6 days ago I acquired my first recumbent bike a High Racer. Previously I had no experience of recumbents and was only aware that they existed. I saw one out on a ride on one of my fixed gear bikes a few weeks ago and decided after some pondering to investigate them further. I have seen them before, but after very rare brief encounters on rides never considered them any further.
I researched them online as much as I could and after watching many youtube vids and reading many reviews I decided it was the High Racers I preferred the look of and in particular those made by Bacchetta. I did talk to Kevin at D-TEK he was very helpful and has many different types and models of recumbent bike and trike available, in the end though I was offered a Bacchetta High Racer by a seller in response to a wanted post I had placed in this forum. This was exactly what I had decided I wanted and fortunately it was only an hour away to collect.
These do take some practice to get the feel of and for the first few days just rode it locally until I felt competent enough to take it on a proper ride. On Saturday I did a 50 mile ride on it I'd intended to do only 40, but was enjoying the ride so much and not having any difficulties that it was easy to extend it.
The choice of recumbent I considered had to be a two wheeler,(I'm not drawn to trikes) I didn't want a Low Racer or Mid Racer as I wanted to sit higher to not only see, but to also be seen by other traffic more easily. I also wanted wheels of equal size back and front this to me just left the High Racers. In the end though what you chose may be dictated by your leg measurements, inseam and xseam. For me a High Racer with 26'' wheels is probably the most practical option as 700c wheels may be a bit too large for me with my 30'' inseam. As mentioned above if you do get the opportunity to try different bikes that would definitely be time well spent.
I too like the look of the Pelso Brevet and would consider one for the future, I think the 'S' shape frame allows a lower seat height over the 'Stick' frame design of the Bacchetta and similar. There are a number of reviews of the Pelso online, here's one.
http://www.bentrideronline.com/messageboard/showthread.php?t=145368 My reason, by the way for entering the what I'm now finding is the fascinating world of recumbents was just simple curiosity I fortunately have no health problems dictating the change.
Good luck with your quest!
