The Beginning

I thought it might be good to recap, in a simple chronology, the beginnings of my recumbent bike. I've never posted the pictures and single drawing that helped me settle on a design, but just to fill in the missing parts, here is the story. My buddy Mike has a passion for velomobiles, and his interest started me down the road to recumbents. If money were no object, I'd probably go for a production bike, but since I'm a cheap bastard, I decided to build my own bike.Besides, I love building things.

To start with, I stood my trusty old mountain bike frame up against the wall, and placed a short fork in the front. Then I experimented with seat and pedal positions until I thought I had a fair fit. After snapping a couple of pictures, I sketched out the one and only plan. Once the frame had a shape, I again experimented with seat, handlebar and pedal positions, then ran the chain line.

After riding the bike a couple of times, I decided that the handlebars were too bulky, springy and awkward, so I switched to underseat steering. I also made a few changes to the chain system, which are detailed in previous log posts. I hope this gives others who might want to try building their own machine an idea of how to get started.
Jack