Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 5, 1993 TAG: 9307070444
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
As the Florida resident pedaled into middle age, it wasn't so much the narrow, biting seat of a 10-speed that was bothering her. It was the drooping handlebars that gave her a stiff neck when she leaned over them.
She figured there had to be something more comfortable for the aging Baby Boomer crowd.
"I just wanted to find a comfortable bike for myself," she said during a telephone conversation from her business in Boca Raton.
What she found - or founded - was a new company that is serious about revolutionizing the cycling market, with a low-slung, laid-back, big-seated, semi-recumbent bike.
It is called ReBike, short for things like reclining, relaxing, recumbent and rediscovering bicycling.
"One 65-year old woman told me she hadn't ridden a bike in 20 years and the ReBike had given her the opportunity to rediscover bicycling," said Skewis.
But the wheels of the ReBike aren't just spinning under the gray-headed crowd. At the Cardinal Bicycle shop in Roanoke, where the ReBike showed up about a week ago, some of the closest attention has come from young people, who may see a bit of a Harley-Davidson Hog in the design.
"I think it will be an alternative to a standard-style bike," shop owner Scott Leweke said.
Bicycling magazine picked the ReBike as one of the top 10 bikes of 1993, something Skewis figures is pretty amazing for her 2-year-old company which is part of a male-dominated, high-tech industry.
Skewis enjoys spinning the folksy tale of how she designed the ReBike one day while scribbling on a napkin in a restaurant.
She had taken a look at recumbent bikes, produced by a dozen or so small, exotic manufacturers, but she found their wheel base too long and their price tag too high, often starting at $1,000.
Lacking mechanical experience - she had been a school teacher and a travel agency owner - Skewis asked her father to help her build the bike she had sketched. When she pedaled it around the neighborhood, everybody seemed to want one, including the police officer who drove past, turned around, put on his flashing lights and pulled her over for a closer look.
So she drummed up some capital by selling her travel agency and contracted with a factory in Taiwan to reproduce her design. Later she located her bike business in Florida where she now has 20 employees and a growing list of shops across the country that carry her product.
"The response has been overwhelming from people who didn't know there was an alternative bike that is more comfortable," she said.
What you notice about the ReBike at first glance is the small 16-inch front wheel, the big riding-lawn mower-type seat and the tall Harley-Hog handlebars. The design is so radical you wonder if it will turn off serious bikers, who might envision it as a dachshund among greyhounds.
Leweke doesn't think so.
"Mountain bikes 10 years ago were a novelty," he said.
The ReBike allows the rider to pedal while leaning back with his or her legs out front. The large, padded seat isn't just comfortable - its ample back affords a pushing-type leverage to the pedals. The high handlebars allow a more relaxed wrist position; the extra-wide tires help absorb road shock; and the low center of gravity gives a feeling of security and lets the rider touch the ground flat-footed at rest. The view of the road is excellent because you aren't just gawking at the front tire.
Skewis didn't just design what many will find to be a more comfortable bike, she broke the price barrier doing it by keeping the retail cost under $500, something unheard of for a recumbent.
But how does it do in mountainous Virginia?
Well, in April, ReBike added an 18-speed model to handle hills, and Leweke believes that will be the choice of Western Virginia riders. Even so, it isn't expected to tackle lofty climbs like a mountain bike, but it appears destined to fill a niche in the biking world.
by CNB