Personalize it! Make it individual. Accessories for your bent! If ever there was something you could do that with it’s a recumbent bike. By itself, it makes a statement that you march to a different beat. There are still those little “extras” to really snazz it up and make it “yours!”

They’re gonna look no matter what! Recumbents turn heads wherever they go. It’s the kids on the playground at the elementary school you just passed, yelling wildly at the top of their lungs to get your attention.

Those runners you passed earlier, you can now see face-to-face on the return and they’re giving you the once over while trying to look like they aren’t.

The bikers who love to pull up alongside, revving up the mufflers to ear splitting decibels, to see if they can shake you. Yeah, you get plenty of attention, ALL kinds. Comes with the territory.

Accessories for recumbent bikes were practically non-existent just a few short years ago. If you went to a LBS (local bike shop), in some areas you would be completely ignored if you asked about anything for a recumbent. Now you can find things online. Just look and see how things are changing at Sierra Trading Post

Most LBS made a lot of their income from traditional bikes, and they supported racing teams whose riders usually manned the stores. So, it was a prickly problem.

In the first place, they didn’t have a lot of items, such as the 20” narrow tires or 20" wheels used by many bents. They didn’t carry the extra long cables for gears and brakes. It was also hard to find computers that had the extra long wiring harness required on LWB frames.

Lights flags, and other accessories used by recumbents, were pretty much ignored by “roadies” as extra weight! It’s only fair to say that not many “roadies” would be found riding at night using lights, and you would never catch one using a flag!

Retro and independent by nature, many bent riders adapted their own accessories based on need. “Weggie” riders wore the traditional Spandex or Lycra shorts and the Microfiber jerseys with wild colors and three divided pockets in the back.

The "bent" riding gear of the day might be baggy shorts or blue jeans, t-shirt, Safari hat, bandana, sandals, with a big bag of "goodies" hanging from the seat back. And it is not uncommon to see a bent go streaking down a trail being chased by “Roadies” (bent slang for road biker)! The Roadies wouldn't be after the goodies... just trying to catch up!

So all of the theory of special riding gear making you faster and lighter doesn’t always apply. It’s the engine. Compare the average weight of a “Weggie” at 18 pounds, to the 30 pounds of a LWB bent. Add the extras most bents carry and there is at least another 5 pounds. On flat ground the bent usually will have a definite advantage. It’s all about the human powered engine.

“But the times, they are a changin’,” so go the lyrics to a popular song from the past, and so it is with bent gear. Some of the disdain to look anything that remotely resembles a “Roadie” is giving in to the comfort factor. Jerseys designed with front pockets for bent riders are now available. Riding shorts with baggy legs now have Velcro strips to keep the legs from ballooning out.

There are retail stores that now specialize in recumbent bikes as well as on line, like Mark Powers and www.poweroncycling.com.

Mark has one of the only retail stores in Central Florida, dedicated to recumbents.

He offers custom equipped bents, custom made bents, carbon fiber low racer seats, parts and supplies for home builders, a great choice of "gizmos and gadgets," tons of patience (I have witnessed this first hand) and great advice backed by know-how.

It is safe to say he's "been there...done that!" Mark is a retailer, netpreneur, rider, and a skilled builder (in his "spare" time) with his Riptide SWB.

These days you can find seat bags to store spare parts and food for the ride, tailboxes and front fairings for better aerodynamics, body socks too, and they are all part of the emerging bent accessories list. There are fenders, bells, lights that can be seen from ½ mile away, Co2 tube inflators, the India Bicycle Horn.

Here's a good source for Equipment. Check out the Two-Liter Wide Mouth Slim Hydration System by NALGENE . These bladders are great to store in a tailbox, or you can get the bag that goes with it to hang from your seatback. While you're looking, take a peek at this Camelbak. My WAY favorite accessory is the Delta Zound Air Horn. Dude, the decibel level of this horn is unbelievable! It will cause that 4000-pound behemoth, getting ready to pull out in front of you, to come to a screeching halt, as they frantically look for the truck they think is about to roll them flat!

Dogs ears will go down like they were being punished, and they'll head back to their yard instead of trying to bite you. You'll get ugly looks from people when they see it was just a bike and not the truck they were sure was going to "blindside" them!

"So how does it feel," go the words to an oldie but goodie! Yes indeedy, how does it feel when you know that little bottle of compressed air can make that little horn sound SSOoooo BIG! And once you've used it a time or two, and see the startled reactions, you'll get that silly grin on your face just like the rest of us.

It’s also kinda neat to let the neighbors know you’re alive and well on an early Saturday morning ride. You can always claim you were honking at a dog!

Riding a recumbent bike makes a statement all by itself. Accessories just add the exclamation point! Whether you make it or buy it is of little importance. Making your own statement with “pizzazz “ and “flair” is almost required bent behavior!

I think if you look in the “Bent Book of Rulez” you’ll find it somewhere between the “required geekinezz factor” and “only riderz allowed!” Anyway, if your going to ride a bent you need to have a “bent” senze of humor!

Notice that does not say twisted, and it does not refer to the other kind of humor you can only get from a foreign object constantly trying to intrude rearward to become a part of your anatomy! Not there yet, huh? Weell, that’s how you separate the “smooth-faced rookies” and the “bearded wise ones.” You’ll know you’re there when you can say “get bent” with a straight face.