It's BAAAAAAAAAAACK!
 

It had been years. I thought I was safe. Then this morning I turned on the TV and there it was. LandRider! I was mesmorized as a girl on a 'LandRider' sailed up a hill while a roadbike struggled. And the little old lady that said she had to 'STOP' to shift gears was so convincing. And the fat Cop who said he might bike up to 25miles (woweee) on a shift. And then they scared me with downtube shifters from an 80's roadbike. And the price was only $400+SH=$500+- and that included the suspension forks, suspension seatpost and autoshift and adjustable stem.

I'm terrified to ride a normal bike, Please Help!

its a gimmick any bike that would shift with out me telling it to would piss me off.

i'd be terrified to ride a landrider. imagine standing up on it and it decides to shift and you go over the handlebars. its a good bike if you want some intimate time kissing the concrete.

I'm not sure an LBS would even touch it if you need work done on it.

I feel foolish for not having bought a Land Rider.

I can't believe anyone that would post on these forums would actually watch that entire infomercial. That must have been very painful.

No pain, no gain...

It is a whole yin and yang thing...

Sometimes we need to experience suffering so that we can appreciate what we have. :)

True. Someone brought a LR into our shop last spring/summer and said the shifting wasn't working correctly. We told him to contact LR and sent him on his way. :o

I've worked on a few. It's been awhile but I've even done some warranty work on one. The customer brought me the bike and a replacement part and Landrider reimbursed her for my labor.

It's basically a Wallymart quality bike that has some sliding weights on the rear wheel that slide outward as you ride faster and move the rear derailleur. It saves you from the horrible bother and the excruciating torture of moving the shifter a click.

Along the same lines (answers to questions that nobody asked) I had a lawyer/customer who had acquired a warehouse full of 2 wheel drive bikes. They were department store quality bikes that had a flexible coupling that connected the front and rear wheels. He actually brought one in the box to my store (when I wasn't in) to assemble and display on my floor. When he wouldn't return my several phone calls, I threw it in the dumpster. A couple of months later he asked about it and wouldn't believe that I just threw it away. He got real mad.

I'd ask him never to darken my door after pulling a stunt like that. He probably didn't assemble that bike, but gave another employee cash to assemble it, taking time away from his job and customers.

Nope, that wasn't it. He wanted me to sell them for him on some kind of handshake consignment deal. I personally threw the bike into the dumpster while it was still unassembled in the box. I didn't want it cluttering up my shop and I didn't want the liability of selling a questionable product that had been marketed by a firm that had gone bankrupt. I didn't want to have anything to do with the thing and he wouldn't pick it up to take it away.

I think that he thought I had sold it to somebody and kept the money.

For those who wish to experience this bike first-hand:
http://austin.craigslist.org/bik/648805744.html

They never mentioned this on TV. And so close to home too.

I'm having trouble picturing this. Did the chain drive both wheels, then? How?

It always amazes me the ways people try to "improve" bicycle design...

True that, we don't, won't, not even with green eggs and ham.

Through the years, there has been a 2-wheel-drive motorcycle available, although I forget the name of it. I understand with normal off-roading on a motorcycle, you go up steep grades using lots of power and spinning. With the 2-wheel driver version, you can go up slowly. Different way to accomplish similar results.

I've wondered why someone didn't do this on a bike, and didn't realize someone had. It would have very little practical benefit, but would still be cool to have if done well.

That's a Rokon, and I think they still make them. They were designed for off road use in muddy conditions, and went lots of places you couldn't go on a regular dirtbike.

The chain drove the rear wheel. Two sets of bevel gears and a flexable shaft connected the rear hub to the front hub. My question is: "Why would anybody want such a thing?" I can't imagine anything that I think it would do better than a more typical mountain bike.

Back to the original post, I just noticed a "LandRider Autoshift Bike" ad on the right margin of my BF screen. Cool!