I think the the first recumbent I ever saw was in the 1983 movie "Brainstorm" in which Christopher Walken plays a scientist who also happens to ride a recumbent bicycle. But it probably wasn't until sometime in the early 1990s that I really started paying attention to recumbent bicycles.

Instead of hunching forward supporting part of their weight with their arms, recumbent riders sit back in a reclined position, feet forward with their arms relaxed. Recumbents come in many different flavors-- Some are short, squinched-up bikes with both wheels under the rider and others are long, stretched-out limousine-like machines; some have two wheels and others have three or four; some have chopper-style handlebars and others have handlebars under the seat; some are completely enclosed with fairings and others are open like ordinary bikes (see also John's Cool Bike FAQ). And everything in-between.

They're strange and exotic bicycles.

I thought, "What cool bikes!" I had to have one.

I started calling around to bike shops in Pittsburgh asking if anyone knew where I could buy a recumbent. Eventually, someone told be about Jerry Kraynick, a bike shop owner who rides a recumbent himself. I bought a Linear recumbent from Jerry and he let me assemble it myself.

I bought the Linear in 1992 (I think). I got it with above seat steering (which is no longer available from Linear). The Linear above seat handlebars were big long things, a little like the ape-hanger handlebars on a 1960s-era banana bike. It had an extreme tiller-effect-- to turn the front wheel you had to swing the handlebars from side to side.

I don't know what it why exactly, but riding the Linear with above seat handlebars seemed to make my elbow hurt as much as leaning on the handlebars of a conventional bike. Maybe I clutched the handlebars too hard. Maybe swinging the handlebars to and fro irritated my elbow. In any case, the tiller-effect made the bike feel really funny to me-- nothing like riding a real bike.

The bike sat in my basement for about five years, gathering dust.