Recumbent - procumbent?

Are there any procumbent cycles out there?

It seems that a lot of the problems with recumbents stem from the fact that everything is at the wrong end. Pedals are up front, but drive wheel is in back. Handlebars are set back, but steering is in front. Why not lay on your belly/chest? Then everything would be in the right place. With a high "seat" angle you could almost have the position of a runner...kind of like a human powered segway. Sounds like it would be fun. Are there any cycles available like this?

The only ones I've ever seen pics of have been homebuilts. Prones are technically not recumbents, as their rider position is the opposite of reclined. The problem with prones are that the rider's weight is supported on the front of the chest, which impairs breathing. I would think their best use would be short sprints and hill climbs, a quarter mile up to maybe a kilo.

Plus, you think a regular bike is hard on your crotch.... :0

It seems that a lot of the problems with recumbents stem from the fact that everything is at the wrong end. Pedals are up front, but drive wheel is in back. Handlebars are set back, but steering is in front

There are recumbents with front wheel drive... and if you put a set of superman handlebars, that solves issue #2.

These pics are from the Easyracers website http://www.easyracers.com/index.htm. The accompanying narrative was written by the peddler, Fast Freddy Markham. Notice the angle of his head?



May 6th, 1979 the belly bike becoming the first bicycle to exceed 50 mph. My first world record and with that was entered in the Guinness book of world records. This photo taken at the old Ontario Motor Speedway in Southern California.

These pics are from the Easyracers website http://www.easyracers.com/index.htm. The accompanying narrative was written by the peddler, Fast Freddy Markham. Notice the angle of his head?



May 6th, 1979 the belly bike becoming the first bicycle to exceed 50 mph. My first world record and with that was entered in the Guinness book of world records. This photo taken at the old Ontario Motor Speedway in Southern California.
Cool! Was it comftable, or would u prefer the more common position?

Hang Glider pilots have been flying prone for years and it sucks. Its the one disadvantage of hang gliding because combined with a helmet it makes for a sore neck and shoulders on any long distance flying.

Paraglider pilots fly like we ride recumbents and its a much more comfortable flying position but less aerodymanic.

There are hang glider harnesses that allow a pilot to fly upright but obviously you lose the aerodynamic advantage of a prone position.

Cool! Was it comftable, or would u prefer the more common position?

Uh.... That's not me. However if you hit the link to Easyracers, then click the "racing" link on the left side of the homepage, you'll eventually get to those pics that I posted from their site. (plus you will see ALOT of other cool racing history too!)

The solution is obviously not to put the rider on his/her stomach, but rather to leave the rider on his/her back, but with the feet facing rear-ward. One could either use a counter-intuitive mirror setup to see the road ahead, or better yet, just selectively breed humans with better neck flexibility so that we can twist our heads 180 degrees.

EDIT: I just realized that I was overlooking one solution to "riding on his/her stomach" dilemma. Perhaps some sort of locking snap (SPD?) could be fused to the rider's individual vertebrae, allowing the rider to be suspended from above, rather than resting weight on the anterior of the chest....

No one has pointed out that if you crash, you crash head first, not a good scenario.

Here you go. Click on video on the side bar

http://www.h-zontal.com/pagesgb/presentation.html


Click on one of the buttons for more video
http://www.h-zontal.com/pages/video.html

Aren't they beautiful bikes, NOT!

"The solution is obviously not to put the rider on his/her stomach, but rather to leave the rider on his/her back, but with the feet facing rear-ward. One could either use a counter-intuitive mirror setup to see the road ahead, or better yet, just selectively breed humans with better neck flexibility so that we can twist our heads 180 degrees."

If you'll notice on the Fast Freddie website, under Racing, down towards the bottom, is a rig that has no canopy, uses a video monitor to steer.

Talk about a pain in the neck!:eek:

If you'll notice on the Fast Freddie website, under Racing, down towards the bottom, is a rig that has no canopy, uses a video monitor to steer.

Camera bikes are allowed for Battle Mountain, but they don't meet the safety requirements for 'regular' racing - not good enough vision to the sides and back.

The prone position is obviously a literal pain in the neck. Most of your ride is going to be a view of the pavement even with the mirror setup. Another thing that you have to consider is that you are going to be getting an earful of road noise and a faceful of road grime. I can't imagine that you wouldn't get splashed in the face periodically. On the whole I think it is a setup that is possible; however, it is not very suitable for driving on everyday roads. I don't understand why people keep trying to think of an improvement over the recumbent position when all the speed records are held by recumbent bikes. Obviously there is something to the recumbent position; otherwise, a prone bike would have tried for the speed record.

"Camera bikes are allowed for Battle Mountain, but they don't meet the safety requirements for 'regular' racing - not good enough vision to the sides and back."

If you'll notice on the Fast Freddie site, he sure doesn't seem impressed with that rig, although I'm not sure if the camera was the problem.

Even for straight-line racing like Battle Mountain, my understanding is that the camera bikes have been hard to control. On a bike, you depend on having a good view of the ground in order to keep your balance. Those Battle Mountain bikes need all the balance they can get. A small crosswind has a big effect on a bike is so large when seen from the side, plus, you only have to move the top of the bike a couple inches to get it tipped over beyond what is really safe.

While googling around on the "biggest gear ratio" elsewhere on the forums, I ran across this document. Go through and look at the pictures- I think I see two different bikes with face forward:
http://www.ihpva.org/HParchive/PDF/01-v1n1-1977.pdf

Wow, streamlining sure has come a long ways. Some of those look absoutely hilarious by todays standards. It is like watching the original wright brother's aircraft. It is impressive that the speed record for today is over 80mph, while none of the ones listed in that pdf even broke 50mph.

Here you go. Click on video on the side bar

http://www.h-zontal.com/pagesgb/presentation.html


Click on one of the buttons for more video
http://www.h-zontal.com/pages/video.html

Aren't they beautiful bikes, NOT!


Well, now, that's ..............interesting. "No, what I wanted was too ride the road like Superman !" (Wish I Could Fly Like Superman - The Kinks).
From the video: Amortize the Bumps!

It looks scary to me. I wonder if the goggles make the view reversed. It also looks like in order to breathe
you have to be up on your arms and that has to be painful at best. I'll stick to my own strange recumbent bike and sit back take a deep breath and enjoy the view.

Ciderbob