I ride a SWB now and I love it, but I don't think I could have started on one. I started on an EZ Sport CX LWB. Very little learning curve. It still takes time before you are completely comforable because you are learning to ride a recumbent. Not the same as a DF bike.

I started riding the EZ Sport last September. To be honest, I was as comfortable on the recumbent as a DF bike at about 700 to 1000 miles. Not that I could not ride it well, it just took that long to be as comfortable. It took that long before I could ride it on gravel country roads as well as pavement. This would be different for each person.

After about 3200 miles, I bought a Bacchetta Giro 20 and love it. I like the extra speed and comfort. Riding the SWB after riding the LWB was easy. No real learning curve, which surprised me. I just took off on the SWB like I had been riding them forever.

I can understand your intimidation with the SWB bikes. I would suggest a LWB. They are very easy to ride and the lower bottom bracket makes them very easy to ride. I went from riding a MTB 11 or 12 miles per day to riding the LWB bike 20 to 30 miles per day with my longest weekend ride of 50 miles. I ride 100 to 120 miles per week with the recumbent and was riding less than half of this with the MTB.

Best of all, the recumbents are VERY COMFORTABLE!! Don't give up on recumbents yet because you don't know what your are missing. They are so comfortable, I am surprised everyone is not riding one.