My two cents. It seems to me that your main motivation for changing to a recumbent bike is comfort. That was my reason, too. I have a Sun EZ-1 AX, which I started riding mid-June this year. After surveying the recumbent spectrum, I decided that the Easy Racers style of bikes is for me because of the more upright riding position. I like sitting up, looking out at the world as I ride, without craning my head forward from a more extreme reclined torso position. The Bachetta Giro has a high crank position with more reclined seat, causing the rider to tilt the head forward on the spine to compensate for the reclined torso. That doesn't look like the natural head position that humans have evolved. If your motivation is speed, then sure, get a more reclined style of bike for its streamlining. But if you want comfort, the more upright seating seems better to me. I ordered my bike with a front fairing, so I get plenty of streamlining to cut down on wind resistance going into headwinds and speeding downhill. Some will complain that the upright position puts more weight on their butt than the more reclined seat which distributes weight on seat and back, but the broad seat still gives good comfort in the upright position without having to tilt the head unnaturally forward. I've ridden my bike about 450 miles so far and like it even better now than when I first started. I was out of shape for bike riding, so it took a while to get muscled up for the hills I have to climb around my home. The initial wobbly start-up has given way to a more stable take-off since my sense of balance on this bike has improved an my leg power gives enough force to start at a steady, secure speed ramp-up.
I wouldn't write off the Sun line of recumbent bikes. I chose the EZ-1 AX because it has a short enough wheelbase that it fits on my small-car roof rack with some simple extensions I bolted onto the existing bike rack, it's light enough for me to lift by myself onto the rack, it has an upright seating posture which has ample adjustment for rider height and desired seat back recline, it has reasonably good components, comes from a company that has been around and will likely stay in business for as long as I own the bike (unlike many recumbent manufacturers, who seem to crash and burn after an initial startup and honeymoon period), it can carry quite a lot of cargo using the available rear rack and under-seat pannier racks, and of course, the price was reasonable for my first recumbent experience. I find that the bike handles even better when loaded than when light. I enjoy making shopping trips, picking up about 20 pounds of groceries with no problem using the under-seat "townie bags" and small rear panniers that I bought from www.nashbar.com. (If you get those bags, I have a tip that helps support the weight so the townie bags don't droop too far. Ask me by email if interested.)
Sun Bicycles has an extensive lineup of styles, from the more reclined, higher crank, long racer Tomahawk (patterned from the Easy Racers Javelin) to the semi-recumbent comfort bike style to several recumbent trikes. If you want even more range, then Easy Racers itself fills out the upper end all the way to the titanium long wheel base bike. Sun licensed the design of several of their bikes from Easy Racers.
Another factor to consider carefully is the type of terrain you'll be riding. My bike has a 20" rear wheel, which gives a lower range of gear-inches with the same gear sets as a larger wheel bike. That is, my lowest gear is about 17 gear-inches, which makes hill climbing easier and more do-able for me than other bikes that emphasize speed more than hill climbing and therefore have a lowest gear in the 23 gear-inch vicinity. I rarely use the lowest gear, but when I need it for a steep grade, it's there, and I've used it on occasion. The EZ-1 AX goes up to about 90 gear inches at the top end, which is adequate for me to go about 25 mph with reasonable cranking cadence on level ground, much faster on downhills. That's fast enough for me. Most of the time I toodle along at 12 to 15 mph. Bikes with 26" or larger rear wheels usually have an upper gear-inch range around 130 or more, which gives faster speed at the same cadence. If you are touring, do you really want to blaze by the countryside as fast as possible, or is a safer moderate speed better? My preference is to enjoy the ride from A to B, not just to get there as fast as possible, so the EZ-1 AX does me fine. (I don't recommend the EZ-1 SX steel version because the gear range is not as broad and the bike is heavier with cheaper components. The difference in cost to get the aluminum AX is worth it.) But if I were planning to travel hundreds of miles over moderate terrain, the higher gear-inch bike would make more sense. If I were planning to compete in races, then the more reclined posture of a high crank bike would make sense.
Before you make your purchase decision, think about the way you want to use the bike.
