LWB DIY Recumbent Bicycle Build

I thought this was about building a recumbent bicycle?
You’re right- I’m digressing. But to understand why I decided to build a recumbent bicycle, it’s important to see how I got to this point. When I was about 14, I injured my right shoulder in PE at school, and it was in a sling for weeks. About 18 years later this caught up with me, and my shoulder couldn’t take the pressure of riding an upright bicycle. It was time for a change.

Recumbent bicycles that can handle someone as big as I am are prohibitively expensive. A conservative estimate would be about $3000 USD . I didn’t, and don’t, have that kind of money. So I did what any totally insane person would do.

I built one.

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Getting Started and counting the cost
First, I had to decide what to build. I needed plans, and a support system. My main resource was AtomicZombie.com, where you can learn how to do exactly what I did. The bicycle I chose to build was the Meridian long wheelbase recumbent bicycle. Their forums are awesome with Brad (the owner) being very helpful along the way when I ran into a glitch or two of my own doing.

I had several bicycles laying around, and picked up some cheap/free bikes for parts.

The only things I had to buy new were 3 bicycle chains, steel, grinding/welding supplies and brake/shifter cabling. Oh, and seat foam and fabric from a local shop.

Tooling up for the recumbent build
Atomic Zombie’s site says you need a hand grinder, some basic hand tools and a welder. With those tools, anyone can build a recumbent bicycle. Really? Yeah. Really.

I didn’t have any of these tools, so spent some money at Harbor Freight for the grinding supplies. A drill and other basic tools were already on hand. What I didn’t have was a welder. What was I to do about that?

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I built one.

Yeah, I built a welder. It’s actually pretty easy to do, and if you’re not afraid of electricity and have half a brain about safety, then I’d recommend that you build one too. Building stuff is fun!

A neighbor recommended I try 7014 rods, and those worked beautifully. 6013’s are very good as well, and both have their uses. I was pretty surprised by how easy it was to learn to weld, but I have to admit that I made plenty of mistakes. I spent a lot of time grinding out welds and redoing them!

Building a LWB Recumbent Bicycle
Now that I had all the tools, spare bicycles, and plans, it was time to get started. When putting together such a project, embarking on a new adventure, there comes a point when you’re ready to make the first cut- the first weld. It’s nerve wracking, but it’s worth it! Here are some pictures of the build and the final product. Scroll all the way down for some information about how it rode and how I accidentally tested it up to almost 50 miles per hour!

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One thing you can notice about this recumbent bicycle. It is long! The length turned out to be the largest problem with this bicycle. As it’s designed, it uses a 20″ front wheel. I did not have a 20″ front wheel and so I used what I had, which was a 26″. I did this the “dirty” way in the sense that I just added length to the front tube to make up for the difference. One issue with a Long Wheelbase Recumbent bicycle is that the weight distribution is not very good. The majority of the weight is on the rear wheel, and therefore most of the braking happens on the rear wheel as well. This also makes the front end very light, and even a little bit twitchy.

I added Linear pull brakes front and rear, but unfortunately the front brake was all but ineffective. The rear brake worked fine on level ground around town, but on longer downhills was woefully inadequate!

Braking Bad
I found this out the hard way. In the last ...

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