Apr 18, 2005
Easy Rider
By ALAN SNEL
[email hidden]
SEMINOLE - Gerry Beland has two ways of measuring increased sales of
recumbent bicycles, those short bikes that allow bicyclists to sit in a
reclining, padded and back- supported seat and move their legs as if they're
propelling a pedal boat.
There's anecdotal evidence on the Pinellas Trail, the popular bike path
behind Beland's Seminole shop, Bicycle Outfitters, where more recumbent
bikes are zipping by. The 34- mile asphalt ribbon runs along an old railroad
easement from St. Petersburg to Tarpon Springs.
Then, there's his store's bottom line, which is grossing more income from
sales of recumbent bicycles every year. In fact, Bicycle Outfitters is
easily the Tampa Bay area's biggest dealer in recumbent bikes and one of the
top recumbent dealers in Florida.
Of 600 bikes sold at Bicycle Outfitters in 2004, 200 were recumbents,
representing half of the store's annual sales revenue, Beland said.
Recumbent sales at his store have increased 30 percent annually and are
projected to increase as more people - especially baby boomers - want bikes
that are comfortable, he said. Recumbent buyers come from as far as Miami
and Daytona - and even Tennessee - to tap Beland's inventory.
Bicycle enthusiasts who are getting into their 40s and 50s are considering
recumbents because the seats recline and support riders' backs. Recumbents
also relieve pressure on necks and wrists - two pain hot spots for cyclists
riding conventional bikes. In addition, recumbents are more aerodynamic
thanks to their shorter profile and move at speeds comparable to those of
traditional road bikes.
``The beauty is you can ride for hours without the pain associated with a
traditional bike,'' Beland said.
Once considered odd- looking and the bike of choice for fringe cyclists, the
recumbent is becoming more mainstream, said Mike Wilkerson, a partner in
Bacchetta Recumbent Bicycles, a recumbent manufacturer based in a Spartan
2,800-square-foot building off the Pinellas Trail in St. Petersburg.
``The weird factor has worn off,'' Beland said.
Nationally, recumbent sales are increasing slightly, but no industry
representative can pinpoint an actual number of sales, said Marc Sani,
publisher of Bicycle Retailer & Industry News, a magazine that tracks the
bicycle industry from its base in Laguna Hills, Calif.
``You do see more of them. When you see recumbents coming down the paths of
Orange County, Calif., you know something is going on. They're not as
unusual to most people anymore,'' Sani said.
Wilkerson, who used to work at another recumbent manufacturer called Rans
Inc., estimated annual recumbent sales at 20,000 nationally.
Sani said that's a reasonable estimate.
Besides Rans and Bacchetta, another company that makes premium recumbents is
Burley Inc. of Eugene, Ore.
A typical recumbent cyclist is Marion Duncan, who was recently purchasing a
$1,550 Bacchetta at Bicycle Outfitters. The 64-year-old real estate agent
came from Anna Maria Island to trade in his recumbent for the new model.
``I ride it for the comfort,'' Duncan said. ``A road bike gives me too much
pain.''
Duncan's comments resonated with Carrollwood cyclist J.T. Todd, who switched
from a conventional two-wheeler to a recumbent after undergoing radiation
treatments for prostate cancer.
``The doctor said you don't need pressure in the groin area. What's ironic
is now my doctor is riding a recumbent,'' said Todd, a 70-year-old who hangs
out at Carrollwood Bicycle Emporium, a bike shop on North Dale Mabry
Highway.
Another factor driving sales is that recumbent bicyclists are earning
respect in the serious bicyclist community. Recumbent bicyclists are able to
go fast enough, for example, to join even hard-core road cyclists of the St.
Petersburg Bike Club for weekend morning rides.
And they win races, too.
One of Bacchetta's owners, John Schlitter, set a Ride Across Florida course
record in April 2004 when he rode the titanium model from Cocoa to Crystal
River, Wilkerson said. He covered the 167-mile course in six hours, 26
minutes, averaging 26.6 mph, Wilkerson said. The average bicyclist moves
about 13 to 15 mph.
Recumbents are not cheap. A new mountain bike can cost $200, but recumbents
start at about $500 and run as high as $5,000. Bacchetta's flagship bike,
for example, is a titanium model that sells for $3,900. These recumbents are
not mass-produced, which explains why they're more expensive than
entry-level mass- produced mountain bikes, Wilkerson said.
Bacchetta distributes its recumbents to 65 bike dealers in the United States
and Canada, including four in Florida. The 4-year-old company has hired an
ad agency to help market the bikes, and it buys its seat shell from a local
vendor, Glass Works of Largo, Wilkerson said.
In its marketing campaign, Wilkerson said, the company's message is, ``It's
another way of cycling. We want to show it's a legitimate bike.''
Recumbents have even hatched a subcategory called trikes, with two wheels in
the front and one in the back (a ``tadpole''😉 or two wheels in the back and
one in front (a ``delta trike''😉.
The trikes are also showing growth, Beland said. The majority of growth in
the trike category is the tadpole - a sporty, low-to-the-ground bike that
ranges from $1,000 to $5,000.
There's also specialized clothing for recumbent cyclists. Clothing
manufacturers are offering special Lycra shorts that don't have the usual
padding and jerseys where the pockets are on the front instead on the lower
back.
``It's cool to see this segment of the bicycle industry evolve,'' Beland
said.
Ed Roberts, 61, rides a custom-built Bacchetta and said he hardly uses a
conventional bicycle anymore. The Belleair Bluffs resident, who lives a mile
and a half from the Pinellas Trail, has been riding recumbents for the past
decade and is on his third recumbent.
``It's more comfortable, and I can ride longer distances,'' said Roberts,
who rides 40 to 60 miles on his trips. He noted the cost differential
between conventional bikes and recumbents is decreasing over the years, with
the cost factor ``becoming less significant.''
The gap is narrowing as more recumbents are sold and being manufactured,
Beland said.
The Tampa Bay area's older population makes it a market ripe for recumbent
growth, said Paul Williams, manager of Outspokin Bicycles & Pro Shop in
Largo.
``We have an aging population that still wants to be active,'' Williams
said. ``It allows people who are older and not as fit as they once were to
be physical. If you can sit in a chair and move your legs, you can ride a
recumbent.''