The Four-Year Plan: a Long-Wheelbase Recumbent Bicycle

I built this recumbent partly as a test-platform for some ideas I had about recumbent design and partly just to see if I could during my senior year of college.  Since my school is in the mountains, I wanted the bike to have somewhat higher ground-clearance than some other recumbent bikes that I've seen.  I also built it with fat tires in mind, since some of the fastest routes across campus aren't paved the whole way.

The frame is MIG welded together from a pair of donor bikes and a length of 1 1/2" 14-gauge square steel tubing, which was overkill, but it was the best that I could get from the local metal supplier.  In its current configuration, I'm running it as a 3x7 using salvaged Shimano Acera components and a seven-speed megadrive freewheel which gives me 24x34 in my lowest gear, giving me the range to tackle anything that the Appalachians can throw at me.

The seat is still a work-in-progress, and what you see in the pictures is a temporary solution until I have the time and resources to build a new one.