Recumbent Bikes!!!

[mtbiker278]

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

[kickflipjr]

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.

[zpiloto]

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.

[molecule]

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

[kickflipjr]

Check this recument out. It looks fast!

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

[mtbiker278]

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

[GasSavers_DaX]

Originally Posted by mtbiker278

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

not quite on topic, but damn:

VIDEO LINK

[kickflipjr]

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

[mtbiker278]

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

[Mighty Mira]

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.