On Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:49:29 -0700 (PDT)
" wrote:

Recumbents are a pretty rare sight in the U.K.?

Yes. Except for planned meetings or organised rides, I could count
them each year without taking my shoes off. Yesterday as I locked mine
up at the supermarket a guy with an American accent [1] asked about it,
saying he'd never seen one before. He did have a bike but had never
seen clipless pedals either, so I suppose that makes him typical
quasi-cycling public.


U.S. recumbent cyclists are similar to the Dutch. They seem to be
good-natured and friendly to eachother. It's like we're a part of some
secret club.

Yup, always wave; sometimes stop for a chat.


I understand the difficulty of riding recumbent in a city that has
designed for the upright. I be a lot of that is changing?

Not that I can see right here. And Amsterdam won't change from that
aspect either. The streets are not designed to be bike friendly, more
tram friendly if anything, it's just that bikes are so numerous they
overwhelm almost everything else. Other places that had to be more
extensively rebuilt 60 years ago, such as Rotterdam, have a lot more
bike provision.



[1] Two large USAF bases nearby.



Mike
--
Mike Causer