Doug,

If you get a recumbent bike I advice you look seriously at these features :

-1- Rear suspension (either on wheel or seat)
-2- Dual drive propulsion (not only a back and front derailleur)
-3- Sit elevation at least 450 mm of the road unless you really want a low trike
-4- mud guards.
-5- get a rearview mirror


The reasons for this are simple

-1- At 20 mph every bump in the road is transmitted to your back and upper body. Without suspension this is not very enjoyable. Note that on a normal bike you automatically lift yourself out of the seat to soften the impact on your body. You can't do that on a recumbent.

-2- If you use the recumbent in any usages that involved regularly stopping for say a traffic light then the dual drive system is absolute king. (look up SRAM dual drive).

http://www.dahon.com/components/xl/dualdrive.htm
http://www.gstrikes.com/dualdrive.html

One of the problems with a recumbent is making a quick stop (emergency) and then being stuck in a very high gear and unable to shift down to get started again. Note that derailleurs require you to have some speed to be able shift down. On a normal bike it is much easier to drive really slowly and maintain balance. On a recumbent (excluding trikes) this is much more difficult and I feel getting away slowly and as the very last is neither enjoyable or safe. The light may be red again, greening the cars that may hit you and you'll have to overtake all others that waited at the light with you. The dual drive lets you shift down even in a full stop and accellerate away very quickly. OI enjoy doing this and actually drag race the cars for who is first at 25 km/h (16 mph).

-3- At about 500 mm seat height you can look the drivers of Japanse and European cars straight in the eyes. The very low recumbents like trikes sit so low that you'll be hidden behind car's doorpanels or are very hard to see overall (in their mirrors etc). Additionally, you yourself see more at that elevation, especially when riding along many hedges or concrete crash walls.

-4- You just drive through a rain puddle at 20 mph or more and see where the debri and water that flies around ends up. I feel this is a disadvantage of the trike design. You are right in the spray field of both front wheels.

-5- Should be obvious. You just have to keep track of the cars overtaking you and check that they move around you. Raising an arm and waving tends to wake up drivers who are at sleep. On a recumbent it is much harder to turn your head and look behind you; the rear view mirror solves this problem very well and allows you to be much more in control


Other then that; Speed is everything. The harder you can peddle the less problems you'll have with cars. People think that cars are fast but in my experience they only do 20 to 25 mph average speeds in urban area's. If you can approach that by peddling then the speed difference has gotten so small that there is plent of time for them to spot you and they actually have to stpe on the gas to overtake you.


I hope this helps

Wouter