Hello from kMike

The Velokraft VK2 is a high performance recumbent bike. I ride mainly for sport and do little commuting in any vehicle since I work online from my home office almost 100% of the time. I bought it mainly to get some relief for my neck after my doctor advised that several of the discs in my neck were in bad shape and needed a very long break from the aerobars on my tri-bike - maybe even forever! I wanted the best performing road recumbent out there and I believe I have found it.

As an engineering student back in the 80s I had been involved in several HPV projects and fell in love with the beauty, elegance and minimalist techology of cycling. To this day my favorite expression is: "less is more" followed closely by "small is beautiful"

It's been 15 years since I rode a recumbent and I was impressed to see that many of the little companies that had started out back in the 1980s were still around. I also found many new companies including Velokraft of Poland. I ended up buying a VK2 low racer from Velokraft mainly because I wanted an ultra-light, ultra-stiff carbon fibre frameset that would climb well.

Frame design
I knew as an engineer that the integrated seat on the VK2 would add a lot of lateral stiffness to the frame without affecting vertical compliance and comfort. It was also among the lightest frame sets on the market. My engineering sense is that most recumbent frames and seats are far too flexible when compared to their DF brethren and this results in greater power loss especially when climbing. To make matters worse a RWD recumbent must also transmit power across the entire length of its frame from the riders feet out in front all the way back to the rear wheel. This takes enough chain to decorate a Christmas tree and comes with about a 600 gram weight penalty. (I'm anxious to test and possibly create a FWD configuration but that will have to wait for another time.)

I also wanted a low racer layout since this appears to be most aerodynamic and will get me to the hill before my club mates. I won't be riding this bike - or any bike - in city traffic.