RecyclerViews are fine to put in ScrollViews so long as they aren't scrolling themselves. In this case, it makes sense to make it a fixed height.

The proper solution is to use `wrap_content` on the RecyclerView height and then implement a custom LinearLayoutManager that can properly handle the wrapping.

Copy this LinearLayoutManager into your project: https://github.com/serso/android-linear-layout-manager/blob/master/lib/src/main/java/org/solovyev/android/views/llm/LinearLayoutManager.java

Then wrap the RecyclerView:

 <android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView
 android:layout_width="match_parent"
 android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>

And set it up like so:

 RecyclerView list = (RecyclerView)findViewById(R.id.list);
 list.setHasFixedSize(true);
 list.setLayoutManager(new com.example.myapp.LinearLayoutManager(list.getContext()));
 list.setAdapter(new MyViewAdapter(data));

Edit: This can cause complications with scrolling because the RecyclerView can steal the ScrollView's touch events. My solution was just to ditch the RecyclerView in all and go with a LinearLayout, programmatically inflate subviews, and add them to the layout.