So I just recently began looking at making my own velomobile and I designed a prone position reverse trike. I was having trouble converting my design into real dimensions and decided to look and see if anyone else had already built something similar. When I did I found that there were practically zero examples of a prone velomobile. What i'm asking is why everybody goes for the standard laying down position, and why nobody goes for the prone position?
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2At a guess (hence comment) - its hard to hold your head up in a "superman" type position for long ?– Criggie ♦Commented Jan 12, 2020 at 8:07
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2Agree with Criggie. Also, you don’t want to use your head as a bumper.– Adam RiceCommented Jan 12, 2020 at 14:41
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2One example is Obree’s Beastie: cyclingweekly.com/news/graeme-obree-the-beastie-boy-19142– AndrewCommented Jan 12, 2020 at 17:17
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1Your knees move to front as you bend them, so a prone position will put your kneecaps much closer to the asphalt than the corresponding layed-back position does. This will tend to move your center of gravity up.– cmaster - reinstate monicaCommented Jan 12, 2020 at 22:47
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2And, you need something on both ends of your legs to push against. On a bike, it's the weight of your body that your legs push against, on a recumbent it's the seat. If you go to prone position, you will need to put your shoulders against something to avoid moving to the front.– cmaster - reinstate monicaCommented Jan 12, 2020 at 22:49
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1 Answer
There are some belly down 'recumbent' bikes.
I was recently pointed to this video 'Go Aero With The Bird Of Prey' Which lead to a no longer existing website for the 'Bird of Prey' bicycles.
And I vaguely remember having seen an other belly down cycle in the past, which also seemed rather uncomfortable.
So yes, open belly down laydown bikes do exist but are not popular and hardly known even in the recumbent world. I have never heard about a velomobile in that configuration and I followed a lot of links around the time when I saw the vid I linked above and I also read and see a lot on velomobiles, I have never heard about a road one for sale that is belly down. I did not check out Battle Mountain over the years. There are some very fast bikes there, fully faired, which will never been seen on the road. Here is a [link to an information page about that event.] 2 You can use that as a start of your own further searches.
