Do not attempt to explore any of these design limits on anything but your own property. Remember that some recumbents that you might come across, will be custom built, or homebuilt, or custom homebuilt. There may be a much higher price for breaking one of these than a simple dollar amount. Recently, a friend told me of an experience that he had encountered with a stranger trying his recumbent tricycle on for size, without this friend's permission, or knowledge. There are several key words to note here, like - recumbent tricycle, stranger, and without permission or knowledge.
Recumbent tricycles are very rare as it is.
This particular tricycle was one that I had custom built for this particular friend, making it virtually irreplaceable. The stranger in this story, plopped his butt down onto this trike while it was parked, and the owner was not in the immediate vicinity. When my friend came back to his trike, the stranger was holding the brakes and pushing very forcibly on the cranks. My friend made it very clear what not to do on his trike, and if that stranger is smart, he'll stay away from Northbrook for a year or so, change his name, maybe get some plastic surgery to alter his looks. Maybe it would be more poignant to put it another way.