A
RANDOM CYCLIST CONVERSATION yesterday with a man working on a
Grandini outside his house led to the observation that when he had lived in London, he used to see "hundreds" recumbents, but since moving to Bristol in 2009, he's only seen about one. I can't comment on London but certainly recumbents are a very rare sight in Bristol; much rarer than other "unusual" cycle types such as cargo bikes or even unicycles. Nevertheless, they are seen in the lanes around the city. Here's my bullshit hypothesis to explain this – please add your own observations and demolish, finesse or endorse as you see fit.
My bullshit hypothesis rests on two propositions: that recumbents are almost exclusively ridden by Keen Cyclists
TM, as opposed to pragmatic cycle users; and that recumbents are at their best in rural environments. The first I think is pretty sound, the second is likely to be typical forum-user bullshit about things they have no experience of (the only not-quite saving grace being that in this case it's self-acknowledged bullshit).
So, firstly, recumbents are expensive. They are also bulky, which makes storage difficult. The expense makes indoor storage, especially in an area of high theft-risk, which Bristol is, pretty important, but the expense of urban living, Bristol being a high example again, makes indoor space more difficult to obtain. So you have to already be a Keen Cyclist in order to be a recumbenteer.
On the second point, I'm basing my assumptions on the idea that both aerodynamics and comfort are more of a gain outside town. Aerodynamics because you tend to be riding faster out of town, and also because built-up environments tend to reduce wind speed. Comfort because journey distances tend to be shorter; it's usually less distance from home to work etc in a city than commuting into a city from the surrounding area. This factor would also reduce the gain from aerodynamics. Similarly, you rarely see a full-on aero TT bike being ridden in town. Finally on the urban question, recumbents might be considered less practical than uprights in town traffic, both for riding (harder to see over traffic) but more so for parking (I'm sure it is possible to lock one to a sheffield stand, especially with a long chain, but it would require more space either end of the stand – often lacking – and once done you're back into the risk factor).
Therefore, most recumbenteers will probably already have at least one gnuprite bike which is more likely to be used for urban riding. The recumbent will come into its own for weekend play.
But that's for a city where you can be out into the countryside in say half an hour tops. Transfer that to a place the size of London and all the parameters shift. Commutes etc are likely to be longer, therefore more benefit from the aero and comfort. It takes longer to get out of the city, so more of the weekend rides (play) are likely to be within the city. Incomes are generally a bit higher, so the extra cost of a recumbent compared to another machine is less. London specifically has a good (by British standards) network of cycle lanes, so increasing the speed benefits. And of course the larger population means you're more likely to have a shop within reach that sells or at least knows about them, and meet other people who have one, as well as lessening the outlier effect (in all walks of life!).
So, logically I'd expect higher per head 'bent ownership – or perhaps that should just be higher per cyclist bentsmanship – in say Birmingham and Glasgow than say Brighton and Gloucester. But I expect it isn't really like that at all...
