In the News: The Inspiring Terra Trike Success Story

Crains Detroit Business News interviewed Terra Trike Marketing Director, Jeff Yonker,  to find out more about a company that is bursting at the seams:

As spring arrived inauspiciously last month and the snow retreated, TerraTrike shifted its operations into high gear, serving baby boomers who want to keep active through bicycling without pulling out the Bengay after every workout. 

TerraTrike and its parent corporation,WizWheelz Inc., which bills itself as the largest U.S. manufacturer of recumbent trikes for adults, stacked kits of three-wheeled bikes to the rafters of its warehouse and showroom in the Grand Rapids suburb of Kentwood, with the express purpose of leaving nothing on the table this year in sales.

"We've ordered extra stock this year because we've always run out during our busy season," said Jeff Yonker, WizWheelz marketing director. The company also has four semis full of TerraTrike kits on its property as temporary storage, he said.

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Bents by Roel Verhagen Kaptein, in the Netherlands

The City Speeder 

The Evolution

Who Can Date This "Horizontal Bicycle" Photo?

World's First Trikes, 4-Wheel Bikes in 19th Century?

This rail trike came about in the late 1800's. As I research this and the Irish Mail 4-wheel bike around the turn of the last Century, I am not finding much on line. If anyone can help with any information so I can rewrite the beginning of the Recumbent's history at http://bikeroute.com/WhyBent.php, I can be reached at awakeagainmartin @ gmail.com

Lightning P-38 Turns 30 w/Visit from Rare T-38 Tandem!!

At Lightning Cycle's 30-year anniversary of their flagship model, the P-38, the only T-38 tandem ever made showed up!!

50 yo Cruz Bike Maria to do 2013 RAAM for Sister

We often hear about people biking great distances and doing so for a charity. And almost always, with but rare exception, the cause was picked *after* they made their decision to do their ride of choice. One unsung hero in this regard is Paul Guttenberg, a pilot, who rode across America in 33 days for the 33 airline industry victims of the 911 tragedy. 100- 150 miles a day, with no rest days, Paul was motivated.

A 50-year old mother of four in Lumberton, NC, feels the same passion to speak to the helplessness she feels.  Her sister, a near twin, only ten months older, was diagnosed last year with terminal brain cancer. As such, she is doing the biggest thing she can to help. Maria Parker, of Cruz Bike,  is riding one of her company's front wheel drive recumbents across the USA in what Outside Magazine calls “the toughest test of endurance in the world”, the Race Across America.

The fear Maria feels for the challenge of  pedaling  at speed for 3000 miles to raise a million dollars to research a possible cures for her sister's near certain death blow, is humbling. She leaves Oceanside, CA, for Anapolis, MD  June 15.  Details as they emerge. In the interim. HERE is the Facebook page for  how you can help Maria  fund brain cancer research.

From the above Facebook web:

Compared to the Tour de France, RAAM is 1000 miles longer, has 50% more climbing, and *drafting off other racers and vehicles is prohibited*. Moreover, the top finishers cover the distance in less than half the time as the Tour de France. 

Only one woman has ever completed RAAM on a recumbent bicycle: Barbara Buatois, the French holder of the world speed record (75.5 mph on a streamlined recumbent in 2009), finished RAAM in 11 days 19 hours and 48 minutes in 2010 at the age of 34.

Coventry Cycles Owner, Marilyn H, Powers Thru Head Injury

Marilyn Hayward, of Coventry Cycles, has not only overcome the head injury that resulted

from her crash last August on a recumbent, but she is starting a second store up in

 Portland, OR. A true powerhouse indeed, she  likes powering through uncharted territory!

News Story

btw: My head injury which also happened in August, tho several decades before, made me a better person. And it is obvious that Marilyn is driven by hers as well..