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MULTIMEDIA Movie Clip | Photo Gallery by the Galfromdownunder Photo Gallery by John and Ann Hoyt Geoff Adams' take Multimediaclast Geoff Adams captured BF Customer Evangelist yours truly wobbling through her first ever solo recumbent ride (and no captions about that banana shot, OK?). And check out his fabulous flick of Recumbent vs Single bike - and you'll be sold! |
 "I TOOK the best of the inaugural weekend and made it into one day," said John Hoyt, host and cheerleader of this year's Rye Recumbent Weekend. Hence, this report will be short and sweet - read last year's report for more detail. The juicy bits haven't changed. True to the spirit of the weekend, not a single single-bike reared its ugly seatpost - everyone showed up on a svelte recumbent, including a "trikester". Well, OK, admit I showed up on a tikit, (in fact, a Telfar tikit). I was determined to show up on a recumbent, despite never having ridden one solo. Because the SatRday is back on the R&D shelf and the DoubleDay tandem recumbent is now a DINK's* collector's item, I made a valiant attempt to get BF Club of NYer Jeff Gilberts' DoubleDay adjusted to fit a shorter captain. Had I been successful, I would have bundled it into a tandem bag, thumbed my nose at the train conductor and traveled the Metro North with the entitlement of quadruplets in an überstroller. A couple of quick unfolds and I would have been cruisin' for a schmoozin' like on last year's 5BBC Chocolate Ride. Alack, the famous adjustability of a Friday can only be pushed so far. So the tikit at least got me to the station and back ... |
 ON arriving in Rye I discovered that John had secured me a size small 'beginner recumbent' from local shop Bicycle Bob's. Made by Sun, this bike resembled one half of a cattle gate painted iridescent blue, with long riser bars like a chopper. A few wobbly starts - for that is the main challenge facing the newbie recumbo - and I was off. The "Fred Flintstone" start - that is, placing both feet on the ground and pushing off - is apparently scorned by elite recumbent riders, who clip in and expertly lift off - the recumbent equivalent of a track stand, perhaps. Bacchetta's Rich Pinto, a man who needs to prove nothin' to nobody, assured us that yabba-dabba-doo was the way he prefers to start. 25 miles later I was in the groove, pushing the 30 lb beast along at an acceptable pace, and already eyeing off the other attendees' sub 20-lb titanium recumbents. One crank turn at a time, girl! Rich presided over his signature BBQ ribfest, his secret being to "drown the ribs in Casey's BBQ sauce for hours then stew the hell out of them" prior to BBQing. He proudly told us about the young schoolgirl team who averaged 26 mph on Bacchettas, setting a new official record for crossing the state of Nebraska. "Pink bikes and jerseys here we come," he said, a comment that shouldn't infuriate feminists, because pink is the new black ... I met famous fast recumbent designer George Reynolds of Reynolds Weld Lab, who, according to Rich, once prototyped a combo bike that flipped into recumbent mode and back to single mode - I have been dreaming about such a mythical animal for some time. "He was still in the process of flipping it onto the other mode when Rob [English] lapped him." George has tinkered and raced with Bike Friday tikit co-designer Rob English in Rob's other, non-folding life - that of HPV champ. |
A Canadian couple traveling around the world saw the light on and rolled their heavily laden, underseat-steered HP Velotechnik recumbents up the drive. They left with two raffle prizes - a Rye Recumbent Weekend Polo shirt and a copy of my Route 66 by Bicycle DVD - extra ounces they probably could have done without ...they would have gladly lugged the ultra-bright and compact DiNotte rear light which I reviewed and continue to use as part of my life-support system, but this was won by a lucky other attendee. Thanks to DiNotte's Robert Skaffe for popping by to drop off the prize and hoe into ribs with the rest of us. Finally, the day ends with a slap up dinner at the local seafoodery called Pete's, for anyone who wants to stay on. It's not to be missed for the seafood chowder (supersized of course) and the riotous yet intensely informative stories from Rich the recumbent raconteur ... We hope to see some Bike Friday SatRDays and DoubleDays there next year - recumbents may be back on BF's R&D shelf, but don't say there's not event just planned for you! - LC |
SatRDay/DoubleDay Club BF recumbents are gone for now but not forgotten! Rye Recumbent Weekend Previous reports * Double Income No Kids |