Below: Motor-Assisted Recumbent. Home built in 2000-2001, top speed 30mph, 30 gears for the rider, 6 for the motor. Can pedal, motor or both, very cushy and fun to ride. -Jim Gallant
Jim Gallant: Back-To-Back Recumbent, etc
During the winter of 1999-2000 I built this monster. It takes a leap of  faith to ride on the back and you must trust your captain. It's unnerving to go fast down hills while facing backwards. But make no mistake, this bike is fun, fun, fun and for everyone who's ridden on it, they're first reaction is to laugh nervously, then heartily as speed is reached.

There are a couple of things worth noting on this bike. The frame design uses the curved seat tubing as an integral part of the structure, providing triangulation to the frame. Also, the bottom bracket mounts are sleeves that slide on the 2" muffler pipe booms. They can be swiveled so they're either on top of the boom or the bottom.

I bought a couple pretty nice older 10-speeds and a nice chromoly Redline BMX bike at a yard sale, all for $5! I turned both 10 speeds into matching kickbicks, modelled after the ones at http://kickbike.com I keep one at work and one at home. They're GREAT for riding with young children on bikes that don't go
so fast. Everybody gets excercise that way. At work it's perfect for errands. You have to be OK with people gawking at you when you ride a kickbike. EVERYONE looks if not outright stares at you.

A few weeks ago I was doodling on a legal pad, drawing trandem designs for my 5 and 8 year old sons Max and Evan and myself. I wanted to build a trandem so we could all three go bike riding together and not end up with  kids lagging behind while Dad tries to get actual exercise. My doodles were following the standard design of most tandems with a captain in the front, but a sudden "out of the box" thought struck me, where if I was in the back with the smallest kid first, then everyone could see forward rather than having their view blocked by the person in front. Was it possible?! Should I dare spend the effort in building such a monster, risking failure due to
an unridable design? I've built numerous recumbents with cable operated steering, so I felt that wouldn't be a problem. But the length, would it be rideable? Heck it's just a long bike, right?
Well, I took some digital photos of my kids' bikes and my road bike and collaged them together in photoshop, and came up with what I felt would be a workable design. I actually had most of the stuff to build it around my
shop, so out with the reciprocating saw and welding torches. Below is the result. Note that it's painted. I only paint home built bikes if they work well, and this works great. We live .2 miles down a gravel road, so every
ride entails gravel coming and going. It's actually easy. Some concentration beyond normal riding is required, but it's fun. Max, the eldest was nervous at first, but now enjoys it. Evan the youngest, who rides in the front loved it from the start. We have several names for this bike, "Valdez" after the oil tanker, "the smile bike" because everyone smiles at us when we ride by, but I like calling it the "kid-first trandem".
Below: Motor-Assisted Recumbent. Home built in 2000-2001, top speed 30mph, 30 gears for the rider, 6 for the motor. Can pedal, motor or both, very cushy and fun to ride. -Jim Gallant