Terry Gerweck's new recumbent

TERRY GERWECK intended his new recumbent as an around-town errand runner. He's shown here at the Michigan HPV Rally. He is a co-founder of the MHPVA.

Terry Gerweck of Monroe built his first recumbent about 30 years ago and several since then, but hadn't built anything in recent years, but has now made up for the deficit. He had his latest recumbent in unfinished form at the MHPVA winter meeting in February. Except for a few refinements, it's now done. He had it at the Michigan HPV Rally June 12-13, where these photos were taken.
Here's Terry's description:
The bike was designed (I dislike that term) as a 'round town errand runner with a reasonably upright seating position and as short a wheelbase as possible on a long wheelbase recumbent with a 20-inch front and 26-inch rear wheel.



I wanted to get away from tiller steering to simplify mounting of a small fairing eventually. Besides, I like the way remote steering feels.
The bike should accommodate inseams from 28 to 32 inches. Seat height is 23 inches and wheelbase is 64 inches.
It is truly a recycled bike, with frame parts from five or six bikes, home furniture, and commercial store fixtures. Seat parts include used seat parts and assorted wheelchair parts. (Editor: The seat bottom is from a used Sun EZ-1 recumbent. Terry made the seat back.) Drive and other components are from the assorted collection of accumulated parts in my garage.
The crankset, a Campagnolo Record triple, is worth more than the rest of bike. Pedals also are Campagnolo.
Paintings was done using rattle/spray cans. The color scheme just happened. The stem I used was already green, so I picked out a can of matching gloss engine enamel from AutoZone for the accents. The rest of the frame was covered with satin black Rustoleum. Satin covers a whole host of "less than perfect" preparations and still has a serviceable finish that a flat paint lacks.


TERRY PREFERS this remote steering, using universal joints, over a conventional handlebars/stem arrangement, which can result in a "tiller" effect.