gavintc said:
I think UCI killed off any prospect of recumbent becoming mainstream. They interest me, but currently I am quite happy with my 2 bikes and could not store any more.
Certainly the 74 years since the UCI ban has damaged 'bent sales and development. I feel the Mountain Bike revolution in the 80s has helped 'bents as people have become accustomed to seeing none standard frames as normal and so are more willing to try another shape bike. Standard being the classic two triangle frame of a UCI road race approved bike.
Ask yourself this, if a second string professional rider in 1933 and 1934 could demonstrate the recumbent Velocar as, at least in some circumstances, faster than the Dfs of the day. How would the rest of the professional curcuit have driven 'bent design in the intervening 74 years?
Whether the UCI was right or wrong to try to freeze cycle development in 1934, they did not entirely stop it. They have since the 'bent ban, to my knowledge, also banned DR Moulton's small wheels, and the Lotus bike as ridden to a new hour record by Chris Boardman. But we would be kidding ourselves to say that bike development has stood still. Lance Armstrong said it's not about the bike but it is, despite the UCI's head in the sand attitude. The Tour de France rider's bike of 2008 does not compare in any way to the 1934 bikes. They are lighter, have more gears, better brakes and are more easily put back on the road following a puncture due to QR wheels. In the fifties a racing bike had butterfly nuts not a QR skewer.
It is not possible to turn the clock back but 'bents are becoming more popular and they are developing, compare a 1990's Peter Ross Trike to the latest offering from ICE. Also the decimach prize has finally been claimed by Sam Whittingham at
82.33mph!!! over a flying 200m. Anyway the UCI will not change their mind and so the big money of the mass market will not be applied to building cheap and servicable 'bents and so they will, at least for the forseeable future, remain a small, but perhaps growing, percentage of total sales.