Introduction - I'm 51 and was a couch sitting motorcyclist (read non exercising fat man) until an MC accident last year. I still wanted some adventure in my life but the MC wasn't coming back into the picture. I fondly remembered my friends and I riding our 10spds everywhere back in the day. Even did Skyline drive when I was 16.

But the last time I rode a DF I thought I was going to need to see a proctologist to have the seat removed from my posterior and the thought of putting pressure on my reconstructed thumb (accident) wasn't very appealing - so I started looking into recumbents. After all, I was over 50, do have a beard and have a nice size aero belly, figure I'm 3 for 3 these things gotta be up my alley. Lot's of research and a few test rides lead me to purchasing a tad-pole trike.

So why do you see more folk over 50 on these things? The cost. Fact is these things are pretty much hand built and given the low production numbers well you're just going to pay thru the nose for these things. You gotta have some expendable cash to go down this road and not many younger people are going to fork out this kind of money. Purchasing used is really the way you want to go until you really know what you're after. Besides - they are goofy as hell looking and what 20 year old is going to tarnish their cool factor. At 50, well you stop giving a rats a$$ what someone else thinks.

14 years of sitting in front of a computer monitor at work and the big screen at home meant the first lap around the neighborhood (all of 1.3 miles) about left me dead. That was end of April. In Oct. of last year I did a metric century, albeit it was the Seagull Century which only had about 600' over the entire 66 miles. Right now I've added a Tour Easy long wheel base to the stable because I want to go a little faster and I'm aiming to do the full imperial century next month. So like them or not, it was these goofy machines that got my lard ass moving again.

Things I like - Comfort factor. There really is a huge difference especially things like your hands, wrists, neck and back. My buddy has a high end seat on his Trek and says he has no complaints so I'm not going to go into that argument. But when I ride with my friends (all DF riders) I watch the amount of times they are shaking out their hands and wrists or trying to stretch out their backs.
Going down hills - freaking RULES. I'm coasting while my DF buds are pedaling.
MUP riding on my trike is also great. Dual disks will have me doing head stands, but come in handy when little Billy decides to jump loose from Mom. Plus if the trail is twisty with wet leaves, well I may slide, but I don't slide out. Besides it's like being on a go-cart they really are a blast to ride and you should give one a try if you ever have the opportunity.

Things I don't like - I can't get my butt out of the seat and hammer on the pedals going up a hill. Hills suck! I do however make up for some of that by spinning like a mad man in lower gears but it still doesn't make up the difference of being able to stand up on the pedals and power your way up a hill.
I'm riding a long wheelbase bike, think wheel base of a tandem. Transporting is a bit more challenging. Turning radius? Well give me 40 acres and I'll turn this rig around. There are however short wheel base bikes that don't have this issue but my bike really is set up for the open road.
Learning curve. As others have said these things all have their quirks and they are not like jumping from a mountain bike to road bike different. Low racers with preying mantis steering can be twitchy as hell. Depending on the design the BB can by higher than your hips which on a two wheeler just feels weird. You have to build up an entirely different set of leg muscles, so even with a recumbent that's set up for racing it's going to take months of training to see the same speeds you had on your DF.

No, I don't think they are the end all be all of bicycling. Heck I'm currently itching to go check out a fully suspended 29er. If you'd like a better understanding of recumbents then I suggest reading up on them at www.bentrideronline.com that's how I really learned what was what about them.

But I'm all about the ride, not what you ride.