground rule - the credo of Human Powered RaceAmerica (HPRA): "Go fast, have fun, promote technology, and don't be an ass." So differences of opinion are fine. Trolling & flaming are not. Who decides which is which? Me.
My name is Joel Dickman. I've been riding recumbent bikes for over twenty-five years, with most of my miles on a P-38 and a Stealth. I'm a fairly long-standing member of the Lightning tribe, but new to running a website. Please cut me some slack if things - like the forum - don't work properly at first. A gallery of pictures of Lightning bikes - especially bikes that are somehow distinctive - would be fun. Snap away and send them to me.
Contact me at joeldickman@hotmail.com
(The 3 F40 riders pictured above are Greg DuVall, Tom Howe, and Gerry Pease left to right, at Playa del Rey, California.)
Sheldon Brown's article on Recumbents
John Schubert's 1986 Road Test of the P-38
Tim Brummer: P-38 Design History
RECUMBENT RACING Pat Kinch talks to Richard Grigsby
2007 Lightning R-84 carbon fiber bike, made from new molds. Lighter weight than in previous years, with Lightning carbon fiber crankset.
2007 Lightning Phantom, with new seat mesh and chain idlers. (This is the most recent version of the bike called the Stealth a few years ago.)
Larry Guevara's Phantom with Blue Angel paint by Spectrum Powderworks.
Sergio Agramonte's Phantom with Challenge euro seat and HED aero wheels.
Lightning X2.
Sandro Bollina's well-used Lightning X2. In 1999 Sandro did a 58.13 second standing start kilometer at Interlaken, Switzerland with this bike. This may be a world record.
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Sandro's bike again. (HPV racer on left unidentified).
Glen Graham rides a P38 with a new & transparent large Zzipper fairing.
P-38 with large Zzipper fairing parked in a snow bank.
Lightning P38 with small Zzipper fairing.
Becky with new P38, "like a gazelle". A real beauty. Bike's not bad-looking either.
Carol Shaw's P38 - probably late eighties / early nineties vintage.
Ben Fox's first P38 (of many) with Shockster rear suspension, smaller Zzipper fairing, and Aerospoke wheels - 26" rear, 20" front.
Ben Fox's more recent P38 with Terracycle fabric rear fairing and ISO 451 20" front wheel.
P38 with Mueller Windwrap front fairing and cloth bodysock.
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Building a Lightning P38 frame.
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Close-up of S & S frame couplers on a P38 Voyager.
Lighting Thunderbolt - no longer being made. Lightning's least expensive bike.
Fast Freddy Markham in Gold Rush races Carl Sundquist in Lightning X2.
Dennis Taves' modified Lightning P38 with rear suspension and mid-drive. Notice there is no rear derailleur.
Chris and Alyce Broome with Lightning tandem bike. Visit Chris's website at http://webpages.charter.net/ccbroome/lightning.html for more pictures.
Tyger (the racing maniac) Johnson and Lightning F40 with modified tail.
Tyger Johnson / F40 picture with a full canopy over his head.
Lightning P38 with mid-drive added.
My (Joel Dickman) P38 with hardshell seat minus fairing.
Eric Warp's "Warp Drive" faired P38, made from Coroplast and Zzipper bubbles.
Lightning X2 fairing.
Lightning R84 carbon fiber bike.
R84 with Zzipper fairing and aero wheels.
Lightning handcycle in full fairing, with pilot Jon Franks.
"Retro" Lightning P38 with hardshell seat owned by Jeff Wills.
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Wally Kiehler's F40 minus Spandex cloth mid and tail section.
Wally's bike fully clothed.
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F40 unzipped.
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Carl Murdock's clean & tight Lightning F40, with altered tail.
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Lightning R84 with 24 inch (ISO 520) front wheel and titanium fork.
White Lightning - Abbott prize-winning bike - first HPV to exceed 55 mph. Don Guichard, Butch Stinton, Tim Brummer, Jan Russell, Chris Dreike left to right. I believe Stinton & Russell were the pilots, with Guichard, Brummer & Dreike designing and building.
Lightning U2 - Bram Moens' low racer modified by Lightning.
Tim Brummer on U2 time trial bike. This bike is no longer being made, due to a change in USCF rules after Tim's 2005 Moriarity New Mexico ride.
Bram Moens' M5 low racer modified by Lightning.
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Tim Woudenberg in Lightning F40 and Michael Wolfe on Bacchetta Aero starting the 2006 Furnace Creek 508. I think both Tim and Michael set new recumbent records for this course in their respective classes.
Ian's P38 with trailer.
Andy Goetz's P38 with Xtracycle rear cargo-hauling attachment. (Andy also owns a Mercedes 300SL Gullwing that he converted into a mobile hotdog stand.)
Lightning F40 receding into the distance. What a beautiful planet! Let's avoid turning it into a giant toxic waste dump.
Granted, they are not Lightnings... but a great picture: 3 Battle Mountain streamliners - Coslinger Special, Kingcycle Mango, and the record-holding Varna Diablo II (81mph) left to right.