I own three bents: a Volae Team, an Optima Baron, and a Challenge Fujin. I rode 8,350 miles last year on them and I'm not going back to road bikes in the foreseeable future. There are some very slick lightweight bents out there nowadays, but they are somewhat hard to find. Recumbents are very diverse and many people still think of what they saw 10-20 years ago. The last few years have seen some really nice offerings from manufacturers but many shops just don't bother to carry them due to their small sales numbers, which makes sense, but it also makes it hard for a prospective buyer to find a decent machine.