What kind of bike is this?
 

First off, no pictures. I was down near Freeport Texas today and I was coming up on what looked like a heavily loaded touring bicyclist with a trailer. As I got closer (and gave a wide path) it was in fact the most heavily loaded bike I've ever seen. As I passed the rider, that's when the mental question mark appeared. He was riding what appeared to be a regular bicycle with a recumbent (and a woman) attached to the front. I looked in my rear view mirror and they were both peddling away. I thought about stopping up the road and waiting for them to ask for a picture but we were on a stretch of road with nothing around and I didn't want them to think bad things might happen. What type of bike did I see?

Steve

Nope. I found one on the Internet that looks like it. It's the first time I've ever seen anything like this. I've seen recumbents and tandems and even pictures of recumbent tandems but never the hybrid mix of regular bike and recumbent bike.

http://home.avvanta.com/%7Esteveha/funky_bike.jpg

Hase Pino Tour is the one that comes to my mind.

Aaron :)

That's a Counterpoint Opus if you haven't already worked that out. http://www.bilenky.com/viewpnt.html

Interesting! That would be a cool way to be able to take my 4 yr old son on long rides. I could maybe even talk my wife into trying it out :).

Bilenky in Philadelphia made "hybrid" tandems over least a decade ago. They may still make them.

I haven't seen one of those either, but it's kind of cool, especially for him because his wife is significantly shorter then he is, thus she doesn't have to sit behind him seeing nothing but his back for long boring miles.

Yes, and the two cranksets are not stuck in sync as in a standard tandem; each rider can pedal at their own cadence.

Last Sunday I saw a couple on a tandem that looed to be a poor fit. If the stoker looked forward, her forehead was literally less than an inch from the captain's back.