BKXray

To me, the big reasons to want to improve recumbents market share are; 1) price, 2) availability, 3) more models. If they become more than specialized low volume machines then the price will drop accordingly. The number of shops carrying bents will increase making it easier to try different models instead of wondering if a bike will work for you. More manufacturers will get in the game and there will be more bent models to choose from. Wouldn't it be great to have to choose from 20-30 quality bents under $1000?

squirl

I havent read this thread yet but from an outsiders perspective, I just purchased my first bet tonight ( a trike) I would say its the images on the internet that most swayed me from buying a recumbent. I was looking for a trike and 90% of the pictures that come up are old, disabled guys and wifes with back problems or some other ailment. Where are the people like me that have been Mtn and road biking for years that finnally realize that bents are efficient, or like my trike, just fun. I say get more pics out there that dont have some guy on a super low fast recumbent in riding tights but get pics of regular people , converts, in real world cenarios, commuting to work or out for a good week end ride. Bent arent just for older folks. Post your pics where they will count.

squirl

Now I have read the theread I still feel it is an image proplem. When twenty somethings want to find out what kind of mode of transportaion is 'cool' or new they look to google. If the images that come up are 'g*y'.......... then they sluff it off and look for somthing else. I think they sould be shown images of cross country rides and hard core commutes on recumbents with some weekend speed rides with people that arent ' grey haired baggy weirdos on some funny bike but istead people that are pushing the boundaries into the fututre of efficient human powared vehicles. its all about image, if the people on this site would post pics where they can be found I believe the next generation could be easily convinced of the practicality of these 'wierd' bikes.

This is just the toughts of an outsider biker that has seen the light of the efficiency and fun of recumbents.

Saturate the stream and you will become mainstream -

Elkhound

The UCI will not change; why should they? They have the right to manage their sport however they want.

What recumbent promotors should do is start a rival organization to sponsor recumbents only events parallel with the big UCI events.

Ceaddam

1) Price
I've been trying to find an affordable recumbent for 2 weeks now, that's the first problem. As long as I can buy any old standard bike for $70.00, I really have to be convinced to buy a BIKE for the price of a cruise. Yes, I've already read quite a few, "Well SOME people are just too CHEAP to buy a RECUMBENT. You get what you PAY for!" Yes, and for over $600.00, I expect it to be a fabulous bike but I'm hearing that the EZ-1 uses cheap hardware.

2) Smug
I've read a ton of bad snotty attitudes from recumbent riders so I'm liking it even less to be in the same company. But I'm cheap and looking for something under $1000.00 so in many recumbent groups, I shouldn't have an opinion. I think too many people think owning a recumbent is some sort of elite social circle.

3) Fear
I've been reading for days about the learning curve and how it takes weeks to stop wobbling and Utube videos of people falling off their recumbents (can you hear the smug owners laughing it up?). At the store I went to I wouldn't even test ride it like they wanted me to because they made such a big deal about it. I'd like to go back and test ride it but now I'm worried about falling over in the parking lot with a bunch of strangers watching and laughing.

4) Looks
Fugly. Hey, what fun colors! Black. Red. Blue. Oh boy. I'm so underwhelmed I think I'll buy 2 or 3, no wait, that model only comes in red. If riding a bike is so much fun why can't there be fun colors. If I'm going to spend THAT much money on a bike, why do I have to repaint it? Shouldn't it come ready for someone with a personality? Or at least someone younger than 50 and female?

As it is, I feel like I need to be checking those sites about how to build a stupid recumbent instead of buying one that way I can justify the repainting and I'll save hundreds of dollars. HUNDREDS! That's the sad part, I'm about to just freakin' give up on the idea, which means giving up biking because I am done with my underparts burning from the bike seat and being perched on 2 bones for hours. I'm just done with the pain. Over it. Done. I think I'll just buy some good walking shoes.

Dr.Deltron

Then watch out for newbie recumbent riders on the rec trail.

They'll be the baggy short, long hair wearing folks, wobbling all over, with the the s**t eating grins on their faces!

countersTrike

I remember it well! After years of a long delta trike, I saw the tadpole trikes in the ad and thought "those look pretty neat! " 1999 was my tadpole 'conversion'. Turned into an addiction; but A Bent 4 Rent was gone. Double sob!!

Artkansas 

Catch 22. How do you sell more without increased demand?


How do you increase demand without a significant expenditure in advertising.

cat0020

Have Oprah ride a recumbent on her show, and giveaway recumbents to her audience?

I wonder what would happen if she ran for president?

Dahon.Steve

A lot of people do not understand how significant the loss of BikeE was to the bent world. The BikeE probably introduced more people to bents than any other manufacturer. They were everywhere. To this date, no one has taken their place and that includes internet dealers like Action Bent.

cat0020

What are some reasons that BikeE went under??

Recumbomatic

BikeE had contracted out manufacturing to Giant, the Taiwanese DF company. Some of the stuff that Giant made was crap, resulting in lawsuits. Conspiracy theorists say that Giant deliberately sabotaged BikeE so that they could sell their own Revive bike.

cat0020

So, BikeE went under because of outstanding lawsuits pending, but couldn't they resume their previous in-house production to sell their bikes with another brand name??

bobkat

Price, availability and image. I get all kinds of people asking about bents when I ride. But no bike shop in town has any in stock and they are not interested in carrying any. They all say they will order one in if someone wants one, but because a lot of bike shops are mainly into racing and mountainbiking they are not too interested.
But there should be something to imprive our image. On a recent rails to trail ride I was passing about a dozen mountain bikes, most ridden by much younger and should have been fitter riders. One gal asked me "how do you like that thing?" and another guy asked as I speeded by "how does that thing do on these trails?" Duh - that 'thing' passed just about every MTB going, even uphill.
But a lot of upright bikers do have a rather negative feeling about recumbents, especially the racers and the triathlete types and serious mountain bikers.
We need a bunch of entry level bents starting at around 5 - 6 hundred bucks. The large crowd of baby boomers about to retire, I think, would be more likely to get into some crank forward bikes. These should be good sellers and are advertised a lot. They have a lot of bent advantages and "look" like regular bikes. Bents tend to look odd, and I think a lot of people find the SWB high BB bikes hard to learn to ride. For those the CF bikes are much better - 1000 times better than those stupid mountain bikes they all buy to never get off a MUP!

Dahon.Steve

They did start up with a much higher end bike that was and continues to be overpriced. BigHa.

radioflier

This is one reason I chose a Sun CX for my bent. The primary reason was comfort and fit, but I always have been drawn to the fact that it looks a lot like my old J.C Higgins bike I had 45 years ago, just streched out a bit. I'm one of these 60 year old retired baby boomers that thinks the bike industry is missing a tremendous business opportunity by ignoring us (other that trying to sell us what they've been offering for years). Going by the average age of the staff at the local bike shops, I suspect the bike industry hasn't looked past the age of 40 for most of its customers!

Artkansas 

+10!

Do you think the IHPVA would be interested?

Elkhound

I don't know, not being a member of IHPVA. Why don't you ask them?

Recumbomatic

Battle Mountain is worth AT LEAST an hour of prime-time ESPN coverage. Package it with some behind the scenes filler material, and it could really pull in the viewers!

BlazingPedals

A lot of 'enthusiasts' are used to paying $1500 or more for an upright. For them, a $600 upright would be junky too. It's all relative to what you're used to. If you're the type to ride a $70 upright from ChinaMart, then the bent in that range is the Huffy Venice. The EZ-1 will have fabulous componentry compared to the $70 dept store bike.

BlazingPedals

Battle Mountain:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIko6Qo6skE

Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzBal...e=user&search=

Part 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv1tL...elated&search=

Recumbomatic

Thanks, BP. I had only seen Part I of that series. Very well made videos, but I was thinking of something with a little less teenage dorkiness .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAvEPM2CQYk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE_a_MwU6_w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V2FgwN_re4

or even

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya0VIIo0IDk

Battle Mountain is a yearly event. I can't believe nobody has picked up the rights! Where's Phil Ligget?

Recumbomatic

Another great recumbent video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKwZ-Kxxazk

danielmramos

Jeff is exactly right. If TW-Bents can offer their quality products at good prices, then the rest of the manufacturers should be able to as well. Recumbent designs can be simpler and less expensive to make than upright bikes. Heck if people can buy a really high quality top of the line folding upright bike for $500, then they should be able to do so for a recumbent. Seriously, look at some recumbent frames. They are so much simpler and less labour intensive to produce that it makes you wonder what is going on.

Here is an idea, how about a consortium of all recumbent manufacturers that pool their advertising dollars to promote recumbent riding and bikes in general. Wouldn't it be a cool campaign if such a consortium hired a retired Tour de France rider to take a different good recumbent every year and race the Tour de France not to win the race but simply to show how much better bents are. Can you imagine the faces of people as they saw how the bent rider blew the socks off of the upright riders. After the completion of the race instead of the focus being on the rider it would be the rider and the consortium talking about all of the quality bents that are available and how the time has come to make the bike world a bent world.

Elkhound

Economies of scale, probably. The more of an item you produce, the less expensive each individual item tends to be. I'm guessing that most 'bent models aren't produced in large enough quantities for EoS to come into effect.