At the 1993 Interbike trade show in Las Vegas, I made the mistake of going for a test ride on a BikeE. On one side of the bike were smiling onlookers, on the other, proud parents looked to be showing off their latest pride and joy. I took the bike for a ride.
Wow!!
The assembled BikeE group had reason to be self-satisfied. They had created the Alpha Romeo of recumbents. Fast, quick and responsive, this bike lived up to its jazzy looks. Theirs was a bike that recreated the excitement I had experienced on my very first recumbent ride. And because it was so easy to ride, I knew had stumbled on a machine that could make it fun for America leave the car in the driveway.
What impresses me about the BikeE that I've been riding for the past year is another kind of speed. Speed off the bike, speed on the bike and fun and comfort in between. It may not be able to go as fast as an Easy Racer, a Ryan or a Lightning, but if your run and zips are short little three or four mile jaunts, especially through obstacle laden streets, the BikeE does not have any competition.
If your office or home are up stairs, like mine are, getting a BikeE up and down them is not a problem. You throw the handlebars over your shoulder and off you go. If you need to dash out of the office to make a photo copy, I guarantee you can do so on a BikeE faster that any bike in the business, upright or conventional. When I must move quickly, which a lot of the time I must, I unlock the BikeE, toss my attache over one of the seat bars, start jogging along side it, hop on side saddle, swing my legs on to the pedals and off I ride.
Do lots of quick shopping errands? Once again, ease and speed on the BikeE. Cloth shopping bags can be easily lifted on and off over the tops of the seat. For light loads, you'll never have to bother with bungie cords or load compromising bike racks ever again. This is so because you can pretty much hang anything off the seat without interfering with your pedaling or your steering. As further testimony to this concept, I hang my lock and tool bag off of the light-duty strut that holds the two seat bars in place. When a heavy load needs to stay on the bike for a long time, such as for a tour, the BikeE people have created a clever rack system that does not change the handling characteristics of the bike. It mounts under the seat. If you need to transport bigger items such as, kids, dog food, lots of groceries or garage sale purchases, a trailer mounts easily to the BikeE. I've even moved a bed and regularly transport 240 pounds of drinking water behind my BikeE.
You can mount trailers designed for an upright seat post hitch by strapping to either side of the vertical bars of the BikeE seat. The BikeE company tells me they are designing a hitch for the drop out variety as well. And with either, you will feel totally in control no matter how big the load because if you should falter or have to stop suddenly, the closeness of the ground allows your feet to act like pontoons for added stability. The performance of this bicycle goes on and on. Need to make a "Bat Turn" (a 180)? Just lift up the front wheel, turn around and the whole bike turns with you. How about a figure eight or a moving U-turn on a bike path? The BikeE has the smallest turning radius (while still pedaling) of any bike I can remember riding, upright or recumbent.
How about some slaloming on your BikeE? Awesome. I can't make the bike go down. When the way is clear and I know that the approaching road surface will hold my tires, I oftentimes find myself zigging and zagging and leaning back and forth with great fervor. FUN. Even more fun when I note that the smile on my face is almost always matched by smiles on the faces of those bystanders that happen to be looking.
Didn't get a chance to downshift before a red light stopped you? With the BikeE's new three speed hub, you can do large gear increment shifts while the bike is stopped.
Another plus. The bike is sexy. Men love seeing women on it. When my lady friend rides it, she gets bombarded with question after question from the opposite sex. Women love seeing men on it, too. Having ridden recumbents for as many years as I have, I have begun to notice that women look at me differently when I ride the BikeE. It seems that members of the opposite sex are saying, "Gee I wonder if he'd let me try it", instead of "What a show off". Kids, motorists, even hard core cyclists all respect the BikeE. I hear "cool bike" nearly every time I ride it. Another response I hear a lot from people that take test rides is "this is the way they should have built bikes to begin with".
Letting people test ride the bike has been a great source of joy for me. I rarely used to let people sample my other recumbents because I didn't have the time, the necessary patience or I was just afraid that my bike would end up being damaged in the process. I quickly grew tired of having to run along side test riders as they tried to learn recumbancy.
On the BikeE I just let them ride away. I've never seen anyone fail. Young or old, fit or fat, tall or short, not a soul has walked away from a BikeE test ride without a smile on his or her face.
Even off the street, the BikeE comes away a winner. It breaks down with the same ease that it assembles out of the box they ship it to you in. Then for car trips, in minutes it can easily be stored in the trunk.
And because the BikeE people are committed to starting a "BikeEvolution", they provide an 800 number for potential buyers. They are also extremely responsive to the needs of those who have already bought. Besides their newsletter, they listen very carefully to the needs of their customers and with some of the data they've collected they even have folding bike and 63-speed options on the drawing board.
If we're going to heal a planet that is truly dying, we've got to get people to leave their cars behind. And since the upright bicycle will continue to cause older Americans to leave that job to the kids, we must spread the recumbent gospel. But the recumbent that will get more of the planet on such a means of two-wheel conveyance must score high marks on all four factors below.
I say BikeE has truly come to the rescue. I know their bike will bring great numbers of people back to cycling while also being attractive to those outside of the sport. It will allow people such as transportation planners and those concerned about the environemt to walk their talk.
Oh, the BikeE factory = 800/231-3136 or by email at: BikeEvol@aol.com
5460 SW Philomath Blvd.
Email to: 
BikeEvol@aol.com
http://www.ihpva.org/com/BikeE/martin.html