Now I've finished building my trike, I'm considering building a recumbent bike.
I've not ridden a recumbent bike, so I would have to learn on this - I think the ultimate aim would be to do some commuting and "gravel" riding on it. I'm aware that the normal advice would be to buy a secondhand recumbent, try it for a bit and then refine my choices from there, but I'd like a project to work on, and I think I could build either of these bikes for under £100 using the content of my garage! Ultimately, (especially because the steel tube I have is pretty heavy) whatever I build is going to be a first iteration, I'm just trying to work out the most suitable direction of travel...
I was originally planning on building a 20-26 stick bike based on the Atomic Zombie Spirit -
https://www.atomiczombie.com/spirit-short-wheelbase-recumbent-diy-plan/ but with rear suspension (means I can use an existing rear triangle). I have many of the parts I need to build it (steel, front wheel, fork and brake, rear triangle) as I've been thinking about this for a while. However, I have recently become aware of the Azub Max, which has 26" wheels front and back and looks to my mind a lot more like a mountain bike version of a recumbent.
https://azub.eu/recumbent-bikes-and-trikes/recumbents/max/ I could build the basic frame and strip my current MTB for bits (and I have a different rear triangle that would suit it), but I don't have plans so would have to make my own and wing it a bit more.
I built the trike because I always wanted a Speedy, but I've realised that I just have no use case for it. I'm hoping that as bikes are much more usable, (and I should be riding more for transport soon) the new project can actually get used on a regular basis, but that will only be true if I build the right one (hence not creating a lowracer!).