I have both the S40 and Q45. I rode the S40 around the whole perimeter of the US a few years ago (
https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=3d2&doc_id=23455&v=2YR). The only issue I had was bad recumbutt. I have a Thor Carrier seat and on the S40, it sits up too high, putting a lot of weight on my butt. Every day I had to deal with it by stopping every 20 miles or so and walking around for 5 minutes. But even then, I had pain most of the time. I weighted about 220 lbs. When I got home I bought a Q45 and modified it to have a very low back, maybe 30 degrees. That got rid of the recumbutt, but the bike was a lot heavier, especially since I added a Rohloff Speedhub to it. After a lot of farting around, I went back to my S40, but I jury-rigged the seat to lay back to about 30 degrees. It works perfectly. No recumbutt. In this configuration, I plan to do the Southern Tier bike route and then go down Florida to the Keys and back up again on the other side. That ride starts Sept 25 from San Diego. BTW, I'm not using panniers this time. I'm using a light weight trailer with a 100 liter dry bag on it. I have lost weight (185 lbs) but headed to 165 if possible (Thank you GPL-1). The hills going around the US were murder at my weight. After the first 7500 miles around the US, I converted my S40 to an e-bike and finished the last 2500 with that. I only used the electricity when I could not get up a hill in first gear. That made the tour fun. But now I'm back to the S40 without a motor.
My opinion is at your weight, you will likely have recumbutt issues with either the unmodified S40 or Q45 if you ride more than 30 miles at a time. The Q45 is a lot easier to modify, but, like I said, it feels a lot heavier than the S40 going up hills.
Good luck,
Bill
