Maddening ignorance still of recumbents!

[cycleguy]

HI

I had my last cycling training meeting today.. and the women running it who has never even seen a Silvio, much less sat on one, is still telling me how it is so radically different from an upright bike. Even though it is the same frame geometry where it matters between the cranks and the wheel blah blah blah... I am telling her that its like sitting on a regular bike then just rotating it backwards... I got the deer in the headlights look... no clue...

Harold

 

[Mark B]

cycleguy wrote: HI

I had my last cycling training meeting today.. and the women running it who has never even seen a Silvio, much less sat on one, is still telling me how it is so radically different from an upright bike. Even though it is the same frame geometry where it matters between the cranks and the wheel blah blah blah... I am telling her that its like sitting on a regular bike then just rotating it backwards... I got the deer in the headlights look... no clue...

Harold

Truthfully, Harold, you just have to get over it because it's not going to change any time soon. Some people are receptive, most aren't. They just think we're odd and in some ways,they're right. No worries by me, I've given up on trying to recruit the masses to the way of the recumbent. Life's too short.

Mark

 

[JonB]

If it wasnt because the Silvio is so expensive, you should let her try it.

 

[cycleguy]

i think I am "over it"... I could care less if others want to be in pain while they ride...

Just interesting to see in person the barrier to really huge success for companies like Cruzbike is based on perception. Keep cranking out the same old bikes like everyone else and your safe...try something completely innovative like what JT has engineered, and you hit a perception wall. I am just glad that there are still some people( everyone here!) that is willing to try something different and can see pass the differences...

Harold

 

[John Tolhurst]

cycleguy wrote: i think I am "over it"... I could care less if others want to be in pain while they ride...

Just interesting to see in person the barrier to really huge success for companies like Cruzbike is based on perception. Keep cranking out the same old bikes like everyone else and your safe...try something completely innovative like what JT has engineered, and you hit a perception wall. I am just glad that there are still some people( everyone here!) that is willing to try something different and can see pass the differences...

Harold

An interesting lesson in how culture operates, especially with respect to icons, in this case the icon of the diamond frame bicycle versus the new icon of the cruzbike. People cling to their icons with varied amounts of religious dogma.

 

[Kamatu]

Perception is always a battle. I helped one friend start a hydroponics shop and he got bored and folded it and now I'm helping another friend restart it. The number of people who think that it is just for growing hemp products and that it won't help them with other gardening methods are legion. However, all you can do is educate them one by one as they come in. Getting them to try just one new thing makes them hooked customers, even if it is just a different way to sprout seeds to plant in dirt. That's one reason I'm going to go through my LBS when I get my check, that will put their hands on a conversion kit and provide real interest in seeing the results. A couple of people I know want to see my bike when I finish it, if they are interested, then I'll send them to the LBS to order it.

Yes, this will actually take money out of Cruzbike's pocket (they lose the retail margin), but the more the LBS sees the product, the more they can talk about it, which means more interest and more sales in the long run.

 

[Mark B]

I gave up a long time ago on trying to convert people to recumbents. It's really not worth it. I have a friend that rides a wedgie, but owns a Bachetta Aero (titanium). He's scared to ride the Aero because he's scared of the Tweener bars. Big wuss. I think it's not the tweener bars but the perceived weirdness of the recumbent bike. People that ride recumbents are seen as damaged goods. They're either too fat, to injured, too old, too whatever to ride a "normal bike". So, I give up. I'd rather hear them gasp, as I pull away from them up a hill, "I thought those things couldn't climb!??!" Personally, I think people are attracted to recumbents for all sorts of reasons, none of which make it easy to predict who will go 'bent and who won't. I would say that most that area slave to fashion will not go recumbent.

Mark