was it something I did wrong?

[20" is king]

BEnt Upright, I HAVE had back trouble caused by riding recumbents. This was caused by forcing my shoulders into the top of a hardshell seat and sprinting and mashing at the pedals. The seat was quite narrow at that point and my shoulders just sat squonky on it.
I only just got back on it after an 18 month break. I wont be riding it like that anymore. But I dont feel like I'm passed 'it' or anything melodramatic like that.
No, I just am older than I was and not able to absorb the physical abuse that I used to inflict on myself for the pleasure of 40mph on the flat.

Another pain I occaisionally experience is similar to your Piriformitis.
It comes on sometimes if I ride along no handed on my upright for a period of a couple of minutes. I know that my lower back is somewhat stiff and always assumed that this was upsetting something in my SI joint. Chiro normally sorts it out, that and not riding no handed.

Have you tried putting flat bars on your road bike? This will allow a fairly upright position without forcing you to bend forwards, helping you to keep a nice straight and stretched back. Also you should be extending the stretch in a nice straight line up your spine, perhaps this is what you meant by sreatching your back?

You say that you are interested in a trike? I have some experience fitting recumbent trikes to folks with disabilities and have these things to offer in advice.

1. Make sure that you use one with a good degree of adjust ment to the mesh seat. Dont use a hard shell.
2. A relatively high pedal position would be better that a lower position for your epilepsy. You should try to get one that sits you snugly 'in' rather than 'on' the trike. This way when you PM you will be be in a more supported position and are less likely to fall out.
3. Get one with an adjustable angle on the seat. Again this is to help prevent you from toppling out in the event of a PM.

If I were to suggest a particular trike it would be the the Hase Kettwiesel,
Adjustable angled seat, adjustable tension mesh seat, fairly high pedals, available with a differential ( as its delta - not tadpole ), better turning circle than any tadpole. I should say I'm a little biased. I ride one. But the above is still true.

I look forward to updates on your progress!

 

[20" is king]

And yes, do use a clipless pedal, but not one with completely unsprung realease mechanisms, a la speedplay.

Why not? Well you do want them to release if you DO fall out. The speedplay has such a wide range of movement before it realeases that its possible to get dumped out of a trike recumbent but still have your feet securely held.
You dont want snapped ankles too. ;-)

 

[NORECUMYET]

I have been leading a 'car-free' cycling life for about two years now, morphing between road and recumbent bikes.
The question NOW is, should I DITCH the recumbents (Haluzak Horizon, Lightning Thunderbolt, Rotator Pursuit) all together? I tried the Thunderbolt today and, even after shortening the tube a bit, I still 'got that feeling' a little AFTER I rode it. Even though I attribute the 'back' problem to a poor set-up on the ROAD bike, the question still remains in MY mind: Could this be the 'Dirty little secret' of recumbency, or do I need adjustments THERE as well? Or do I need to pick either (road OR recumbent), and CHUCK the other, to be relegated to one FOR EVER?

The question NOW is, should I DITCH the recumbents (Haluzak Horizon, Lightning Thunderbolt, Rotator Pursuit) all together? I tried the Thunderbolt today and, even after shortening the tube a bit, I still 'got that feeling' a little AFTER I rode it. Even though I attribute the 'back' problem to a poor set-up on the ROAD bike, the question still remains in MY mind: Could this be the 'Dirty little secret' of recumbency, or do I need adjustments THERE as well? Or do I need to pick either (road OR recumbent), and CHUCK the other, to be relegated to one FOR EVER?

I would appreciate any comments, experiences similar to this (namely the sciatica/piriformis syndrome), and how others came through this ordeal. As for me, it presently looks like the road bike, with less time on the '52 chainring .

I am currently 46 years of age and understand injuries and sporting very well. From my experience I would tell you not to get rid of the recumbents. Even when I was literally twenty years younger I had a shoulder injury that kept me from being able to bench press more than fifty pounds or so. For some reason this injury allowed me to do all sorts of flys so luckily I was able to keep my chest strong and sculpted. I tried every six months or so to bench press a normal weight with no luck.
Finally, one day about three years after the original injury, I tried the bench press again and to my delight the pain was completely gone. Over the course of the next few weeks I was again benching 300 lbs. To make a long story short, even a young, healthy, and very much in shape man may take a very long time to heal certain injuries. The fact that your recums cause you discomfort now doesn't mean that they will forever.
So unless there's some sort of real monetary advantage to getting rid of the recumbents, I say......keep 'em!