I'm big on biking places. I rode my bike everywhere all through college, including to parties and a couple times to the bar. I currently have two bikes, one is a all mountain rig with 6 inches of travel all around, and the other is my beater put together from spare parts. I was looking at getting a road bike since it's been unsually rainy and the trails are all muddied up, which can be awesome until the trail police catch you when the trails are closed. Then I started looking into recumbent bikes. These things are still bicycles but you sit in a reclined position and pedal with a couple different muscles compared to a normal bike. I thought they were interesting, but who would want to ride in one of those. Then I say that the world land speed record by a human powered vehicle was a recumbant doing 80mph. Researching this a little more it turns out that these things can be made very aerodynamic with the use of fairings. I just have this image in my head of people traveling down the highway doing 80 on a bike.

Here's some links:
http://www.ihpva.org/FAQ/

http://www.bicyclinglife.com/PracticalCycling/FancyBikes.htm

Recubents seem like they would be good for long trips. They have the aero advantage like you mentioned. But I think a traditional bike would be better in the city and on hills.

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2008 EPA adjusted:


Distance traveled by bicycle in 2007= 1,830ish miles
Average commute speed=25mph (yes, that's in a car)

I used to race MTB until my body gave out. Now I ride and bootleg race a road bike. Commuting to the store and errands is great they are quite a bit faster than a MTB. Maintenance on a road bike is a little less involved also. The folks I know that ride the recumbent say it good on their backs. The only thing about a recumbent is that being low to the groung there kind of hard to see unless you put a flag on it. And 80 MPH is for a short distance only but it would be cool to go that fast on a bike. I've seen 50 mph on a downhill before and even with sunglasses the eyes still water pretty good.

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Top ten prediction

FE for the Brain

for whatever reason this came up in one of my autoemail ebay searches today...
i'm sure it had something to do with turbo's...
well anyways...for what its worth

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6050651886

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BE ZEITGEISTED

Check this recument out. It looks fast!

http://www.velokraft.com/-nc.htm

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2008 EPA adjusted:


Distance traveled by bicycle in 2007= 1,830ish miles
Average commute speed=25mph (yes, that's in a car)

I see a new X-games sport. Extreme recumbents!!!

not quite on topic, but damn:

I saw that video before. I think he was using a different frame (a carbon fiber one) on the second run.

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2008 EPA adjusted:


Distance traveled by bicycle in 2007= 1,830ish miles
Average commute speed=25mph (yes, that's in a car)

Carbon fiber on that kind of terrain is just asking to wreck at those speeds. He probably would have been better off with a full suspension downhill rig and some body armour

As far as I am aware, the Varna-II averaged > 80mph for an hour. I don't think that's a particularly small distance, but hey.

That 80 mph bike was fully fared. I've always dreamt of building something like that, then putting a 50+ kW electric drive and building a high performance/long range electric motorcycle out of it. 300W of human muscle gets 80 mph. Now imagine 50,000W on up. Can you say 250 mph pocket rocket that does 0-60 in 4 seconds? And to think, with 100 pounds lithium batteries, 500+ miles range.

The big uncertainty of course is high speed stability. Lift at that speed is an unknown, and that shape doesn't produce significant downforce. Nice to think about though.

There will be zero lift if the bottom is symmetrical to the top. I don't imagine that there would be either significant downforce or upforce with that design. But a crosswind might suck (although since the recumbent is closer to the ground there is less torque).

Most cars are shaped like a crude airfoil, with there being slow moving air on the bottom and faster air on the top, travelling over a larger surface. I don't imagine this is very good for reducing lift. By fitting an undertray and having a curve at the front and rear, this should reduce any lift produced.

Plenty of recumbent bikes in the Netherlands. See www.ligfietsen.nl.

The bike in the picture is a 'Versatile' from www.flevobike.nl. Damn, I might get one for myself.

Attached Images

flevobike versatile.jpg (44.7 KB, 16 views)

I'm currently on sabbatical from a car-free lifestyle. I bought a car in July to get over some chronic health problems. I hit 100,000 lifetime miles by bike early last year; my wife and I run a series of ultra-distance cycling events in our spare time.

I have many diamond-frame bikes but no recumbents. We've had many riders participate in our series over the years on recumbents, and they never finish first. The main reason is that recumbents, in spite of their superior aerodynamics, are slower here in the hilly Northeast because they're heavier. Over a series of rollers, the increased weight ultimately is lost to aerodynamic drag because you go down hills faster than you would on a lighter bike, and increased speed means increased aero losses.

However, in other, flatter parts of the country, recumbents rule, at least from what I've heard.

Fully faired recumbents fare badly in the hotter parts of the country because the rider burns up inside the fairing. If you don't have good airflow over the skin, those capillaries near the surface become radiators, and that means blood isn't getting to muscles to do work.

Bruce, have you tried a recumbent? I'm guessing "probably", but if not, I'd highly recommend one, for recreational use anyway.

I tried one for the first time this fall, and it completely rejuvenated the fun of bicycling for me (I probably do more than the average person - which isn't saying much, really - but not as much as you ).

I was just thinking to myself this week that since I returned the bikeE, I've stopped going out just for the heck of it. I miss it. I intend to make a home-brew later this winter, either a tadpole 3-wheeler or something like a BikeE. It'll be HEAVY, and probably not too pretty, but way fun.

First ride on a recumbent bicycle: BikeE

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FF
ForkenSwift cheap electric car conversion- Geo Metro fuel economy mpg modifications

My wife and I rented recumbents from a local shop a few years back. She rented a BikeE, I rented a Lightning (a racing model). I spent about half an hour in the parking lot adjusting the boom length, then took off with her. Keeping my balance was a frightening experience, and I gave up after a couple of miles when I got a flat (the shop personnel hadn't inflated the tires.)

I really want a recumbent, but I guess I should try riding one first. I've been thinking about building one since I'm too cheap to buy one .

If you want to build one, this is a good book to have:

http://www.atomiczombie.com/product-bonanza.htm

You can also get it from Amazon. I haven't been able to get my arc welder to work, so I haven't built anything in it yet. I'd love to build the "snow bus".

I've seen that guy's site , and I really like the marauder style recumbent. I have a mig welder but should really get an oxy/acet torch and a tubing notcher so I can build like the pros. A mig should do fine for a prototype though .

Yes, that's an awesome site. He builds everything with an old school arc welder too.

EDIT: I'm waiting to see his tadpole trike. Sometime this spring, perhaps according to the news/blog section of their site.

My Christmas present to my brother was "half" a mig welder. Just waiting for the model we want to go on sale. Then I can make more bike stuff. And car stuff.

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ForkenSwift cheap electric car conversion- Geo Metro fuel economy mpg modifications

really? Wow, then I shouldn't need a torch set-up. I'll have to try welding some chromoly with the flux core stuff I usually use and see how it goes.

I imagine he does use pretty heavy stock though, to get away with using an arc welder. So the finished bikes aren't light... but that doesn't hinder his creativity, or make them any less fun looking.

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ForkenSwift cheap electric car conversion- Geo Metro fuel economy mpg modifications

He uses electrical conduit where he needs new tubes, but generally builds on old frames whenever possible. It's not triple-butted CrMo, but then again it isn't sewer pipe either.

Yeah, I've learned that chromoly isn't worth the trouble for it's slight weight savings. I'm collecting materials to start my homebuilt. Menards had a great sale on EMT conduit so I bought a couple 10' lengths of 1" and a stick of 3/4 and 1/2 just in case. Now I'm looking for steel donor frames.

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Best tank= 81.23 mpg on july 1st 2008
SAVE SOME GAS, SAVE THE WORLD!

I've built a few frames of sorts out of old bike frames, scooters, and tall bikes, and so on, and the thin tubing can be hard to weld if you don't have a good welder, or alot of exprince, but brazing is reasonably easy, and you can get small brazing kits that use disposable cylenders of mapp gas, or propane, and will burn for about 10-12 minutes on a small disposable tank of oxigen, I think the one I have cost around $30, I have a set up now with refillable tanks, and if you plan to use it alot, or share it with friends, it's defently worth the finer adjustability, and elimination of disposable tanks.
most steel, and steel based alloy bike frames are brazed together, aluminum alloy frames are for the most part the only ones that are welded, and it's still commen, even with high end frames, to use brass/bronze rod, mostly because it costs less, but Nickle rod is much stronger, and doesn't seem to have any drawbacks, other then cost, but for a single bike frame that cost might be as much as $3 more for the stronger brazing rod.

I use EMT for lots of projects and my welder does great with it. Should give decent results. we'll see.

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Best tank= 81.23 mpg on july 1st 2008
SAVE SOME GAS, SAVE THE WORLD!

Believe me, there are serious problems when an object that only weighs ~250lbs and goes 80+mph. I believe Sam caught a bit of air when he did crash during a high speed run. Ever see one of those speedboats crash and it turns into a sail and goes 60ft in the air?

I road bike a lot and at 55-60mph on downhills, I can catch air on even small cracks or bumps in the road. Add in curves and I'm all over the place if I am sprinting (think 2 50lb pistons at 180rpms - not stable). I once drafted my friends Tracker down a hill at 70mph and I was catching a bit of air from the slights crack in the road.

Bottom line is you need some weight if you are going highway speeds. Even my Civic doesn't like being behind a tractor trailer on the highway, I get pushed around a lot by the wind and it's 2500lbs.

I love the idea of putting a motor on a streamliner though, imagine the mpg!
I heard 10,000 mpg at 30mph. http://www.adventuresofgreg.com/HPVMain.html

Friends that live in a hilly place really like their recumbent trikes because they can go as slow as they want or need, and don't worry about tipping over.
http://www.geopathfinder.com/9659.html
The electric power additions to their bikes are a work in progress although the first one works great on hills and rough gravel roads.

After having limited sucess at building my own swb I rented a lwb for a week and found that it was far more stable at speed and more comfortable. The seat on it was 2.5 inchesw thick foam and under that was a stiff substrate. When hitting a bump your bottom goes down to the substrate and you dooooo feel it. However I went out and bought the Lightfoot Ranger lwb and it has a webseat bottom which means that bumps are noticed but not acknowledged. If you think that bents are not visible on the road , you should try riding one in rushhour traffic. Constant beeps, waves, and conversations with drivers at 20-25 mph as I am at car driver height.
Far more comfortable than the Cannondale dual susp. I replaced with the Ranger. Now I am after the Bacchetta Cafe for my wife and myself. It has more speed potential and more areodynamic compared to the lwb Ranger, and it is geared much higher.
It might be a better idea to buy something used and not fix it up, then get to know what you want and buy something worthwhile. Renting bents are a trifle expensive but well worth the problems in buying something new and finding it is not as you expected.