Recumbent - Enjoying the aerodynamics

I went for a 13.2 mile ride with a friend at lunch, he on his Trek hybrid, me on my V-Rex. At one point on a decent hill we discovered that while he rode bent over, pedaling as hard as possible in his highest gear, that I was able to pass him while coasting :p

He did have an advantage on a couple of very sandy sections of the rail trail we took for a few miles, I wiped out twice while he sailed on through. Something beefier than my 1.25" slicks would have helped!

Has a lot to do with the rider body surface area presented to the wind
which in your case is not bad, about like a slightly overweight DF rider
trying to ride on aero bars. DF riders have to be able to get their backs
parallel to the ground to match the natural air resistance your comfy
V-Rex provides automatically. The difference becomes most apparent
above 23-25mph and the pull away gets dramatic when the hill is long or
steep enought to get above 30mph. My ref to sl overweight is NOT in
ref to the OP, only the fact that middle aged guts tend to interfere with
a decent aero position.
I used to coast away from a friend who had a V-Rex but when he got
his Bacchetta it was almost even with him having a just perceptible
advantage. Partly faired low riders have us all beat.

Finally technique is important, there are DF riders who are just
good descenders, able to get a good low tuck and these guys
will stay right with you, until they sit up.

Sand? You dumped your V-Rex just because of some sand under the slicks? If you were an experienced SWB bent rider you would have probably . . . well . . . dumped. <G>

When it gets warm again you will find yourself enjoying headwinds!

Sand? You dumped your V-Rex just because of some sand under the slicks? If you were an experienced SWB bent rider you would have probably . . . well . . . dumped. <G>

When it gets warm again you will find yourself enjoying headwinds!

3" deep fine sand, that is! Just the bike went down though, I never hit the ground myself. I guess all those years of aikido come in handy sometimes :p He may have had the edge on the stone dust trail but by the end of the ride trailing on the flats and downhills and taking the cold winds like a sail he was asking how much I spent on the V-Rex!

Another rider being shown that being comfortable and speed 'can' go together, that I like. Glad you could enjoy the ride in spite of the less than desirable places.