Originally Posted by StephenH

I can go ride around White Rock Lake, see about a hundred cyclists, and sometimes I'll see a recumbent, sometimes not. Of the ones I see, I think it's usually the same 5 or 6 guys, it's not just random different people showing up. So the percentage is definitely very low.
In the randonneuring club, there have been a half-dozen people out of 20 or 30 through the years that rode recumbents, so the percentage was higher, but that's in a pretty small club, and that's not really typical of randonneuring in general.
In both cases, the percentage of recumbents is similar to the percentage of tandems, for what that's worth.
The biggest bike store in the area does have a recumbent area, but I don't know how many they sell.
To my way of thinking, the reason they are not more popular is that they solve problems that most people don't have. The recumbent riders I know, for the most part, switched to recumbents due to some specific problem (bad back, neck pain, saddle comfort, circulation issues, etc.), it wasn't just the Troy-bilt "everything is better!" sales talk. And people that don't have those issues aren't too likely to change.
By way of comparison, they make leather saddles, Brooks and similar brands. The specific reason those saddles exist is comfort. But, if you'll go look at (road) bicycles in general, 95% of them don't have one of those saddles. Why? Cause they're not having the problem that would motivate them to go buy a more comfortable saddle for $120.