Reverse Gear Blog

Since mid-December we have been cycling and visiting bike shops in Florida. This has been our first real opportunity to share with some of the recumbent community whywe developed REVERSE Gear and what we have learned in our first 1.5 years of manufacturing. So far the feedback has been very positive from retailers and cyclists that we have met.

This has also been our first ever chance to cycle Florida in the winter.  There are some days when we think we picked the wrong winter. Florida has had some of its coldest weather in several decades. In fact it was so cold in mid-January that the water-pipes to the RV froze.  Needless to say it slowed us down.

You kinda wonder why two people who cycled in Canada with goggles and face masks and long underwear would let a little froston the oranges discourage them. Well it’s probably psychological more than anything else. It’s difficult to pull out the winter gear to go for a ride when you think you should be in shorts. You think: “Maybe we can just wait until tomorrow and it will get better”. 

When we did finally get the courage to get out there, we were in Mulga and Wilga instead of Banksia or Belah.

When the weather finally turned to Florida-normal, we have had some awesome experiences cycling:

• Delray Beach
• LOST - Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail
• Fort Myers and Sanibel Island
• Longboat Key and Ana Maria Island
• Pinellas Trail.

In the meantime we have settled for walking beaches and a lot of reading.

Six months without cycling is starting to feel like withdrawal from an addiction now. For many good reasons, we have been off the trikes since we returned to Toronto from what turned out to be our half-cross-Canada excursion.

When we seperated from the Blind Guy Biking (BGB) tour we decided to spend a few weeks with Judi’s family in Winnipeg. We helped her dad sell his home and have a long-time-coming garage sale. As a result of the tour, Judi got the travel bug and she decided that we should buy an RV. In fact, she thought that if we bought it in Winnipeg we could use it to get home. We were unsuccessful however in our first bid so we left instead in a Dodge Caravan borrowed from Judi’s sister to get us home. It was a great vehicle for us because the two trikes fit in the back nicely.

Once back in Toronto the gypsy blood did not stop flowing. We continued to look for the perfect RV to suit our needs. The most important one was the ability to carry the two tricycles in the `basement`underneath. At the beginning of August we found a used 38-foot diesel pusher and thus started the next Judi & Len adventure.

We would sell the downtown Toronto condo and take to the road full-time - with the two folding GT3 trikes safely tucked underneath along side the golf clubs and with the Greenspeed tandem trike (GTT) perched on the roof of the  Caravan, which we could now tow behind. The Caravan would also serve as storage for the REVERSE Gear sample inventory which we could take with us to show retailers and cyclists - wherever we ventured.

The first trip took us to Interbike 2009 in Las Vegas in September to promote our new 2010 product line, and meet retailers and recumbent manufacturers. We received an encouraging reception.

During the Vegas trip, we discovered that the RV required a few repairs (covered under warranty). However waiting for the parts to do the repairs delayed our departure from Canada until mid-November.

 It`s now mid-December and we have now arrived in Florida where we have started our tour of the local recumbent retailers - finally!    

Suddenly, the withdrawal symptoms are having their effect. We are both keen to get back on the trikes. And the warmer weather is urging us on. 

We will update the RG blog periodically to share:

• what we learn from this new nomadic lifestyle;
• where we are or have been cycling - just in case we can join you; and
• who we are talking to about REVERSE Gear along the way.

We will occasionally also post to Twitter to tell you where we are or plan to be.

If you have any tips on where we should cycle, please share them with us by email to judi at reversegearinc.com or give us a call at 910-599-3939 (our new USA cell). We hope to see you ‘on the road’.

Lucinda tested REVERSE Gear in both Costa Rica and Martha’s Vineyard and has given it a “thumbs up” for cycling, kayaking and general sports. To see what she says about us,  go to:  http://www.guidedcycling.com/ and click on LINKS in the menu or read what she has to say here…

ReverseGear: Moisture wicking apparel that works with you, even in the jungles of Costa Rica! (Click this link for their website)
Designed as specialized cycling clothing for recumbent cyclists but also perfect for running and any other activities causing you to perspire such as running, kayaking, etc… Our company owner, Lucinda, personally tested a deep blush/black colored shorts [Corkwood] & top set [Sassafras Sleeveless]…not only on the Atlantic Ocean Island of Martha’s Vineyard but in the intense heat and rugged jungles of Costa Rica for several weeks.

Her comments about Reverse Gear products are as follows: For those that care about how they look (no matter how well the garment works) Reverse Gear has done a great job! I received so many compliments on my sports outfit (I wore while cycling, kayaking and even hiking in extreme heat) that I had been giving a test try (with a very open mind…as I own many brands of sports wear). And, it’s not just an attractive package with no substance! The quick drying material is very soft, comfortable and is geared toward keeping sweat from ruining your day. It keeps you dry, the material does not cause any irritation to my skin and does not seem to produce an odor while doing so as some other materials in sports wear do. With the top…I especially like the mesh-like panels that run down the sides which definitely helps to keep perspiration and excess build up of heat in the arm-pit area to a minimum. The placement of the zipper in the front is nice and flat and none of the seams cause any discomfort. Of course, the highlighted feature of the top for cyclists are the zippered pockets - so no more losing anything out of your pockets. The only thing that I would change would be the elastic at the bottom, which was not much of a bother but more my personal preference….and from what I understand they are redesigning without the elastic within the next year. As for the bottoms…it is a joy to find bottoms without the often added padding! They are also designed to make your rear end look as good as the material feels next to your skin! Many kudos to the folks at Reverse Gear for doing such a fantastic job with all the attention and design features they put into their apparel! I recommend you contact them today and place an order! Check out their website at: www.reversegearclothing.com

Our first blog told you how we got started - with the support of many friends along the way. We would be remiss if we did not thank a few others that have been involved in the launch of Reverse Gear Inc.

Our first customer was in PA. We want to thank Rob Gentry and Alicia for organizing a great recumbent cycle event, and for allowing us to showcase Reverse Gear clothing for the very first time - at both the pub night and the RBR rally. Rob’s site has many great photos of the event. While the cycling was great - the evening get-togethers with the other riders and sharing stories was also a wonderful way to get us back into the NA cycling scene (after being in Australia for 8 years). And of course there is the infamous story of BentJay with a squirrel in his lap. It’s going to be  a challenge for anyone to top that one.

Our first on-line customers found us because Bentrider Online featured the REVERSE Gear^TM launch - now relegated to the June 2008 archives. Len and I find it hard to believe that we’ve been around long enough to be “archived”. (Actually I meant REVERSE Gear^TM - not us!!!) Thanx to Bryan Ball for our first product review.

While the on-line orders were testing the REVERSE Gear^TM website, we were tearing across the USA landscape - state-by-state - on our way to CA. We cycled in a few wonderful places like Vail, CO which whetted our appetite for more. But we were rushing to get to the first Bent-up rally. So we were a first at a first, and Bent-up became the first dealer to carry REVERSE Gear.  We want to thank Dana and Neal for their hospitality and for encouraging us to take the cross-country tour to ride along the beaches. I love beaches and found the route along the boardwalk from Will Rogers to Redonda Beach is outstanding. I hope they do a second annual Bent-up Rally and we can go again.

On the way home we stopped at several dozen recumbent shops to meet fellow ‘bents and cycled in many states. One of those memorable rides was in Chicago from the Amlings location to the Chicago Botanical Gardens. Even though it poured rain the entire time the ride along paved bike paths, which Joe and Julie at Amlings had recommended, was most enjoyable. Later that day, Amlings became dealer number two. Thanx Joe and Julie.

We then returned to Canada to manufacture the fall line. And in those following weeks, the folks at Neighbourhood Transportation Recumbent and Foldable Bikes found out about us and became our third dealer.

 In August, we headed west again to WI and the 16th Midwest Recumbent Rally at the Hostel Shoppe. Again we participated in rides and displays of REVERSE Gear^TM . And before we headed home, Hostel Shoppe also decided to carry the REVERSE Gear line in their shop.

 We would like to thank Rob, Dana, Joe, Bruce and Rolf for supporting our early endeavours in this new adventure. And thanks to all of our customers in Canada, USA, France. Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Japan and Australia. We know we won’t always be able to “give thanks” to individuals but we wanted to acknowledge the ones that we can.

“Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse. ”
Henry Van Dyke

A creative start

If you’ve been to the Reverse Gear site, you have already met us as we cycled on screen. If you haven’t been there yet - check it out and let us know what you think. It’s not perfect - but it is “us” and it was fun producing the ’site-greeter’. However if you ask our friend David he may tell you that we had more “fun” than he did. Most of the site-greeters he has produced are done with people walking on or sitting still. Ours on the other hand was a producer’s nightmare with two moving single trikes, a tandem as long as a car, and a metal table that glittered and shone. Nonetheless, he managed very well with all of the on-screen movement and post-production removal of shadows. And since we were riding onto the scene it was also difficult to use a prompter for the script. So as to be expected we messed up the words. It took may takes and re-takes to get video that could be used. We would like to thank our friends David and Will for their patience on shoot day and applaud David at netvideomaker for making us look as good as we do - on our Reverse Gear site.

We did the site-greeter ourselves because we wanted  you to see that we are just a couple of ordinary cyclists - who wanted to “make a difference”. Len was complaining that cycling gear had not yet transformed to meet the unique needs of the growing recumbent cycling market. And I took that as a challenge!!! Anybody who knows us, knows that this is typical. I say “we can do that” and then Len is left “to do it”.

So in January over a bottle of wine, we scribbled some pictures of what cycling gear for recumbent riders could look like. In February we found Norm at Axis Gear - who agreed to help us manufacture. Several years earlier he had realized a similar dream of creating “adventure cycle clothing”. So he had already lived and learned from some of the challenges and has been extremely helpful. In April, we began manufacturing.

Simultaneously, Len was charged with creating a brand and a website so we could sell on-line. While we had built several websites in the past for Ashby Bachmann (our management consulting business) this one was more complex - with shopping cart and postage calculators and lots of photos. But Len and Pat at BlackCap Design were up for the challenges. Len came up with the name Reverse Gear, based on the fact that many of our items would be “back to front” or reverse of what traditional cyclists were wearing. And thanx to Krissy’s creativity at MouseInk we had a logo that we think says it all.

Phew -  just in time guys. We went live just one day before we left for the USA to launch the Reverse Gear product line at several bike rallies.

Thank goodness for friends

In our research of the recumbent market, we discovered hundreds of cycle dealers in North America and many great events and rallies. We narrowed our choice to three this year - PA, CA and WI. And then we hit our next challenge. We are “car-less” - so how would we get there?

Will and Yvonne to the rescue! They graciously lent us their Dodge Caravan. We loaded the boxes of new Reverse Gear clothing in the van and off on the road-trip we went. And Reverse Gear was launched…

More to come

We’ve got more stories to tell about: our travels, our friends, our supporters and dealers, our customers, our love of cycling and our values - of “making a difference”. That’s why we’ve started this blog.

We hope you will come back from time to time and share your stories about cycling and your comments about: the blog, Reverse Gear products, our dealers, and anything else relevant to the cycling community.

For now - I’m Len and I’m Judi and we are reachable through the blog comments or at Reverse Gear.