Recumbent bicycles.

The roots of recumbent bikes lie well before world war 2. In the thirties the recumbent bicycles entered races. It did not take the ICU (International Cycling Union) long to ban this type of bicycle. They were thinking along the same lines as this year when they banned the special time trial bikes for the professionals.

The reasoning is that modern sophisticated equipment does not do justice to the concept of the race, ie. The comparison of athletic ability.

This type of reasoning seems to be "de rigeur" for many large international sport organisations. Even Formula1 racing, which exists because of frontline development, has been the victim of technology bans.

Luckily there are always enthusiastic people who want to now what is possible. The development of the speed cycling record. The success of recumbent in long distance racing, all prove the validity of the concept.

Amateur racing cyclists, cycling solo, who are able to maintain an average speed of approximately 30km/h for 2 hours, will increase this average on a recumbent bike to 35 km/h. Maximum maintainable speed is 45km/h. Bursts of over 50km/h are quite feasible.

More or less professional cyclists, are able to maintain much higher speeds. The 1 hour record for fully enclosed recumbant bikes stands at 78k/m. The average over a 540km race, is 40km/h. Quite unbelievable when you bear in mind that all the really gifted cyclist shy away from recumbent biking (no Rominger, Boardman, Ullrich, Delgado or Lemond.). They are afraid of their image and the possible negative effects of the training required.

The main element is the highly decreased aerodynamic resistance (R).
When compared to a normal cyclist the frontal area (A) is only a third.
As the resistance of an object is proportional to its area and to the square of the speed (V), the recumbant will experience the same aerodynamic resistance at an approximately 75% higher velocity.

Streamlining the bicycle (decreasing Cd), with an aft streamlined-appendage, has become very common. This decreases areodynamic resistance with a further 30%.

 The only prerequisites are that you are a good craftsman and can weld. The design is presented on another page of this website, hanno's lowrider design. Using a drawing from an existing design, will spare you the initial prototypes. You will end up with a good bike at the first try.
take a look at the "next" webpage

The obvious advantage of using the rowing motion is that more muscle groups are involved in the propulsion. Derk Thijs (Middelburg; The Netherlands) had to solve quite some mechanical problems. The most notable is that the rower does not have a sliding seat. He/she moves the leg and arm only. During the return stroke the cyclist can change gears.

He has now developed a new model for daily use. Support him in buying the best rowing bicycle there is.

With a streamline Derk has won many races, partly because of his athletic ability.

For speed records completely enclosed bicycles are use. The current record stands at 111 km/h for a 200m sprint.

The one-hour endurance record stands at 78,04 km/h for the vector-team's Tomahawk and was set by professional cyclist Lars Teutenberg.

The 100km record stands at 71,25k/h by Ralph Wuertele in speedbike.

Bram Moens of M5 (Middelburg Netherlands) won the Trondhein-Oslo race (540km) this year in 13:46:09 an average of 39,2 km/h

These fully enclosed bicycles have little use for day to day transport, but are very appealing. At the moment the Dutch team of Bram Moens (M5) an Derk Thijs, both of Middelburg, making some serious record attempts with their newly developed, M5 streamline.

Thijs I.D.; Koorkerstraat 10; 4331 AW Middelburg; The Netherlands; www.rowingbike.com

M5 recumbent bicycles; Brakstaart 11; 4331 TM Middelburg; the Netherlands; http://www.m5-ligfietsen.nl/

FLEVOBIKE; De Morinel 55; 8251 HT Dronten; The Netherlands; http://www.flevobike.nl