Originally Posted by spinnaker
There are lots of other reasons. While I have never ridden one, I have seen them ridden and they seem to be very slow.
-With the same pedalling effort, some are faster and others not. Which one did you see?
http://www.norcom2000.com/users/dcim...ide/bents.html
...Seems to me that transportation of the bike could be a problem, especially on airlines, but I have never tried it so I don't know for sure....
Recumbents
are generally a bit more trouble to transport--but most people who casually ride don't transport their bicycles much, and most 2-wheel recumbents can knock down into a pretty small case. A few recumbents are specifically sold as "folding"--and for a fee, some other upper-end companies (that make their frames in-house) will put S & S couplers into a frame if it is possible.
...There is also the visibility factor, an upright bicycle is invisible enough, I can't imagine how invisible you become with your whole body a couple of feet lower.
Unlike upright bikes (which are all very similar) recumbents cover a
wide variety of designs. With some, your eye level is less than eight inches lower than it would be on a typical road bike. Of course lots of bicycle riders of all types get whacked in broad daylight, and it's very debateable if there was anything the bicyclist could have done to help driver inattentiveness--but with most recumbents, you are seated at least as high as someone in a car is.
....Riding a lowracer in urban rush-hour traffic and being eye-level with cars' tires
would be pretty scary (at least to me) but then, that type of bike for that type of riding would be a poor choice anyway. With poor roads and interruptions of car traffic, you'd never be able to make use of that bike's high cruising speed anyway.
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