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So - on a recumbent, "no wasted effort" means getting more done for the same effort, or getting the same results from less effort.
Dropping the "politeness" here a little: When corporate sponsors stick to the old designs, the cycleing public "catches" it (quite literally in this case) right square in the backside.
Because of its relatively high center of gravity, and seating position, the BOOMERTrikeTM is a recreational vehicle, not a racing machine. But the fact remains that when it comes to effort, you still get more for less.
Curiously, recumbent bicycles have been around since about the middle of the 1800's.
So why haven't we heard more about them? Why do we think of them as "odd" or "kind of goofy-looking"? Hold onto your hat - we need look no further than the French version of the "Golden Rule"; that is - "Him as got the gold makes the rules". (Or is that just the cycnical version?)
As with most human activity, some form of competiton or racing is going to eventually get organized. And "organized" - by its very definition - means "rules" and "standards". And the guys making most of the bicycles were making vertical diamond-frame bicycles.
Never mind that recumbents are more comfortable than wedgie bikes, they are a heap more efficient. Read that: "a heap faster".
It would not do to have a bicycle manufacturer sponsor a race only to have its bikes "smoked" by the recumbents. So they made rules against that very thing. Had that not been the case, what we now think of as "traditional" would be goofy and odd.
What Lance Armstrong accomplished in the "Tour de France" is all the more meaningful because he did all that with an inferior machine.
Anyone up for a little "Tour de Farce"?.
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