You can ride recumbent bikes --"bents" to enthusiasts -- with a wheelbase shorter than 45 inches in two ways: You can buy one or build one. The popularity of short wheelbase, or SWB, recumbent bikes stems from its convenience in transporting and storing such a small, human-powered vehicle. SWB bikes also have a shorter turning radius and can be more maneuverable than longer recumbents, according to The Bicycle Man. SWBs come in many styles.
Two-Wheeler SWBs
Examples of SWB recumbent bicycles include a series of Azub units, manufactured in the Czech Republic, and a U.S. model that may have wider North American availability -- the Rans V-Rex LE, made in Kansas. The V-Rex sports a wheelbase of 42.75 inches. Most definitions of SWB include any bike with a wheelbase less than 45 inches. However, all SWBs are not the same. Some offer handlebars below the rider's seat and some above. Other variations include 26-inch rear wheels and 20-inch or smaller front wheels, or variations on size and placement, according to Recumbent Bikes For You. Adjustable booms can allow forward extension of the pedals for riders with longer legs. Your choice of these different features is best made after a test ride.
SWB Trikes
A visit to bike shops and recumbent bike websites will show that two-wheeled and three-wheeled versions are usually grouped together for recumbent biking enthusiasts. The low-riding similarity of these units often overrides differences between two and three wheels in the human-powered vehicle, or HPV, sports world. If you appreciate recumbent riding on an SWB vehicle, you can consider a unit like the TerraTrike Zoomer. This unit has a wheelbase of only 36 inches, with an optional extension package that elongates it to 37.5 inches to accommodate a switch from the standard 20-inch rear wheel to a 26-inch wheel.
Build It
You can adjust the wheelbase of your home-built SWB recumbent rider by following the plans and step-by-step instructions of either the Yben Brooklyn Info schematics, if you enjoy machining your own custom parts, or the detailed Steampunk Workshop layout for cannibalizing other bikes for their high-tech and specialized parts. However, as Steampunk says, even using previously manufactured parts, you will still have to modify dimensions like fork length, shock-spring length and others. But this creates the advantage of customization of wheelbase length and other factors.
Handling and Speed
Your short wheelbase recumbent bike places the front wheels approximately beneath your knees or between your knees and your upright seat back, with your feet and pedals ahead of everything else. Your body mechanics in this position greatly favor efficient energy transfer to the pedals combined with tight turning radius maneuverability, further enhanced by a low center of gravity not typical of an upright bike. This combination in an SWB recumbent makes these units the high-speed stars of the cycling world, especially on tortuous tracks where turns would otherwise force greater slowing.
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