Brakes. Specifically, rear brakes.

[Alex321]

Rear brake on the Linear LWB recumbent is far more powerful than the front and is the main brake.
So the rear 'always' being less effective is an incorrect statement!
In general though most of the stopping power comes from the front brake.

That is probably mainly down to the very different distribution of weight on a recumbent.

Even braking hard isn't going to cause enough dip at the nose to make that the wheel with more apparent weight on it.

 

[pawl]

I had a disk bracked motor bike that had linked brakes which applied the front brake before the rear

 

[DCBassman]

Annoyingly, an answer to @Ajax Bay and more has entirely gone missing, and I've just tidied up my op, which had turned partially to gibberish.
The front-to-rear comparison on the Scott was done on a certain fairly steep slope that I ride often. The slope puts the rear at an even greater disadvantage, given that my weight is tending to fall forward. On the plus side for the rear, this is a short-wheelbase machine, much more so than anything else I'm comparing it to.

 

[fossyant]

Even taking the same bike, my Diamond Back never stopped well on the Mavic Crossride rims - tried many pads, Koolstop, Shimano and Decathlon's own. Changed the wheels (when they wore out) to some generic ones from Decathlon (as previously tried), and they worked really well. Sometimes the braking surface can influence how well the brakes work.

 

[DCBassman]

Even taking the same bike, my Diamond Back never stopped well on the Mavic Crossride rims - tried many pads, Koolstop, Shimano and Decathlon's own. Changed the wheels (when they wore out) to some generic ones from Decathlon (as previously tried), and they worked really well. Sometimes the braking surface can influence how well the brakes work.

Agreed, but one set of wheels was tried on the Scott and the Revell, and the difference remained.

 

[Sharky]

Or maybe the cable run is longer
? Don't know but that's always the way I've found it and perhaps why the front is located in the left in some countries, the right being the stronger hand?
Hydraulic systems would not be so affected.

Left or right, the tradition in the UK is based on safety when turning right and hand signalling at the same time. A rear brake will allow control and slow braking, so is placed on the left. A front brake can be very fierce and cause a rider to go over the top if riding one handed.

On the continent, the same logic applies, but on the opposite side.

Fixed gear riders in days gone by, however would have their front brake on the left for the same reasons, to be able to signal and have access to a brake at the same time. Slowing down being achieved by a little back force on the pedals. You can verify this by looking at some old photos of fixed gear riders.

 

[Sharky]

An opportunity to post a photo example

Of left hand front brake