Looking at the photos and trying to understand how a person would comfortably drive it, I figured I must be missing something.

So I looked up photos with a person inside and no, it really is that bad [0]. Pure form over function.

Uncomfortable, yes. That's bad enough. But you hands are far back under your center of gravity. Any crash over a few km/hr is going to result in a faceplant because there's no way you'll bring your hands forward fast enough. Top speed of 24km/hr is enough to cause serious... death by head trauma.

[0] https://www.autocar.co.uk/sites/autocar.co.uk/files/styles/g...

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riffraff 18 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's a recumbent trike, this sort of design seems to still exist today, so presumably it works somehow.

https://www.rad-innovations.com/blog-our-news/about-recumben...

	▲	esperent 12 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Just because they're niche popular doesn't mean they're a good idea. That said the position of the people on those trikes doesn't look nearly as bad as the C5. I have occasionally seen continental European tourists on those in Ireland. They struck me as a really bad idea for another reason. They're very low to the ground, which is probably good for aerodynamics but terrible for visibility for people in trucks, busses etc. There's no way I would cycle one on any normal road. Some people do have a small flag sticking up but I don't think that's enough.
	▲	pjmlp 18 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Quite common to spot them in Germany or Netherlands.

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appplication 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

C5, named after the vertebra most likely to snap in a low speed collision with a moderate caused pothole.