I have a Rans Stratus, but recently bought a Optima "Orca" high racer recumbent, which has a more reclined hard shell seat. At this point it seems like holding my head up is a lot of work. I'm wondering (a) if I should buy a headrest, or wait a while and see if I get used to the more reclined position, and (b) if I should buy a headrest, what kind should I buy? I'm looking at the Optima, Challenge, and ICE headrests.

Do you use a seat bag on your Orca? A headrest interferes with the mounting of many seat bags.

I recently changed my seat angle from 25-30 deg to around 20 deg, and found my neck getting sore on long (100+ mi) rides. Instead of spending $100 on a factory-made headrest, I bought a $12 piece of 2" x 1/8" aluminum bar and made my own. Works just fine, and I've still got enough materials for several more.

SP

I just got an Orca also, Love it. You might want to try the ADEMHR.com site. The Optima headrest is too expensive since I live in the states. The ADEM goes for $60.00. Hope this helps you.

Lots of people make them out of 50c kitchen spatulas. I'm going to try that one day.

I got the ADEM and installed easily on my Orca. I went for that model because the Optima was so expensive because of the shipping charges. Took 10 min. to install. Hope this helps.

I waited a few hundred miles before going to a headrest and found the neck muscles grew happy with the new program making the headrest unnecessary.

Hah! I am one of the many people who tried and quite happy with it. You can read all about here on BROL.

https://www.bentrideronline.com/messa...ad.php?t=51715