BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Peter Clutton of Australia has been demonstrating early versions of his bike for 12 months to global bike industry bosses but none have so far signed up for the bike so Clutton is going it alone and is producing some consumer-direct samples, 500 of which will be available in the US and Europe.
He’s also looking to appoint distributors across the world.
To see pix of the bike, go to http://www.stylyx.com
The ‘comfort’ in ‘comfort bikes’, of course, normally refers to bum comfort and the Stylyx bike features the bum-friendly Stylyx saddle.
"Our claim to have solved the century-old problem of bike-seat soreness may appear somewhat trite to the bike industry..but to the broad mass of consumers it will have a considerable impact when it lives up to the promise," Clutton promised Bikebiz.co.uk.
"I don’t think the bike is actually creating the ‘next big thing’ as that has been around for some time in the form of the comfort bike but most consumers don’t know about the comfort era, and those that do have been let down by a promise of "total comfort" that hasn’t proven up."
Clutton is producing 1000 Stylyx bikes which, he hopes, will spread "awareness around the globe of this new era in healthy comfort and easy-riding for all leisure, convenience and commuter riders."
The Stylyx frame offers a patent-protected ‘Personal Positioning System’ that "automatically locates the rider lower and further behind the pedals, producing a "vertical spine" riding position and a high-leverage pedalling action for easier pedalling. Pressure is removed from the hands, arms and shoulders and the energy-efficient leg action created is improved even more through a natural pull-back leverage from the handlebars, allowing the rider to spread the use of energy beyond leg power.
"We realized we had to develop a bike that would automatically position the rider correctly. For the first time in history, a new bicycle design was initiated with the seat design coming first, to overcome the long-standing problems..Then the bike frame was designed to position the rider to gain full benefit from the seat design."
Clutton’s bikes will be available from April onwards but are being advertised right now on his website.
Bikebiz.co.uk was shown photos and CAD drawings of the bike at lnterbike last year but had to sign a non-disclosure form. Clutton is a regular reader of Bikebiz.co.uk and is willing for bulletin board members to comment on the design, offering "an opportunity to influence the way the product reaches them."
