A brief digression into the history of the recumbent bike

June 5, 2023

Many people don't realise that the history of the first recumbent bikes goes back more than 100 years.

Many people don't realise that the history of the first recumbent bicycles goes back more than 100 years. After the chain drive was used for bicycle construction in the 1880s, many scientists and inventors utilised this new achievement to develop further models or variants of bicycles.

Some of these models became the first forerunners of the recumbent bike. In 1893, a French inventor created the Faulteuil Velociped with balloon tyres using the chain drive. The tyres of this vehicle are thicker than the usual tyres of a bicycle and can be ridden at a relatively low pressure of around two bar. Ferdinand Krafft's chair bicycle (1893), Drewitz's recumbent bicycle and the chair bicycle from Swiss manufacturer Challand (1895) also became the first and most important forerunners of the recumbent bicycle. Only a few years later, prototypes such as the recumbent bicycle by Mr. Darling and the Brown Recumbent. The Brown Recumbent is the forerunner of the chopper/scooter bike and was built in the USA at the turn of the century.

In 1914, the time had finally come. Peugeot built and released the first recumbent bike, which was actually produced on a large scale. This special bike was based on the aforementioned Brown recumbent. Another very successful recumbent was developed in the 1920s by Paul Jaray and was called the J-Rad. This recumbent was also produced in series and sold many times.

It was not until another ten years later that Charles Mochet and his son developed a recumbent bike that could be used successfully for sport. The so-called Velocar was able to take part in competitions at the time, as the International Cycling Union (IUC) allowed recumbents to take part in official sporting competitions. In 1933, a recumbent cyclist set a world hour record of 45,046 kilometres, which was only equalled five years later by the speed of a racing bike. However, on 1 April 1934, the IUC decided that recumbent bikes would be banned from sporting competitions from that day onwards. The following decades, especially between 1950 and 1980, saw a low point for recumbent bikes and their manufacturers. Although the bikes continued to be produced by individual dealers in small series models, demand was much lower than before 1934, partly due to the decision of the International Cycling Union. A more independent scene emerged. Especially in the post-war period, people bought recumbent bikes as they could not afford cars but still wanted to be mobile. In 1976, the I HPVA Association (International Human Powered Vehicle Association) was founded. This ensured that muscle-powered vehicles of all kinds received sufficient support. It also brought back events and competitions in which recumbent bicycles could also take part. Thanks to the possibility of taking part in sporting competitions and the many modern, technical vehicle studies, the recumbent became more popular again and therefore more in demand. The number of recumbents in use in Germany is around 30,000. These include some velomobiles, which are still regarded as the fastest human-powered vehicle.