For a long time, while doing my commuter traffic with a regular touring bike, the idea grew that my route ( 30 km / 18.5 miles to and from ) was ideal for a recumbent bike. The route is virtually without any obstacle, no hills, no traffic lights, no roundabouts, almost everywhere I ride on a mayor road and a few miles on a canaldike-road. When the oppertunity came along that I could test a old recumbent bike for a few weeks, my determination only grew. I had to have one for myself. After the testingperiod I started looking everywhere on the internet for information, especially the pages of www.ligfiets.net ( a Dutch language recumbent site ) were frequented oftenly and thoroughly, including the discussion-archive.
I also browsed all sites from recumbent manufacturers and DIY-builders and studied every possible design they made. In 2005 I went to my first Cyclo Vision event at Zandvoort (the Netherlands, Europe), to go and see a lot of bikes upclose and also to test ride them. There were a lot of pretty bikes at the show, but this also strengthened my belief that I had to design and built my own bike. Other factors that influenced this decision were; my lifelong experience tinkering with bikes, the costs and maybe the most important; my good relationship with different metalprocessing-companies that all could help out in creating my bike. The concept of DIY is ofcourse relative, no one is going to make their own chainrings, brake-cables, or other parts that can be readily purchased, the real challenge is of course to design and construct the seat and the frame. This site is all about that; I illustrated every step along the way with plenty of pictures. Also I made notes about my ideas, workflow, productiondetails and experiences during and after building. I sincerely hope you enjoy this site.
In dutch a recumbent is called a ligfiets (lig=lying and fiets=bicycle). In Limburg, the part of Holland where I live, a ligfiets is called a liqfits, so my bike and website is called LIQFITS.