Pretty good concept. Why not also fair the bars/brake levers, chain ring, and rear mech?

minus the motor, I would welcome bikes like this into competitions. (I might even watch people compete if if weren't for UCI rules)

I would totally love to log some miles on that!!

So, it's "designed without UCI restrictions in mind", yet it's still an upright? And it's intentionally not a diamond frame just to shirk UCI restrictions, even though that would actually make it stronger and lighter most likely (unless they're trying to get some sort of suspension effect, but then there would be better ways to do that, I believe).
Then again, it's Specialized, and they make their money off of uprights, not recumbents, so they can't exactly make a recumbent concept if they're not going to make recumbents.

I love the idea of "flipping off" the UCI since, as the article says, very few bicyclists compete in UCI sanctioned events.

Come on, Specialized. You're one of the biggest bike companies in the US. Show some chutzpah. Instead of this baby step of an unrideable one-off show bike, let's see a full Specialized streamliner at the IHPVA Speed Challenge at Battle Mountain. With your R&D, you should be able to smash the land speed record with 85mph. Or a practical production velomobile, designed better than the handbuilt ones made by garage inventors and tiny manufacturers, at less than $3000 since you can leverage economies of scale and promotional resources that they can't.

That radically new, and nicely finished, design was done by one man in 6 months? Incredible!

they are trying to make a streamliner that one person can ride without a crew to help that person get into the streamliner. what is the point here? nothing every practical comes out of this. no practical vehicle can routinely travel up 30mph without suspension of any kind. why? bumps and speed do not get along together well, that's why. if they design a rigid suspension into this system, i would say they were being serious aout making something practical. this DOES look awesome though.

On a standard frame, the most highly stressed spot is just above the bottom bracket. I see that Specialized has provided air there to resist the pedal forces. A Zipper front fairing, covering the hands and arms is much more effective, too. This is a sculpture for rich bike nuts.

Why all the animosity toward UCI? Why not just present a new design and discuss its merits and possibilities in their own right. Not very professional of Specialized to whine and be vulgar about it.