More Recumbent Choices Makes It Harder To Pick!

It’s at the grocery store and at the gas pump. Going to the movie is no exception. Been to a restaurant lately? It’s there. Or how about the latest, greatest, biggest mega-mall? Yup! It’s there too. What’s there? Choices. Not just a few mind you but hundreds of choices we have to make every day.

Now this may seem like a good thing to most, especially if you’re one that likes to shop, or believes variety is the “spice of life!” After all, what could be more exciting than walking into your favorite shoe store where there are no less than 200 different styles in your exact size to try on?

How about going to an auto plaza where every sports car that’s ever been made is there with a Gran Prix test track to do as many test drives as you can? Can you get excited about a fisherman’s paradise with every rod and reel ever known to man was available? Oh, and let’s not forget all the custom made fly’s you want.

Choices are a good thing…right? After all, how boring would it be without choices? Next time you’re in the market for a car, let’s see how much you enjoy choices then. There are 34 major auto makers out there, and 51 different models to choose from. By the time you add the two door models, four door models, hatchbacks, station wagons, convertibles, and sports car, with 4, 5, 6, V8, V10, V12 and V16 cylinder engines with the various choices multiply that by at least 10, or 510 choices.

Then add the LE, LX, LEX, Bill Blass, Cobra, McLaren, 300 S, 300 SC, 300 SL, 300 RX and you can multiply that buy another 4, or 2040. And we haven’t even gotten to the Mini-Vans, Family Vans, Work Vans, or Specialty Vans, much less trucks. Are you starting to get a little overwhelmed at the choices?

Well then what do you think about our ever growing recumbent market? Remember when it was easy to choose a model? There was Ryan, Tour Easy, Linear, Rans, Avatar, Vision, BikeE, Haluzak and some others. Some lasted and some didn’t but it was easy to make a choice because the supply was limited. And there was just about always one that you could find to fit your riding style and comfort. If not, you could always build one from the plans that were available.

Today we have Actionbent, Angletech, Azub, Bacchetta, Barcroft, BigHa, Burley, Cambie, Cannonade, Challenge, Condor, Cycle Genius, Easy Racers, Haas, HP Velotechnik, Human Powered Machines, Maxarya, Nazca, Infinity, Lightning, Light Foot, Linear, Long Bikes, M-5, Rans, Optima, Radius, Rainbow, Reynolds, Rotator, S&B, Sun, Terracycle, Toxy, Turner, Velogenisis, Volae, Vision, ZOX, and those are just the ones I know about. In that mix you have LWB, CLWB, SWB, and Tandems.

Then there are the Americruiser, Anthrotech, Greenspeed, Hase, Hotmover, Karbon Kinetics, Logo, Swiftlet, Triclops, Trisled, Optima, Trice, Windcheetah, Berkut, Dreirad, Mako, Natalia, Sidewinder, Stein, Zenit, Tripendo, Lieger, Scarab, Catrike, TerraTrike, Penninger, Hell Bent, and Organic Engine trikes.

So in total there are 39 recumbent bike builders, and 28 recumbent trike builders, and these are the ones I can find. This list does not take into account the recumbent tandem bikes and trikes, nor the Velomobiles. Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention there are high racers and low racers. So making it easy to choose the right recumbent for you isn’t as simple as it used to be.

Add to that the fact finding a shop that has one you can take for a test ride isn’t all that easy. The typical bicycle sells over 16 million yearly world wide. The recumbent market will sell in the neighborhood of 40,000 for 2004 world wide. Yet there are choices.

It really seems that in the face of choosing what clothes to wear, what shoes to put on, the fragrance of perfume or cologne to use, what do you eat for breakfast, then lunch, and dinner, what TV programs will you watch tonight, what movie will you see this weekend, do you go to the kids athletic events, musical performances, theatrical productions, which car wash, which bills to pay, when to take vacation, what to buy for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, baby showers, engagement parties, home interior shows, Premier Jewelry, Noni Juice, Herbal Life, eBay, web page, computer, CD, DVD, HDTV, CRAZY!

How did we get here anyway? You chose to read this. Another choice! Do you have enough choices to make? Shouldn’t it be simpler? Easier? Less stressful? Finding a great recumbent bike or trike shouldn’t be all that difficult. Right? But there you have it. We have allowed all these choices to dominate our life in the hope of making the perfect find. We spend so much time making choices that we don’t have enough time to enjoy what we chose.

Here’s hoping that your 2005 will find fewer choices you have to make. Enjoy the ones you do, and forget about the ones you don’t.