Originally Posted by
rollagain
That certainly wasn't the case with me. I've wanted a recumbent delta trike from the first time I knew they existed, and maybe before that, and back then I'd been riding uprights and enjoying them a great deal. I just couldn't afford one; they all cost about as much as a good used car back then--if you could find one. I've still never seen one in the wild, though I don't get around much. For that matter, I've never seen a tadpole trike in the wild yet either, and the only recumbent I've seen being used was on a rail-trail; some guy on a Rans LWB model.
So maybe my brain is wired a little differently, but aside from that, you can't go into most bike shops these days without seeing at least one tadpole prominently displayed, so if the upright riders aren't thinking about 'bents, maybe it's because they aren't looking.
And that brings the argument back to price again: for about $600 you can come out of your LBS with a very decent, reliable upright in the style of your choice, but it'll cost you twice that for an entry-level tadpole. These days, I think a lot of the people planning to spend that much are going for an e-bike instead.
I guess it depends where you live. I live in the Bay Area and actually there are very few recumbent shops. And not one of my lbs has a recumbent of any kind on the floor. in fact, i ended up buying a recumbent trike blindly as i could not easily find a shop to see them, without driving more than an hour to get to it. So for this major urban area, you're not going to see recumbents when you go to your local shop. i guess every area is different. The other factor, I think, is that recumbents (trikes anyway) are not as easily used on public transit for commuters compared to DF, and require a bit more space to lock up. They don't fit in the Bart lockers at our Bart stations and cannot easily be taken on trains so not a commuter choice and many folks have one bike for commuting and recreation. Now maybe if there had been a recumbent 2 wheeler in the shops around me I might have tried it out - I certainly have no great love for regular bike seats, lol. Even the most comfortable one is not as comfy as a recumbent seat. They don't make them anymore but i recently learned Bike Friday used to make a folding recumbent 2 wheeler - would have been awesome to have had one of those to consider in my DF days.