The History

Recumbent bicycles may seem a new invention, but the truth is that they appeared at the begining of modern cycling. Even more remarkable is that the resolutions taken regarding recumbents have affected the evolution of competitive cycling until today.

The history begins in France, in the early thirties. A French enterpreneur named Charles Mochet was building small pedal-cars called Velocar. They selled well due to the economical crisis after First World War. At that time real cars were luxury vehicles. The velocars had body, four wheels, and their two passangers had to pedal to move the vehicle, which could reach quite speed. To improve eficiency and also stability into the curves, Mochet created a model with two wheels and only one passanger. As a result he obteined a bicycle with superior aerodynamics compared to traditional ones.

A profesional cyclist called Francis Faure decided to change the traditional bicycle for Mochet’s Velocar. Thanks to the superiority of his new machine, he was unbeatable at the competitions, defeating all the best european cyclists. After some records, they decided to conquer the hour record. Previously Mochet asked the UCI, which had no impediment in the use of the Velocar. On July 7, 1933, Faure set a new world hour record. The polemic was served when in August 29th Maurice Richard, with a traditional bicycle beat also the preceding hour record, but without surpassing Faure’s time.

This was the disscusion matter during the 58th UCI Congress, in 3rd Febrary, 1934. The opinions regarding the Velocar were as diverse as representatives were present. Finally the ‘traditional’ members where stronger, and they set the Maurice’s record as the official one and made new vehicle design rules to eliminate the Velocar from the competitions. This attitude has been present until nowadays, and design rules have became harder, eliminating almost all attempts to make evolve the design of road bicycles. Technology and materials have progress greatly but the overall design has remain as it was in 1930.

Fortunately some pionering manufacturers are recovering and developing the recumbent cycling due to the advantages it has over traditional cycling. At MetaBikes we follow the enterpreneur attitude of Charles Mochet, creating high performance machines that make a difference.