Hello Sean,

Well I built two from scratch. They are brazed mild steel and plenty
strong. If you get one of Dom's frames I'm sure it will be strong and
do you proud. Brazing is in fact very strong and even a brazed frame
won't break if done properly and there's nothing wrong with muffler tube
either.

Now as to the handling. There are some issues but they are in common
with all SWB's. The most annoying is heel strike where your heel touches
the front wheel. That can tip you off. If you have long legs it may not
be a problem but it was for me. Fortunately you quickly come to terms
with it. I fell about three times before I woke up.

The next issue is steering. LWB bikes seem quite steady. When you first
get on a SWB you may likely wonder what's going on. They feel really
twitchy at first. Its a by product of the short wheelbase I guess. The
trick is to relax back into the seat and only have a light grip on the
bars. It took me a few rides to get used to it. Now I don't even notice.

Starting off was another skill to learn. There is a leap of faith in
putting your feet way up there on the pedals. The trick for me was to
hold the brakes on and turn the front wheel away from the side where my
leg was down on the ground. Then put my foot on the pedal and give a
good hard push off.

Stopping is similar. unclip early. Then when stopped, keep the brake on,
put a foot down and turn the front wheel away a bit. Likely what I'm
telling you is confusing but all will become clear when you get the bike.

The seat. Well I made my own design based on a trike I had. It has a
lumbar support and is not as wide as the one in the plans. I think that
one was altogether too wide. At the moment I'm building a Euromesh style
seat and I will lay it back more. The upright position is fine but I
now feel I can benefit from a more reclined position. What I'm saying is
you can customise or change the seat later.

Sean, I think you would be really pleased with a Bentech. I love mine
and wouldn't part with it. As you build it yourself you can customise
and alter as you want. These bikes are never finished :>). You would
never make alterations to your multi thousand dollar M5 or similar but
you'll find you don't have those constraints with a homebuilt.

Watch out! This building bents is addictive. I'm onto number nine as I
write and several more to go as I've discovered the Atomic Zombie
website and want to build some of those. I'm doing a DeltaWolf at present.

Hope this helps,

John Lewis