Originally Posted by
rubiksoval
If you're purely worried about speed, you should go to slowtwitch.com and revel in the "last race how fast on how many watts?" thread. There's so much more to going fast then just putting the power to the pedals.
Discussions change in interesting ways as you get towards more aero-optimized configurations.
The difference between road bikes and performance-oriented recumbents is that riders of the former brag about how many watts they deliver, while riders of the latter brag about how few watts they need to deliver to accomplish something.