delcrossv

Ha! Now that's targeted marketing !

ksisler

I don't own or ride one, but them lawn chair bikes are cool with me. I service a few from time to time. Now as to making them look good... that may be asking too much unless the pilot is a very pretty young lady.

/K

BlazingPedals

As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I think mine look better than virtually any upright. But then, all upright frames look pretty much like all others. Change the paint and the add-on dongles like wheels and shifters and it's a new bike! At least having that much standardization makes it easier on the shop mechanics.

delcrossv

How's this?

Retro Grouch 

I agree but what's your point. Any bike is going to look better with a pretty young lady riding it.

Cougrrcj

I saw a truck with a couple of bikes in the back - one a long-wheelbase recumbent with underseat steering - at a home improvement store this past weekend. Just happened to catch the owner as I was loading my merchandise. He just got it a couple of weeks ago when a LBS was having a going-out-of-business sale. He said he couldn't beat the price at 1/2 MSRP (no, I didn't ask), and that he said he wished he would have switched to a bent years ago because of the comfort on the road with his new one... Yeah, he was an 'older' guy, about my age or so -mid 50s... His wife had a carbon Fuji road bike of some sort, also bought at the same sale. I was at that LBS late last year, and although somewhat off the beaten path, they seemed to be doing a good business...

I'd like to try a recumbent some time, but they're like hen's teeth around here. Nobody stocks them.

BlazingPedals

Don't get me started on the chicken/egg issue of availability and popularity. If you want test rides, your best bet is to corner a bent rider on a bike ride.

WPeabody 

Meh, I don't care about image. I am happpy to be out and riding. now it's my transportation. It's certainly better than sitting at home, unable to ride a bike because of balance problems. I am not young, but I am no longer fat, thanks to my trike. My doctor came out to have a look at my trike, at my last appointment, because I lost 60 lbs in the past 11 months. And I can go much longer distances than on a DF because my bum doesn't get tired, neither does my neck or my shoulders. I have yet to have anybody say anything negative about my TT. I did overhear a couple of maintenance guys say in Spanish that those vehicles are for the "viejos", but I am a "vieja", compared to them.

gcottay

I think it's amazing that the OP is able to discern attitudes of millions of people, many of whom have never given a thought to recumbents. I'd ask for this methods but, since it would be worth many millions, that would be crass of me.

BlazingPedals

I don't know about "millions," but it's a common assessment that anyone riding a recumbent, and especially a recumbent trike, must have some sort of disability. After all, if there was nothing wrong with them, they'd be able to ride a 'regular' bike, right?

Tom Stormcrowe

I do ride a benttrike because u=it hurts too much to ride my FG now.



I wish I'd switched sooner!

Jeff Wills

You need to work on that AeroBelly®, Tom. It looks a little undersize.

Wilbur Bud

Yeah,a nd where's teh scabbard for that giant knife you're always waving around ??? Prolly oughta mount it on the seatback for easy access.

BlazingPedals

Heeeeeey... Isn't that the wife's trike? Or are there two in the family now?

cranky old dude

I suspect that the USS may be a contributing factor to that misconception do to the appearance of the rider's arms just hanging there. This occurred to me just today as my bride and I drove by a gent on a SWB USS bike. As he rode toward us my wife commented that it looks like he's on that bike because he's disabled. As the wife of a recumbent enthusiast she knows better of course, she just made an observation.

rydabent

It is time the cycling community gets over its blather and snobbery against bents. Do a lot of bents and trikes have older riders--------yes they do. But remember one logical fact. Many people have challenges of pain, recovering from operations etc that bents are their only answer if they want to ride. Many do have enought pain that comes with old age that they dont need additional pain from riding.

The sad fact remains that the "poor" image of bents are generated in the cycling community itself.

delcrossv

Snobs will be snobbish regardless of anything we may do. That's their nature- if you don't ride a carbon Cervelo® with Zipp® wheels and have Kask® helmet with some team jersey you're just not one of the "in" crowd. Even if you're faster- a lot faster. That's because to those people, practical considerations like efficiency, speed and comfort Don't Really Matter - "image" does. No sense worrying about those types, they're happy showing off their latest new titanium carbon magnesium bottle holder bracket to other folks that find such things important. Better to get out there and have fun- riding with a big smile will do more to appeal to folks than anything else. (IMHO)

unterhausen

I'm not a recumbent rider. I do occasionally ride with recumbents. My observation is that people are really interested in recumbents, particularly teenagers. They probably would be put off by the price, but the interest is there. My son and his friend were really interested in building a recumbent a year ago, I haven't seen them since I banished them from my household for that.

Retro Grouch 

Before concluding that recumbents need an image makeover one should check out the posts on the road bike forum.

OTHER RIDERS ARE GOING TO LAUGH AT YOU.
It doesn't matter what kind of bike you ride or don't ride, what kind of clothes you wear or don't wear, Whether or not you wave at other riders, there will always be a group of riders who are going to skoff at you. Always. It's true of safety bicycle riders, it's true of recumbent riders too.

cplager

son: Dad, sit down. I have something to tell you.

dad (nervously): uhhh... O.k.

son: Dad, I'm gay.

dad: Phew! I already knew that. I thought you were going to tell me something scary, like that you wanted to ride recumbents...

delcrossv

Bwahahahahaha! Best one I've heard in a while

rydabent

delcrossv +1

At least on a bent after 50 miles the riders are still smiling.

Retro Grouch 

My point exactly.

I suppose one could take that as mean spirited, but I don't think so. Actually, I kind of like it. We bike riders do a lot of bantering back and forth about the evolution of man and the like.

Recumbents don't need an image makeover. Some recumbent riders just take themselves way too seriously.

delcrossv

Fixed it for 'ya. It's a more general problem, people should just lighten up.

Robert C

This weekend my daughter is taking my recumbent to a park with some friends so they can try to learn to ride it. There are all regular riders. In fact, she and her friends are bicycle delivery riders for various companies. If course they don't ride 'bents at work; 'bents are not well suited for hop-on hop-off riding.

The trouble they have is in no way related to the image of recumbent bicycles; rather, that recumbents have a hard learning curve. Recumbent riders, and proponents, need to face the fact that they are much harder to ride. I suspect that this is a large part of the reason that, in the recumbent market, trikes sell extremely well.