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September 11, 2003
What's a BIGHA?
I picked up an issue of the August issue of Scientific American from a friend. The facing page from the table of contents has a intriguing ad: it has a picture what looks like an extra-fancy bike computer. The ad copy reads:
BIGHA.com: The brain on a BIGHA predicts weather patterns, gauges heart rate and can store it all on a multimedia card. It's sometimes hard to believe it was designed by man.
I had no idea what was really be advertised here, beyond perhaps a fancy bike computer, but when I got the chance, I visited the web site.
I'll save you the time: BIGHA is selling a recumbent bike. It looks nifty, sounds like fun, and costs $3,000.
I don't know much about recumbents, but an FAQ I found on the subject says you can expect to pay $800 or more. Sounds like BIGHA is on the "more" side.
Still, it looks nifty. I'm guessing BIGHA is hoping the target demographic of this article will think so, too, and will be willing to pay the price. And if I had lots more money, I might check it out.
In the meantime, I'll continue to make do with my 15-year-old Trek 520.
Recumbents are to cycling what the Olive Garden is to Italian food. To generalize (and why not?), the recumbent riders I see are kinda pudgy, almost always engineers who think They Know Best. And it's not they go any faster.
Cycling has a huge tech barrier to entry as it is (drop in any shop and listen as various customers and help extol the virtues of this or that component): recumbents seem like an extension of that, as if it weren't already annoying enough.
And I couldn't visit the website because they use a version of Flash that's not supported in FreeBSD yet.
Heynow,
I have been researching "bents" (recumbent bicycles) for a couple of months now. I read from a real "Bent" rider that the BigHa is the H2 of bents....if I dive deeper, it is the Xootr of Push Scooters...If you get my meaning, then you understand that I have a xootr and want an H2 (have a Honda Element), and want a BigHA (& will probably have one by Xmas).
Sleep Well
The object of recumbents is to ride in blissful comfort. Speed is a function of the motor.
Your head is up, so you actually see everything you are riding past. The sphere of vision is elevated, more so than any other active outdoor human body position. It is quite profound: you see the sky, the tops of trees, a whole different scene than experienced from a wedgie bike.
Recumbent riders are always smiling.