Looks like a lawn chair on wheel" say some as I ride by. "Is that an exercise bike?" asked one lady as I parked the bike. "Sure looks comfortable," say most riders I pass. Well, it's all of those things, but my recumbent bike is also one of the fastest types of bicycles made. Recumbent bikes and racing go way back. In the 1930's a Frenchman used a newly invented recumbent "velomobile" to win an established professional race, setting a new record. Recumbent bicycles were promptly banned from professional races and remain so to this day; that's why you won't see one in the Tour de France. Perhaps this is appropriate. After all, all sports have equipment limitations - you can't use a golf ball made of super-elastic rubber or strap a rocket onto your NASCAR racer.
Recumbents do race, however, and it's all about speed, specifically, speed records. All major bicycle speed records are held by recumbents, usually with fully enclosed aerodynamic "fairings" that dramatically reduce drag, the major force a cyclist has to contend with at speeds over about 25 mph. Consider for instance, the 24 hour record. For regulation, upright bicycles the record was recently set at 53 km (33 mph). The International Human Powered Vehicle Association, the sanctioning organization for human-powered speed records, regardless of vehicle type, lists the record as 78 km (49 mph). The top speed in the 200 meter flying start sprint was achieved in 1992 at 110 kph (69 mph). Incredible!
So I'm thinking, hey, I'm a pretty fast rider on my recumbent. I think I'll go race in the IHPVA International Championships. IHPVA racing is a relatively small sport, so there were no qualification races required. As it turned out, I was honored to be able to ride for the manufacturer of some of the fastest recumbents in the world, Lightning Cycle Dynamics, makers of the P38 and its faired cousin the F40, holder of over 20 world speed records. I really lucked out! One of their regular racers couldn't make it, so I got the slot. I rode a Lightning R-84 carbon fiber recumbent with no fairing. At 19 lbs. it was probably the lightest vehicle in the entire event, with the possible exception of an upright Lotus ridden by Giro founder Jim Gentes. The racing continued over 4 days at two venues. Thursday saw us at the Hellyer Park Velodrome, near San Jose. First a "last man (person) out" race took the place of an icebreaker. Though it didn't count, the results were used for the pursuit race pairings later in the day. My inexperience as a racer began to show. I was so nervous, my heart rate went to max immediately and stayed there as I gasped my way around the track to a middle of the group finish.
Next were the 200m flying start sprints. Riders take 2 1/2 laps to wind up their speed and then go all out for 200 meters. The winning bike hit over 60 mph! I should take a moment here and point out that there were four distinct classes of vehicles competing:
Of course the streamliners were expected to be the fastest bikes, followed by the GT's and partially faired vehicles, and mostly this was the case. But there were exceptions. My teammate, Adreas Weigel was one - he rode the GT-class Lightning Phantom to four first class victories, besting the streamliners in several cases. The streamliners are mostly custom bikes built for speed on smooth surfaces. Often they are too heavy and fragile, or too restrictive to the rider's vision to be practical on the street. Often the rider had to be lifted into the vehicle, and then the fairing taped down over and around him (or her). It was something to see these bikes cruise at 45 mph and hit 60 in sprints!
After the 200m sprints came the 4km pursuit races. Due to timing difficulties, they ran them as paired races, with competitors starting together on the same side of the track, not opposite each other like most pursuits. I lapped my opponent and earned 5th place overall in the unfaired division.
After a day of rest and travel, we arrived at Monterey for two days of racing at the deserted basic training base of Fort Ord. After another round of 200m sprints on a straight road, the road race was begun. Ah, this is more like what I'm used to, I thought. Racers in each division could choose a 24 or 64 mile race on the 8-mile road loop; I chose the shorter based on the apparent competition. The race started up a big hill and I felt at home. I outclimbed almost everyone (having the lightest bike helped), and was in good shape after a lap and a half. I thought I had a good lead on everyone in my division when one bike snuck by me. We stayed close for a few miles and I was sure I could catch him the next time up that hill and win the race! Coming around a somewhat treacherous corner I hit the hydraulic brakes too hard and crashed to the outside, taco-ing the rear wheel. The agony of defeat was mine. As I was licking my wounds, my teammates asked me when I was going to stop breaking things (I had already broken a new set of experimental carbon fiber cranks and flatted twice in practice). "It's not like riding centuries, is it?" asked Tim Brummer, inventor and president of Lightning. Hmph.
On the final race day, I wanted to ride. But we had no replacement for the wheel I had damaged, and borrowed wheels wouldn't fit the specialized machine. So, I had a choice - sit out, or ride the pre-production Lightning Bolt, a new, low-cost recumbent designed for wide cyclist appeal. Quickly switching the pedals and adjusting the bike to my leg length, I rode the 15-lap criterium on by far the least expensive bike in the race! I didn't break any records, but I had fun. Next time, I'll be more prepared, mentally and physically for the challenges of these unusual races.
The author: Barclay Brown rides and races Lightning recumbents and owns the Cool Bike Pro Shop, a custom recumbent business in Atlanta. He can be reached at barclay@coolbike.com