Francis Faure rode a Velocar 45.055 km (27.9 miles) in one hour, breaking a 20 year old speed record held by Oscar Egg. Outraged, "up-right" bicycle manufacturers lobbied to have the record invalidated. In April of 1934, the Union Cycliste Internationale published a new definition of a racing bicycle that effectively banned recumbents from international bicycle competitions.

Recumbents still hold all the speed records for cycling. However, recumbents are still effectively banned from competiting against up-right bicycles in international competitions.

As a result of the 1934 racing ban, bicycle manufacturers stopped developing recumbent style bikes. We are just starting to see a resurgence of these comfortable, fast bicycles.

The Father of the Recumbent Bicycle-
Charles Mochet and his Velocar

In the early 1930s a french automobile designer by the name of Charles Mochet set out to develop a form of transportation that would be less expensive for the war torn, poor people of France. Mochet's Velocar was a four-wheeled pedal-propelled car. The cars were fast, but didn't corner well at high speed. In an effort to make the cars safer when cornering, Mochet developed a two-wheel design. Mochet wanted to prove the speed of his "2-wheeled recumbent bicycle", and convinced cyclist Francis Faure to ride the two-wheeled velocar in races. When Faure broke the one hour speed record with his recumbent, the bikes were banned from further competition.

Francis Faure breaking the 1- hour speed record in 1934, by going 45.055 km/hr (27.9 miles/hr)

Fred Markham (age 50) setting a new World Hour Record in 2006, by cranking 85.4 km (53 miles/hr) in a fully faired recumbent bicycle.