The Pedersen is a famous old bike design from the 1800’s which is still made today and which has a global cult following.
The bike is very comfortable. Yet all suspension is passive.
The position is upright, yet races have been won on variants — perhaps they had a racing position.
They’ve even been built as light as 10 lbs! I suppose it’s the many tiny frame tubes that allow this. Very thin-wall tubes can provide enough strength in a truss set-up, with forces optimized to allow flex where suitable and rigidity only where it’s most needed.
The models most often used today are citybikes.
Pedersen was a prolific inventor back in the day, but was a bit slow off the mark. He earned big royalties and had financial backing but it all fell apart. He had a hub gear that competed with Sturmey-Archer — but was, as usual, a bit slow in development.
I’d long known of the bike but had never seen one until I was at a party in Ann Arbor the other night, and there it was, leaning against a gate.
Wow!
The owner kindly let me ride it around. Very comfy, indeed!
Here’s a link to the US representative’s website…
https://www.pedersenbicycles.com/
Perhaps it can be operated like a foot forward semirecumbent bike. Those can be very fast.