Originally Posted by Brian Ratliff

I am pretty sure the first popular bicycles were less about the rider and more about the builder. A recumbent, built out of early 20th century materials, is a heavy monstrosity (they certainly did exist; I have a whole book of them). A diamond frame is pretty easy to build with limited materials into something that can support 200+lbs of rider and stuff.

While modern recumbents are still heavy monstrosities compared to your standard road bike, they also have other, more fundamental problems, such as not being able to balance naturally (how many recumbent riders ride no-handed with control?), and not putting the human body in an efficient position for producing power (is there such thing as a recumbent sprinter?). Basically a recumbent throws away everything that is human about controlling a bicycle in favor of aerodynamics and/or lounge comfort.