Top 10: Recumbent Bikes

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Top 10:  Recumbent Bikes

Trikes, too! No quads in here, though. That’s something we shall have to remedy, in future.

Note also, that #7 links to a resource—FrankG’s late, great, fantastic site theworkshop.ca—that is now sadly defunct. I’ve left it in for historical purposes; those images of Frank’s work don’t exist anywhere else on the web, that I can find, even if his original build notes are lost to us. If anybody knows where Frank’s content went, do let me know.

Update: Thanks to commenter Stevan Farkas for pointing me to The Internet Archive’s WayBackMachine records of theworkshop.ca. Here’s a crawl from August 11, 2007 that includes the text of FrankG’s tute, anyway, but no images.

#10

Propeller Driven Bicycle (Recumbent Trike)


#9

FreeCycle-Made “No Weld” Recumbent


#8

Brass Lion Recumbent Tricycle


#7

Tricumbent Hybrid


#6

Bart Simpson Recumbent Bicycle


#5

Build An Inexpensive Recumbent Bike


#4

Enclosed Belgian Recumbent Tricycles


#3

DIY: Recycled Recumbent


#2

Child-Sized Recumbent Trike


#1

Home-Built Recumbent Tricycle

Did I miss a good one? Let me know, below!

36 thoughts on “Top 10: Recumbent Bikes

  1. Pieter Floris says:

    yes, you missed one: Thys Rowingbike http://rowingbike.com/site/EN/Models/Carbon-THYS-209/

    Derk Thys also made a nice trike-version: http://rowingbike.com/site/EN/Models/Rowingtrike/

  2. Steven K. Roberts says:

    I’m probably a bit biased, but I am fond of the one I built…

    http://microship.com/bike/beh-fullsystem-sm.jpg

    -Steve

  3. Anonymous says:

    A recumbent unicycle doesn’t strictly count under the article’s title but it is interesting nonetheless:
    http://www.unicycling.com/garage/recumben.htm

  4. Adric Menning says:

    Good to see atleast half, of them have some form of side of seat or under seat steering. the between the legs handle bars bot look so wrong, and they don’t allow you to use your arms as bump/shock absorbers. gripping handles below the seat you can comfortably hangon on even rough roads. and your arms don’t go numb.

    1. Sean Michael Ragan says:

      Thanks for this, Stevan. Updated the post. And learned about a great
      resource.

  5. Rob Colby says:

    http://www.atomiczombie.com

    These people build some amazing unis, bikes, trikes, and quads.

  6. Anonymous says:

    I have built several. Of particular note is Frankenbike http://www.the-nerds.org/cycling-page.htm#Frankenbike which has a steering axis tipped past vertical. One that has been mentioned on Make before is the group project “the Buscycle” http://www.buscycle.com/

  7. Useless at SaskView says:

    Here’s a builder of recumbents:

  8. Jim Sheafer says:

    trisled is making a lower priced and durable recumbent velomobile that I’ve had my eye on…
    http://www.trisled.com.au/rotovelo.asp

  9. Ad Carson says:

    Thanks for putting the Recycled Recumbent as #3, if it is a ranking (which I don’t think it is). That particular frame was a trial assembly maybe 5 (?) years ago. I’d love for you to post a more modern, complete picture of a Mach 2 Recycled Recumbent. 102 pictures can be seen at http://www.recycledrecumbent.com

    1. Sean Michael Ragan says:

      You got a deal.

      And, for the record, the rankings are based on lifetime pageviews,
      which tends to favor older content. In future I may start normalizing
      for a page’s lifetime when I prepare these rankings.

  10. Simon Stapleton says:

    You also missed the Python centre-steered recumbent – http://www.python-lowracer.de/

  11. Corbin Dunn says:

    Hey, you missed my recumbent unicycle:

    http://www.corbinstreehouse.com/blog/2010/03/recumbent-unicycle/

    –corbin

  12. helifino says:

    [edit:nevermind]

  13. Anonymous says:

    You missed mine:
    http://mark.rehorst.com/CF_Bike/index.html
    and unlike some you included in your list, mine is complete and works every day!

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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