Just got home from the North Dakota CANDISC ride. Out of 430 or so riders there were maybe 30 - 50 bents of various types. I've ridden several years now and I think this is the largest percentage yet! I sure didn't get the impression that bents were slower than uprights or ridden by older riders either. They seemed to perform just like DF bikes. Like the upright bikes, the faster recumbents were driven by younger more competitive 'engines' and most of the rest fitted in the whole average spectrum of performance, seemingly more depending on the rider than the type of bike. They seemed to cover the miles about the same as the uprights. One thing that did impress me were the questions that the upright bikers had of the recumbent bikers. Lots of them went home intending to try out recumbents partly because of interest, but a lot because of comfort issues! A lot of questions were why the bents seemed to slow down on hills and were passed by upright bikers, but were passed on the flats and downhills by the same bents. I explained to a lot of upright bikers why I find it difficult to ride mile after mile with an upright because of the difficulty keeping up on hills and keeping back on flats and downhills.
I wonder how many bents will show up next year?