Recumbent News

The All New Linear: Healthy and Robust

News Alert
If U R thinking about doing a long tour this summer, maybe even as a part of our Mayors' Ride, do get a look at the all new Linear. And I really mean all new. Peter Stull, the new Linear Bicycles owner and esteemed proprietor of the Bicycle Man bike shop in upstate NY , brings a tremendous amount of enthusiasm to this legendary bicycle.

Nor did he just buy the name and remaining stock and just sit around and wait for orders and repeat business to come in. Instead, he suspended the operation and got busy looking for ways to improve this already time tested product.

Peter and his small team of dedicated bike enthusiasts began experimenting They found that welding the bike's famous folding feature shut produced a recumbent that no longer creaked and groaned but became a hot enough performer that next they needed more brake horsepower for it. It got v-brakes front and rear. They kept reinforcing and trimming away any of the minimal excess that remained.

And the results have been impressive. Seems old Linear customers are coming out of the woodwork for the bike. Peter even tells me that he recently took a straight across trade on a Gold Rush for one of these machines.

You can still buy the LWB version that fits in a car trunk but for $100 less you can have an under the seat steered LWB that performs with the best of them for 1,500 well spent dollars. Go to http://linearrecumbents.com.

Andrew Heckman Gets Hip Rebuilt!

Andrew Heckman, the man who was riding a recumbnt trike for us in 2002 when he got ameliorated by a car (the story is at: http://webpages.charter.net/200a/AndrewHeckman2.htm) just had his hip rebuilt! His is an amazing story that has traveled all over the internet. Andrew's hip was so crushed in the accident that his doctors likened it to a bowl of corn flakes. And this sweetheart of a man, refuses to be compromised by this disaster. Keep his fires burning. Let him know how much you honor him: "Andrew Heckman" :
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Home Again
Published on 03/31/04 at 17:04:02 PST by Andrew Heckman

At last I have a chance to do a quick site update. I’ve been devoting a lot of time the last couple of days to a business plan I’m working on for a client, but that’s going well enough to allow a quick post.

I came home from the hospital last Friday afternoon, and I’m able to get around on crutches (and even go very short distances -- five feet or so -- without crutches!). Pretty amazing considering that I have a foot-long gash in my left hip, where a doctor reached in, sawed off the top of my femur, etched a plug from the living bone, jammed that into my sunken hip socket and sunk two screws to secure it, then shoved in a faux socket, screwed a metal ball into the top of my femur bone, then stapled me closed again.

The operation went extremely well. The only difficulty, according to Dr. Hikes, was that my sciatic nerve was “just lying there like a snake in the grass waiting to bite us.” Normally, the sciatic nerve is encased in a bundle of soft tissue, but in my case, the soft tissue had all been obliterated. So the surgery took about 3.5 hours total.

My hospital stay was a piece of cake compared to my last experience. Whereas before I was in the hospital for three weeks and non-weight-bearing for six weeks, this time I was in the hospital for five days and was standing up (using a walker) the day after the surgery.

The only really tough part was on Tuesday, when I really did feel as if I’d been hit by a truck. Lisa said I was pretty pale and waxy on Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning. But they pumped another pint of my own blood into me on Tuesday and that helped get my systems back on line. By Wednesday, I was walking a bit with crutches and feeling optimistic that I would, as hoped, leave the hospital by the weekend.

Now we’ve got my pain meds worked out, and my blood volume and hemoglobin levels are getting back to normal. In fact, things are going so well that Steve is considering heading back to Madison a few days early.

The next step is tomorrow…a nurse will be coming in to do another blood check and remove the staples (there are 26 of them in the incision). I might have to take a photo of the incision before and after, but if I post the photos, I’ll be sure to link them first with a warning not to click on them unless you’re sure you’re prepared…it ain’t for the squeamish, let me tell you. But as I said, considering the trauma, it’s really quite amazing that I’m so far along so quickly.

So if anyone tells you “the human race was a lot better off a thousand years ago when we didn’t have all this soul-stealing modern technology,” you can tell them from me that they’re full of crap!

2004 NBG Mayors' Ride Bursting at the Seams!

Our 3rd Annual National Mayors' Ride is set to kick off soon and the excitement continues to pour in. In fact, we just received the Chicago NBG Day proclamation from Bicycle Enthusiast Mayor Richard Daly's office. Here it is:http://www.BikeRoute.com/NationalMayorsRide2004/ChicagoProc2004.html !

From antique HiWheel riders to World Record holding unicyclists to a Mayor riding one of our legs to an actress riding another to a musical entourage preparing towns for our arrival, etc, etc, we are filled to the brim with celebration.

Many of our relay legs are covered by a lead rider but there are a few key legs that need coverage as per our 2004 schedule.

We need to get the Seattle to Portland leg covered. We were hoping that last year's superstar, Mighty Jim Muellner would take that route as he had intimated he might but we can't get him to commit. He may very well surprise us as last year, we never got a commitment out of him either. And even as he rode from Washington DC to San Francisco, we never knew from one NBG Day city to the next if he would continue. Hey but I guess if you're 68 and independently wealthy and accomplished all he has, there is no need to be on anyone else's schedule but your own.

So if you want to make a little bit of history with us, and want to ride the 172 mile distance on your own route and covering all your own expenses in 3 days time (a weekend) to a reception in Portland, please apply at: (http://NationalBicycleGreenway.com/Forms/newriders.php).

As for the Tampa to Washington, DC leg, we have had a lot of interest in the free Rowbkes we are offering and may very well choose more than one applicant for this section but we still need conventional bikes to set out from Tampa where they are really turning on the afterburners as a new participant in this our 3rd annual event. As the Southeast send off point for the ride that then joins Northeast riders coming down from Boston, NYC, Philly and Baltimore in Washington DC on July 2, they have devoted staff from their Greenway division to our ride. And they are working with Tampa sponsor Power On Cycling to make for an even bigger splash. And as such Tampa Greenways will also be showing off some of the cutting edge trail work they are doing some of which can be found at their web..

Toward the end of letting more of America see how much value Tampa places on its growing network of trails and paths they have already gotten a commitment from Mayor Pam Iorio to be at our celebration. As further testimony to the support they get from their local citizenry, the Tampa Greenways people are already asking us if there is any limit to the number of people who can be present for the ceremony. And before last week ended they were asking for the NBG logo so they could run it on the T-shirts they will be producing for all of this!

Out on the east coast, besides the Tampa excitement, the Northeast Recumbent people plan to help make for a noteworthy New York City reception for George Reynolds who will be arriving from Boston on one his Reynolds Weld Lab speed machines. Toward that end, Johannas Grossbrink tells us that he will see what kind of excitement he can create with the Transportation Alternatives people as well as with the Metro Area Recumbent Society (MARS) and he may even get a worthy hand from his friend and long time recumbent activist, Shelly Mossey. This last fact bodes well because, as a former bike messenger and bike shop owner, Shelly is well connected in the Big Apple. Nor does it hurt that Johannas has created a loyal following of customers who he has sold and serviced only the best recumbents to over the last decade!

In a bit of news from out here on the West Coast, in case you missed it, here are the legendary HiWheelers who will be joining Jack Martin of Gomber Bike Mounted Hydration to make for a much celebrated 37 mile run from Davis to Folsom:

http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/Events/Mayors_Ride/bios/Jacques_Graber.php
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/Events/Mayors_Ride/bios/Robert_Howe.php

The above just scratches the surface of how much excitement we are so all consumed by! And since it bears repeating, do get a look at our schedule, I know all the color and pictures and sponsors will fully astound you:

http://www.BikeRoute.com/NationalMayorsRide2004

And anyone can ride any of the relay legs you see there. Apply at:
http://NationalBicycleGreenway.com/Forms/newriders.php

Yahooo!!