A solar panel above and a small electric motor on the wheel of his AZUB Six bike was all the assistance Jack Butler needed to become this year’s Sun Trip Champion. The Englishman battled former champ Frances Jean-Marc Dubouloz who rode a WAW velomobile on a fiercely contested route from Lyon, France to the Sahara Desert in Morocco and back. Jack tells us all about his adventure racing history, the two wheeled bent he now loves and the highlights of this year’s nip and tuck race to the finish line.
If you’re starting to think about attending the 2024 edition of Cycle-Con this September we’ve got the guy with all the latest details. Mark Crews is the CEO of WizWheelz who produce this event every year. He joins me with exciting new updates on the exhibitors, venue and new policies for the largest recumbent show in North America.
Larry Seidman has a Sports Report on last month’s Waterford, Michigan’s HPRA racing event. Larry traveled there from his Colorado home to race and bring us this report.
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:58 What’s on Today’s Show
00:02:08 Panel Introduction
00:04:00 Sponsor Introduction
00:06:30 Jack Butler-2024 Sun Trip Champion
01:04:45 Cycle-Con 2024 update with WizWheelz CEO Mark Crews
01:31:15 Larry Seidman with the Sports Report on 2024 Waterford, Michigan HPRA Races
01:40:20 International Recumbent Bike Day-Viewer submission by Vernon Shaw
01:47:50 Sponsor Thanks
01:50:10 Announcements
01:51:30 Goodbye to panel and crew
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welcome bet Riders around the world my name is Gary Solomon this is international recumbent biking day and you’re watching the laidback bike report [Music] it is awesome to have y’all with us today it is international recumbent biking day we’re going to tell you more about that and what it’s all about in our viewer submission segment at the end of the show but let me tell you what else is coming up on today’s show first of all our featured guest is Jack Butler he is the champion of the 2024 uh Sun trip so many of you may know about the sun trip which went from France to the Sahara Desert and back very exciting stuff happened last month you’ll learn all about that in our first segment we also have Mark Cruz with us Mark is the CEO of whiz Wheels uh the the uh folks who put on recumbent cycleon every fall and there have been a number of changes to cycleon uh that they’ve made uh and you guys will be interested to find out about that so uh Mark Cruz will be with us in our second segment uh we also have our pal Larry Sidman uh uh who is doing a sports report with us today he attended the Waterford Michigan HPR racing last month or race I guess I should say he participated and he’ll tell you a little bit about his experience and uh and some of the results there I think you’ll enjoy that as well so uh let’s meet our crew before we get started here too far there is uh Larry Simon out in Colorado Springs Colorado Larry thanks for being with us today and helping out hello Gary and uh of course in rayon Mississippi it is Trey bin handling the media and who knows what else today Trey glad you’re here glad to be here good to see every buddy all right and in Alfred Station New York is that’s the home of the bicycle man it’s Peter stall Peter hi buddy he I’m here doing nothing in particular today but those guys work right okay well nothing in particular is still something I guess so we’re glad to have you with us as well now guys if you want to participate in the live show today the best way to do that is to jump on the live chat Facebook or YouTube you can uh type in a message you can ask questions you can make comments uh you can chat amongst yourself that’s always fun and participate in the community and please let us know where you are watching from we love to see that as well now if you want to support the laidback back report there’s a few ways to do it you can uh you can like us on Facebook subscribe to us on YouTube and you can click that little white eye that’s going to pop up over there it’ll take you to the laidback bike Report website where you can find out lots more about what we have uh published in the past what we’re going to be doing in the future you can buy a hat you can become a patreon uh supporter for as little as a dollar a month like these guys right here we always appreciate our patreon supporters so all right we have amazing uh corporate sponsors uh that uh support this show let me tell you about them right now first of all there is terracycle makers of Exquisite recumbent parts and accessories for your bent don’t just trike Adventure trike tery racks and bags are like having a personal Sherpa but without the questionable ethics and Trailside trikes a fine recumbent trike shop on the wuchi trail in Florida and terratrike green speed your vision whatever it is terratrike has a trike to take you there and green speed cuttingedge designs create performance through Aussie Ingenuity and laidback Cycles the top USA dealer for terratrike and the Premier Source for catrike ice and green speed we give you the freedom to ride and bicycle man where you can find new and used Recumbent Trikes and bikes we’re located in Alfred Station New York and have over 100 bents in stock and ready to try so why wait come ride then decide and asab they are a three-time winner of the trike of the Year award and have brought several unique technological solutions to the world of recumbent bikes for example the titanium front suspension on the tily trikes combined with tuned rear suspension it provides its owners with Absolute Comfort throughout the ride and recumbent PDX with a 150 trike inventory recumbent PDX is the West Coast only cat trike mega store we have over 20 trikes on our showroom floor just waiting for you to test ride through our beautiful Portland neighborhood call or email to schedule your test ride today and Connecticut Yankee Peddler we feature multiple brands of trikes including electric assist models test rides and Southern Iowa Hospitality are always available at our mega store in cheritan okay guys hanza can’t be with us today but we uh will look forward to having him back with us next month so let’s just go ahead and jump into our first uh featured segment with Jack Butler again he is the Suntrip 2024 Champion he’ll tell you all about that his amazing YouTube channel and the race that you guys uh might have been watching I know I was last month Larry let’s have a look I’m very excited to have with me here today Jack Butler the winner of this year’s Sun trip we’re going to talk all about that but Jack I’m so excited I’m glad to have you with us on the laidback bike report yeah thank you very much thank you very much for having me as well it’s kind of cool to be on here well that’s nice of you to say Let’s uh for the let’s let’s assume that many of the folks don’t know who you are I don’t know how that’s possible and what you’ve done and talk a little bit about your history Jack so uh first of all um where do you live and work and what is that work yeah so I’m a I’m a British guy but now I uh since quite recently I live in Germany so it’s quite a nice base camp I used to live in Switzerland for many years four or five years and that ties into where I still work which is H for a Swiss company uh it’s like a kind of in the tourism sector and we take guests to see the grand Tours basically so the tour to France I’ve got coming just uh next week if you’re going to date ourselves and uh the jured talot is finished now so in the morning before the professional ride has come we have a group of guests and there’s closed roads and all the police stop all the cars and everything so it’s quite it’s quite exciting it’s it’s a good job that is exciting so you told me uh earlier that you were going to be at the tour to France and I had no idea that actually involved the your work so well that’s that is very cool um all right so let’s talk about what you do adventuring and uh so I mentioned the sun trip an adventure trip we’ll talk about what that is exactly but this is not the first adventure trip that you took so let’s start there let tell tell me a little bit about your adventure touring uh in in the past what have you done yeah well it kind of um cycling for me all actually started in the most unusual way as a cycle career um I started working for I don’t know if you have it in the States deliveroo but it’s kind of the same as all the other food delivery uh PL uh companies uh that I started on a motorbike and I was like this just makes no sense when a bicycle could just do this better so I switched to a bicycle and that was God knows how many years ago and then I was into cycling ever since um obviously working for a company like that in the early days everyone was a cyclist so you end up with a big group of cycling friends and we know we all we all had plenty of money from the early days of these delivery companies so we’re all going on tours together and going all these different places I think the first big tour big tour um at the time it was a huge tour we went to the Netherlands because from the UK it’s quite easy to get there you take the ferry and the Netherlands is like the mecca of cycle easy cycle life H so that’s kind of how it all started for me and then the tours just kind of progressively get bigger and bigger when they don’t feel that uh scary anymore as you do a tiny step up from one t to the next and had you done a previous Sun trip uh before this year yeah so 2018 uh I did the sun trip which was the from Leon in France uh which is kind of the home of the sun trip in a way to guango in China so 2018 was uh around 14,000 kilometers um it was a big trip I wasn’t racing so much uh like I was in 2024 this recent Sun trip and my bike was not definitely not the fastest design or anything like that I was just going for more of the adventure and also I wanted to visit Asia without um flying I try and keep low carbon emissions so it’s it’s actually quite a convenient way to get there solar powerered bike right and so this uh this tour that I should say that previous tour that sun trip uh was on a bike but it wasn’t a recumbent bike that was an upright bike uh that you did on that tour and so you at some point between then and this year decided to uh to make that transition so I know our viewers are going to really be interested in this part of the story so why did you transition from an upright bike doing these tours to uh to doing a recumbent bike yeah for me I think it’s a bit of a a bit of a unique case in that I think I feel like sometimes a lot of people get pushed towards recum because they have injuries or something very specific but for me it was much more General it just seemed like it’s a depending on which bike you choose or build it’s a faster bike and you don’t have the all these risks of uh cuz on the toes it tends to be like the your wrists that really take uh take a pounding and your neck and it’s it’s with all the other things other than uh other than your legs which is the thing that’s powering you along and on the recumbent you just don’t have that same uh stress on your body which means you can cycle for longer in the day even if you even if you use your legs less I mean any minute spent on the bike is is a minute further down the road it just made a lot of sense and it’s faster so I mean why why wouldn’t you yeah makes good sense and uh if you’re going to be going that long Comfort is important because that’s going to eventually add to more time on the bike all right let’s get into more specifics here on this so was the bike that you used for the sun trip this year your first recumbent experience your first recumbent bike yeah so it was uh I spoke with azab and aab kindly um kind of part wanted me to give me a good discount on as of six which is a awesome touring recumbent um it was actually in time ready for the 2018 Sun trip obviously in 2018 it was planned to go from France to China again and then uh it was it was earlier uh for covid that China closed so it was quite obvious even sooner than the whole world knew covid was going to be a thing that um the sun trip would be cancelled and kind of this 2024 sunt trip was the the first big big sun trip as I would call it again so this is why this is what pushed me to to rejoin and I had the recumbent this whole time from 2018 until 2024 so I you know I’ve had it for trips and using it myself and I I really got to know it and I got to be able to get used to you know the slight change of muscles and I got used to riding because if you’re going to ride a a solar adapted recumbent especially a two whe one you better already be used to the recumbent normally before you start stra solar pels to it right and just riding a recumbent bike uh the muscles that you use are a little bit different than the upright bike as well so it’s great that you had a chance to and we’re going to talk about your training uh in in a bit here but it’s good that you had a chance to get going with that I’m I’m interested maybe a little bit more specifically on how you uh began your association with asub so did you know Han zagala and did that get started or why why did you choose asab give me that story yeah I think I mean for sure the sunp in general like there is it’s a majority recumbent uh race most of the years because it’s just frankly a better choice and aab was always kind of involved and hzza himself uh who who works as a took part in the sun trip um in the years before I even did my first Sun trip so there was kind of an obvious connection there for me um and I’d ra you know I wanted to be associated with a company that already knew the sun trip and already understood what the sun trip was about and then I managed to get in touch with hzza and aab and and it’s kind of the rest his history so um how about the preparation so you told me you had the uh the as of six for a while so we knew you were riding it but let’s uh talk about your training yeah so the the training was pretty intense I had uh I planned out a very intense leadup to the before the race around six months um I was already started in the training um obviously it builds and builds as you get closer to a race event so at the beginning maybe it’s 10 hours a week and then it gets up to 15 hours a week and by before you know before the race it was 20 hours a week of riding um not all on the not much on the recumbent in the winter because I would do indoor riding on the trainer to escape the bad weather in northern Europe um but using the you can use the recumbent bikes inside obviously if I go to the gym as well which is great um my always a concern was like building the wrong muscles but ultimately your aerobic engine is the thing that’s driving you and for me I find it quite fast to switch between recumbent and upright muscles it doesn’t take too long for me as long as you’ve got that solid base yeah so for six months it was quite a quite an intense Journey a lot of riding and very structured good and how about your mental preparation so I since you did the earlier Sun trip I I I’m guess seeing this uh what you anticipated for this year was not would not be a complete surprise in terms of how on a day-to-day long-term grueling trip like this you had to prepare yourself mentally was there anything you did to do that yeah I mean the fact that I’d already done 2018 I think was a big Advantage anybody that’s already done a sun trip uh really has a big advantage over everyone else because they really get it it’s not like normal bike touring like we all know normal bike touring ing it really is another category it’s like bike touring with a permanent state of urgency which is you know you could for example in 2018 I finished in 64 days so you know two months of a continuous urgency in everything you do like you have to get to sleep fast you have to wake up fast you have to fix this fast you have to ride fast you have to ride as long as possible I already had an idea of what that was going to be and I think without that um pre- prep it would have been uh a little bit of a shock to the system all right how about the uh the a set the bike itself uh what did you do to get it ready yeah well it was a absolute last minute Mad Dash to get the bike finished uh despite the six months of training preparation the number of hours it takes to complete the training and also working and everything finding enough time to also prepare the bike was was difficult and in the end I was rushing until the last the bike was finished like 48 hours before the race um yeah so for those that don’t really know the Suntrip so much maybe it’s somewhat confusing um there’s this number of rules uh from the organizers like for example there’s a uh there used to be a limit on the battery which was uh first lifted this year uh there’s a limit on the minimum solar and the maximum solar which is the most important uh metric because yeah you could could have a huge battery but it’s ultimately the size of the solar panel that dictates how much energy you can gather in order to power the bike uh all of the Power for the bike must come from the solar panels or solar panels that you’re carrying so it’s kind of a key consideration for everything um I had a motor in the front wheel a direct drive motor which meant I’m able to do regen braking when I’m going down hill which saves the brakes but more importantly recovers energy back into the battery that I’ve just spent going uphill I get at least some of it back um obviously um bicycle is not quite as massive as a a car so you don’t get uh the same amount of energy but any energy back in a race that is basically uh to people against each other scraping any energy they can from anywhere um is is absolutely vital uh the solar panel on this bike was overhead uh which is a big thing because shading is a is a problem if you shade even a small corner of the of the panel you cut down the production of the whole thing maybe 80% or or something like that uh for example in 2018 the panel was on a trailer behind me and in the morning because we’re heading east if you if you have a shadow coming from your head and it lands on the panel you’re cutting a lot of your a lot of your production uh and also tilting uh which was a new for me this year the panel tilts because uh this this sun trip was France to the south of Morocco the Sahara Desert and back so it’s actually the first north to south Sun trip so you know when you’ve got a sun that travels from east to west suddenly the tilting is uh even more important than ever uh because you know there’s a certain number of riding hours you’re allowed during the day youve got a 14h hour window in the day you’re allowed to be moving so when you start at 6:00 a.m. the sun is very low um so you need to get that panel tilted over just to squeeze every amount of power you can yeah can you can you describe that this is probably a good point to do that you had uh you have a very unusual mechanism for tilting that uh solar panel as you rode could you describe that for us maybe we can show that as you talk yeah so um some people who uh who ride trikes might actually already know this um you can buy a a normal brake handle but it has two cable exits so you can operate two brakes with one uh one brake handle using those two cables I was uh pulling a cable all the way to the front and to the back of the bike which would release these two cogs around the cogs there was a chain and then this is what would uh free attached to the solar panel and once it was released you could I could use my other hand pull the thing with this hand and then just angle the panel where I want let go of the the brake and then it would lock it in place uh some of the other some of the other guys had like an electronic system which is very cool but a big uh sort of philosophy I suppose of or a design goal my bike was to be very very light uh that was kind of my advantage and how did that uh tilting um how did you decide when it was time to tilt were you watching the uh the amount of voltage coming off that panel as you wrote and saw it dropping and then you knew it was time to to tilt it was it a couple times an hour how how did that work yeah I mean um you can you can I can see live on the cycle analyst I have with the special firmware uh for solar a connected solar panel you can see live the power that’s coming in in Watts um for sure you can you can hold the panel and just angle it so you have the highest number but the easiest way especially in a morning is you can look at the shadow of the panel and you need that shadow to be as Square as possible because if it’s not if it’s not square and you’ve got like a longer rectangle it means that the the panel is not perpendicular to the sun um so that’s usually the fastest and easiest way because you could fiddle around quite a lot to get one watt more or two Watts more but because I’m not on a trike I’m on a bike there’s left and right movement anyway in the bike so you can get it pretty close and yeah throughout the day you you’re slowly clicking it up until for the majority of the day it’s close to Flat because you know it’s uh we’re not in the depths of winter so most of the time the sun’s fairly high in the sky good all right so attached to the solar panel was uh the motor that you had could you and this was a hub motor uh and you talked a little bit about the regen that was uh that you found very valuable during the trip can you talk a little bit about the motor that you uh that you put in yeah it was a it was a motor by a company called crystalite I think it’s a I think it’s a Dutch company I’m not too sure it was a G40 is the model it’s one of the smallest and lightest uh direct drive Motors I could find because really my kind of philosophy was um the first thing is I wanted the bike to be ridable without any power you don’t you don’t need power to ride the bike in almost any condition um so if for example I had a full day of like a thunderstorm or rain I actually don’t need the motor whatsoever it’s it’s people forget when they see you know there’s always the people that are like oh electric is cheating at something um but ultimately it was just a bicycle and when I had Sun my average speed was higher is the best way to think about it so for that for that to lean in into that I wanted the smallest direct drive motor I could get because the smaller the motor the smaller the magnets the less resistance you have when the motor is turned off um which means the bike’s just like perfectly ridable just like normal which is ideal for me all right you also mentioned uh some of the electronics that you uh that you thought were very helpful uh for software and such could you describe uh how those were an advantage to you would you like the system that was was controlling all of this yeah I had um so I the motor controller was from gr Tech uh the I had the Bas Runner controller it’s like the smaller the normally the phase Runner is the one everyone has because there’s like a split of people on ebikes and I’m in the smaller camp where I want as little power as possible but normally people on ebikes want as much power as possible so the base run is really tiny controller but really powerful software and I had there’s a custom software you can put on a cycle analyst which is a little display that shows all your different details about the ebike side of things and basically you can see Power out to the motor and Power in from the solar at the same time so if you want to try and balance them you can if you’re trying to save up battery for later you can it’s really it’s so convenient because when you’re Absolut absolutely exhausted on on the race like this you really just need any any convenience you can get you’ve just got to take it because it’s really valuable it makes life much easier the my design philosophy was to keep it very light um so no trailer I had racing I had road wheels on 28 mm road wheels just because I would have had wider Wheels but in the in the wheel sizes I had that’s the widest I could find so that saved the math kind of balanced out that it saved quite a lot of rolling resistance which was nice um but in the end I I had two spare tires and ended up trashing these racing tires um just because the weight was so high and it’s not really the intended use case uh I had the lightest bike in the race it was uh without luggage it was 49 kilograms which meant I was the lightest uh of everybody which uh I think in the end helped contribute to doing so well good and those tires uh what did you end up replac you said you tore them up so did you replace those on the back wheel I have a tire that I saved from 2018 it was a schw all motion unfortunately I think I might have the last one in the world um tried something really cool um they decided okay let’s make a Touring bike tire with the fast rubber compound of our racing tires and with the fast sidewalls of our racing tires and they basically built a really wide touring tire that’s tubeless compatible with the really high puncture protection and it’s really fast it’s like you don’t it’s a big like 55 millimeter what’s that a 2 inch tire but you almost lose nothing to a skinny Road tire Unfortunately they don’t exist anymore unless you want to come and take mine but yeah I was I’m very happy with that back tire the front one is a because on the my asab is a 20inch wheel at the front so 20 inch is a difficult size to find fast tires um so it was more of a robust kind of cargo bike kind of Tire I would definitely take uh road tires again 28 millimeter is just not the right choice but it’s just I was limited by my wheel sizes which is interesting because kind of you know the the Touring bike standard is that a 26inch wheel is the gold but really I’ve I’ve been a lot of places with the bike now in Kazakhstan and I’ve also traveled around West Africa and Sagal and and Geneva and and 700c is becoming the new standard I don’t there’s not that many places you would go where you’re going to lose 26 now and 26 the tire the choice of tires is not not good anymore yeah you’ll always find something for 26 but 700 C is so now I think it’s time to take a look at the race uh and we would love to hear your stories about this so let’s start out if you could uh we’re going to assume people really don’t know about the sun trip you talked a little bit about the past one and but could you describe this year’s route where did you start where did you end talk about the route course so this this 2024 Sun trip was um it was kind of its subtitle was destination to so starting in Leon in in the south of France um there was not really a set route uh I think there was seven or eight checkpoints that you had to hit on the route so it’s basically kind of like a rally featuring checkpoints the first one was on top of the Pines that everybody had to go over the same St Martin pass close to the bass country and then into Portugal down to the south of Spain you take a designated Ferry uh cross into Morocco then in Morocco there’s the most checkpoints there’s like six I think five or six checkpoints in Morocco all the way down the coast of Morocco to the South and then that’s when you head over the Atlas Mountains and into the Sahara Desert and then back up north again same Ferry back to Spain one more checkpoint in Spain and then over the Pyrenees and into back to leyon again so it’s a big a big loop I think it was uh about it’s about 7 7 and a half thousand kilm um this time around so it’s a a real proper Sun trip again one of the big adventure Sun Trips great all right so let’s take uh the audience uh to the start that first day uh tell me about how that felt were you excited were you worried uh tell us about the first day the start of the race yeah well the everybody kind of arrived uh two days before the official start because we have to do the technical inspections and go through the briefings and things like this so it was good it was good to get to meet everyone um especially you know there’s there’s former Champions there you know the the guy this year in the in the Ville John Mark he’s the former champion from the year before uh ref van hul was there who’s won two Sun Trips so these are like people that I really look up to so it was cool to like kind of mingle with everyone but I’d come to this sun trip with the intention of trying to win and I tried to I tried to keep it as discreet as I possibly could so there was a lot of like I don’t know I was feeling nervous you know seeing other people’s bikes uh because John Mark’s bike for example is is incredible it’s it’s an amazing solar racing machine and yeah at the start at the the that’s the wild vobile yes exactly yeah yeah it’s it’s an incredible machine and he’s got he’s almost exactly on the limit of the maximum amount of solar allowed the solar area and he has very high quality solar panels so it’s about as good it’s about as perfect as you can as you can make a solar bike the only disadvantage he had against me is his bike without luggage is like 85 kilograms or plus even more so he had a lot of weight and he had one more wheel on the ground that was his uh his disadvantage but yeah at the start I was I I kind of had this idea of if if I can be first over the Pyrenees I stand a chance if not then this uh you know if I can’t beat the vmobile over the mountains there’s no way I don’t I just can’t do anything but if I’m first over the Pyrenees then I’m going to race for the finish and if not then I’m going to slow down and maybe take a breather and enjoy it a bit more that was my that was my thinking at the beginning I’m interested knowing how many contestants were there in this race Al together this was actually the Qui I think the least contestants in any sun trip uh in in history possibly I think it was like how many people was it maybe 20 or something a bit less maybe 15 I’m I’m not I’m not 100% sure but yeah for sure there’s much less people than usual um it’s like a smaller addition yeah well being at the front of of the pack for most of the race I guess you wouldn’t have had the opportunity to to see as many of them as maybe some of those folks further back so that’s that’s not a bad thing I guess um okay so uh you you’ve gotten started now and and looking over uh you you you did the race so let’s let’s take a look back here now so um I’m interested in the best days that you had describe for us if you would what was just the most fun amazing what when did you feel the best what was the highlight of of the trip or highlights well talking again from close to the start um I it turned out in the end that I was the first over the Pyrenees which nobody expected like I was the really the underdog everyone expected the former Champion to win again because he has the best bike and he he’s already won so when I was first over the PES I thought I think everybody was like whoa hang on a minute what’s going on here and that was that was amazing moment I mean I didn’t hold the lead for long because obviously straight down the other side the Bell mobile easily takes me uh and he actually set the record for the longest Suntrip day on that day I think it was 475 kilometers in in a day um and he took he took back first place of course in front of me but that those days heading into Portugal absolutely beautiful like Inland Portugal in that time of year is kind of like late spring it was amazing yeah the just fields and fields of flowers it was it was really really proper bike touring really nice riding um but there’s so much as well like in the in the and then finally being in Morocco in the Sahara Desert and there just like camels crossing the road it literally couldn’t be uh you couldn’t be further away from those two opposites the flowers in Portugal to the absolute desolation of the desert in Morocco yeah there was a lot of highs it was it was a great trip wonderful all right well let’s let’s draw a contrast then so were there some moments that you were worried uh about the the remainder of the trip maybe you didn’t know whether you could go on or maybe there were some dangers tell us a little bit about uh about the worries or the worst parts of the trip yeah I mean I mean I say it was a great trip but I mean it’s the it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done by by a factor of 10 I was in a you know you have this 14-hour window in the day where you’re allowed to ride and you need to be moving as fast as possible for all of it every single day with no with no stop it’s it’s absolutely Brut physically it’s absolutely brutal I was completely shattered like exhausted after the you know after two weeks and in the third week it was uh it was real real exhaustion it was really hard to be honest um but you know there’s always there’s always a there’s always a positive spin from you know you might be exhausted but you’ll be in a beautiful place so and for me I think a challenge with being in Morocco um is I I really when I’m bik toing I really hate being chased by dogs and in the north of Morocco oh it happened so many times thank God I have the ebike for that um because you know I always kept even though tactically speaking it’s probably not the most efficient way I always kept a like 5 to 10% Reserve in the battery I never EMP it completely just so that when I get chased I can accelerate away from uh dogs chasing me it really I like one day getting chased like nine or 10 times by packs of dogs it really GRS on me uh mentally I I found that so difficult and the last couple of days leaving Morocco I was like I was ready for European soil a little bit to be honest well and you have to you have to think that being in theel Mobile would provide a bit more protection against wild animals or dogs coming after you then you being so exposed on that bike huh yeah for sure and they also they can’t see his legs um a lot I think a lot of the excitement and the reason they chase is they see the spinning of the legs and if you can’t see that I think they just don’t really bother with you that much yeah that’s I was so jealous of the vmobile for this you really you really are protected from everything you know you’re protected from the Sun you’re protected from the rain you’re protected from environmental hazards yeah I mean perhaps in the desert when it’s like 40 5° cus he’s probably not thinking about that much but you you are you are really you are really well protected and what about I guess what a lot of uh ordinary uh recumbent Riders think about on long trips would be encounters with Automobiles and traffic and such did you find yourself at any point feeling worried about traffic and cars uh collisions and such not really um I think actually the worst in the trip was Portugal for for vehicles Morocco people tend to be fine they give you plenty of space in Spain I think it might be actually a legal thing where they have to give you 1.5 meters so in Spain you Spain no problem really really easy uh but yeah maybe in the north of Morocco it’s busier you know I’m like it’s a Race So I’m filtering through traffic with this ridiculous uh solar panel and bike so perhaps not the safest of riding conditions anyway like a normal bike tourer but really yeah the drivers in Morocco not not bad not bad at all um I mean I think you would be more risk from a truck in Portugal than you would be in Morocco from my experience okay good all right jack Let’s uh let’s think back then to the race and I’m wondering what your favorite uh stories uh that you might be thinking about are uh what were some really happy memories uh or interesting stories or funny stories that you made have for us yeah well a lot a lot it feels like a lot happens in what’s technically not really that long of a time um one of the one of the main checkpoints of the trip was the there’s a a mountain pass in the Atlas Mountains called tizzy and test kind of comes after Marakesh and I kind of I think everybody knew what I certainly knew that that was the start of the Hard Sun trip because up to that point you’ve been you’ve been in France Spain and Portugal which is the easiest bike touring ever especially in Spain all of the West Coast of Morocco is very developed it’s basically European Standard of everything you know supermarkets and the roads in Morocco are very high quality uh but after that pass uh that that we kind of knew that was where it’s was going to really begin and a few years ago there was an earthquake close to Marakesh close to that mountain pass that kind of destroyed the road completely so it’s unpaved up up and over the Atlas mountain and I I’ve been thinking about that pass for so long like so many days you got nothing else to think about and actually being on it and being like Oh God here we are I’m going over the atlas right now we got I got up to the you know maybe 10 kilometers from the from the top and I I have this in one of my YouTube videos I can’t believe I caught it on video we’re going through these really big switchbacks and around the around the edge of the mountains and I look down across the valley and I see second place coming behind me I see this white vmobile maybe a kilometer away across the valley I couldn’t believe it I just looked back and I was like wait a minute that’s him I’m sure there’s nobody else in a vmobile out here in the mountains in Morocco and at that point I was like well I’m GNA have to Sprint to the top of this mountain to get this next checko first I just couldn’t believe it really this this whole the whole race we we first and second position mostly Jean Mark was in first and in this vobile but we swapped first place maybe five six times always he would go he would always avoid elevation and go around the mountains and I would just take the shortest kilometers and go over everything which worked out in the end he did uh by the end of the sunp he did 500 kilometers more than I did and I did 7,000 meters more climbing than he did so this was this was a strategic decision that you had thought about obviously in the past and I know because I know a lot of folks were following the end of this race and the Jean Mar and and you going back and forth and uh I know from a couple of your videos this is really what you consider to have been the best decision strategically to have won this for you is that fair to say yeah yeah I mean um yeah if I if it be we the gap between us at the finish line was what 4 six hours if I’d been slightly heavier or slightly less fit or slightly anything I would have uh I would have lost the race or something some one more thing had broken you know six six hours in in three weeks is nothing yeah it was it was very uh very tight but that was the goal yeah be light and fast um I think another one other thing that I think uh most people saw online when there were people who were following live there was a live map all the time you could see us with the GPS was um the rush for the ferry um to leave Morocco and go back to Europe there’s only one Ferry and it runs I think three services a day or maybe two Services a day uh and in a race where you trying to maximize moving time if you get stuck waiting for a ferry that’s an absolute disaster that’s that’s an example of something that might lose you six hours um so from the final checkpoint in Morocco Jean Mar was quite far ahead of me he was maybe 100 200 k no maybe he was about 100 kmers ahead of me something like this and uh I could see on the map that he was going to make it to the last Ferry of the day which was at like 8:00 p.m. or 900 p.m and I knew at that point that if I didn’t get on that Ferry the whole race was over for me it was that was the Finish Line as far as I was concerned at that point and uh yeah after two and a half weeks or something of or two weeks of racing I was already exhausted and I just had to I spent four hours or something almost at a full Sprint just sprinting towards tangia to get to this Ferry and people were watching online like oh is he gonna make it is he not because you could you could count the distance I always have on my phone like uh I have an app where you type in the distance uh and the time you have left and it g it spits out the speed just so I don’t have to do the maths on the calculator spits out the speed you have to do so I did the calculation I said okay I’m doing this speed whatever happens if as long as I don’t drop under this speed I’ll make it to the ferry and I absolutely flew through tangia honestly I I must be the Suntrip rider that’s been airborn the most I was like every speed bump everything I was absolutely flying and thankfully I’ve got full suspension uh because I was at that point I was say if the bike breaks I lose the race if I don’t get this Ferry I lose the race so there’s only one that’s gonna there’s only one I get a shot at and yeah no problems thankfully and I made it with like minutes to spare I got to the ticket desk and they they closed the like check-in gate just as I came through it I was the last person through oh so without a doubt the most critical aspect of the whole race for you then yeah really I would have lost I would have lost the race right there that would have been I would have had to take the morning Ferry and I would have lost yeah hours and did you see so you obviously saw Jean Mark when you got on the fer like was he Crest Fallen he like what did he go oh no yeah I don’t think he was very happy he’s a he’s a lot more competitive than I am it sounds as though I’m competitive but I I think I explained in one of my YouTube videos really I I have to force being competitive it’s not my natural state it’s not it’s not in my nature to be competitive this this sun trip was me making a conscious decision like come on Jack we’re going to be competitive we’re going to win something so I’m just happy to I was happy to see him but I think he wasn’t be happy to see me Jack maybe this is a good point to uh talk about not just the competitiveness of the racers but maybe the camaraderie and uh and the helpfulness between you uh were there any uh were there any parts of the trip where you saw or were involved with riders helping each other I mean I didn’t see any of the other writers other than John Mark but we have this big group chat all together and the camaraderie between Sun Trippers is so cool in in 2018 obviously I saw people and it was always the best when you could ride with other people uh you know and I I helped u m Mikel y yit I think it’s called um his trailer hitch was broken and we were in Ukraine together and I helped him fix that and then he went on to come third place I think or second place um so it was like just cool to be involved but on this Edition uh not so much I was kind of watching from the sidelines in the group chat of like people like uh ah my motor this is wrong with my motor and this is wrong with this my my frame has snapped here where’s the welder of this and yeah it was uh it’s always nice to see I mean the Suntrip spirit is amazing there really is almost two Sun Trips at the time you know you’ve got the people at the front who are crazy people and uh you’ve got the the normal people which is everyone else the adventurers um so yeah it was good to watch it was cool the the thing that uh I was thinking of maybe I got this wrong I thought from one of the videos of yours that I watched that Jean Mark maybe gave you a strap or a string or something that help that you needed for was it the tilting mechanism did I get that wrong yeah yeah no no he he gave me a some dyema he has this because he’s I think he’s into sailing like a lot of these guys are lot of these guys are into sailing for some reason it seems to be like an overlap with sailing and the sun trip yeah gave me like a length of dyema to like fix my uh uh tilting system which is so cool now it’s like Suntrip spirit all all all along which is so nice exactly yeah that’s what I was thinking when when I saw that so perfect great all right let’s move to the end of the trip uh which turned out to be a as uh we all know now a Triumph uh for Jack Butler but uh I I’d like to hear it from you so I don’t know where you want to start last couple days or last day whatever you think is a good place to start tell us about the end of the race for you yeah well that was also similar to the story of the ferry that was also fairly iconic um Jean Mark was ahead of me all the way across Spain on the way back uh he hit the last checkpoint first and yeah he was basically ahead the entire way uh not that far ahead a couple maybe 100K or 200 kilometers but it’s quite a lot in uh you know the high level racing terms um yeah so coming before the Pyrenees I knew the Pyrenees would be critical again like at the beginning I’d been first over the Pyrenees the first time and now we had to go back up over the Pyrenees so I knew that that was going to be critical and this time we were going on the east side where Barcelona is so I knew that his root Choice was going to be vital and based on what he’d done up until that point I was sure that he would try and go to the coast and go around the Pyrenees as much as possible so with a friend two friends on a WhatsApp group where we picked this route which was basically I absolutely went in a complete straight line straight over the Pyrenees the most direct route possible uh to save as many kilometers and balancing not too many meters of climbing and yeah Jean Jean Mark in the vobile he we were we were watching like as it was happening I’m riding and I’ve got my phone on the handlebars and we’re like watching like where’s he going to go where’s he going to turn and he turned East towards Barcelona and then we knew okay he’s going for Barcelona now I have to attack over the Pyrenees I have to really go and yeah he he went to he went through the suburbs of Barcelona on uh one of the biggest public holidays of the year um which is everything’s everything’s closed all the supermarkets are closed all the hotels are closed um yeah it was just really bad rooting um which was like absolute Saving Grace and that that evening uh he ended up sleeping in his tent like behind a supermarket on the outskirts of Barcelona because there was just nothing open he couldn’t find accommodation he couldn’t find anything which I knew again was I mean as awful it is for Jean Mark um we’re all used to camping by this point I knew it was an advantage for me because uh hopefully I could get a decent accommodation I could be more rested I needed the muscles to get over the Pyrenees yeah and at that point it was like okay what kind of neck and neck and we realized after I came over over the top of the Pyrenees I came out in front and he came out behind and then it was just a desperate scramble to stay ahead after the Pyrenees all the way to Leon it’s fairly flat and it favors him quite well if it was a headwind uh I probably would have lost but because it was like not that much wind maybe slight tail wind that’s a big advantage to me the big advantage of the vobile is it cuts through the cuts through the air or cuts through the wind so if there’s a Tailwind he basically loses his advantage to me um at that point he’s riding a trike and I’m riding a bike so anytime there’s a Tailwind I get a huge Advantage so thankfully everything just kind of went well I didn’t have any punctures didn’t have any issues and I just like desperately clung on to first place until the end and yeah that’s it and how far ahead of him were you when you pulled in uh I think the Gap was 6 hours or no it was 4 hours even yeah uh so yeah nothing now we yeah we did seven seven 7 and a half thousand kmers and there’s a 4 hour gap is is basically nothing and describe that scene for me as you uh pulled to the Finish Line what was that like there absolutely surreal I couldn’t believe it it’s like this uh iconic fountain in shury the finishes in shury it’s just just close to Leon in the on the mountain side and the organizer the CEO of the sun trip is there and like all the organizer people and there the banners and the the Rope I just it felt completely like a dream honestly because I I’ve I’ve dreamed forever since watching the sun trip in 2015 and 2013 of of one day winning a sun trip and then that was it it was happening the the suffering first the suffering was over and now the the moment was here you know the the thing that I’ve kind of suffered for this whole time so let’s uh kind of finish up then with some of the way that you document uh this trip and the previous trips you have a wonderful YouTube channel we just briefly mentioned it and before we talk about your channel which I want the folks to know about which I find wonderful uh personally I’m just kind of interested in the equipment that you use the audio and video equipment that you use uh used on this trip or maybe what you’re thinking about using in the future maybe what you used in the past how do you go about doing that so tell me about the uh videoing your YouTube channel and and the audio and are you happy with what you use well um like I think uh I’m not sure whether I completely mentioned but a big a big focus on this sun trip for me was to absolutely maximize my moving time and like any moment you spend stopped is uh is a big disadvantage I think talking about the stats again I think I cycled for 20 maybe 15 or 20 hours longer than John Mark in second cycled so his average speed was 20 28 mine was 25 but I just cycled a lot longer and that was thanks to kind of My Philosophy with the video making was to keep everything on the bike so I used my phone for all the filming at the beginning I had a lapel mic but unfortunately it didn’t work very well so I quickly got rid of that um I used all the phone for the filming and I actually edited I did a YouTube video every day I don’t know how I managed it I really don’t know how I how I pulled it off and I edited the video while on the bike most of the days like 70 80% of the time I had like a a video editing software on my phone and in the last one hour of the day I would edit the video of the day so that hopefully I could finish the day and just get eat and sleep as fast as possible just because it’s Jack just hold on a second let let me make sure I understand what you because this is shocking to me you actually did the editing while you were writing the last hour of the day yep for me the the that hour is so valuable uh so to be to be able to do it while riding is is like great I mean on the as of six your handlebar is like up here you have your phone on the on the mount yeah the the if you see if you watch the go and watch the videos they’re not anything technical there like Transitions and and that’s it I just have to cut I have to cut correctly and transition correctly and do the music and that yeah they’re not they’re not too special but saving the saving that time is so valuable in 2018 I had a little Sony camera which is much better quality but it just adds another step of getting it to the phone and then doing that and then I I had even had a laptop in 2018 I didn’t have anything I had almost nothing with me in this time Jack I have to I’m sitting here right now trying to decide which is the most amaz more amazing accomplishment the fact that you won the sun trip or the fact that you were able to create all these amazing YouTube videos while you were riding the sun trip physically on the bike pedaling this I had no idea that you did this I thought your videos were really very good and but I assumed you got done you were camping or whatever and you were able to to like take a little time during your exhaustion and just did it and then went to sleep I had no idea this is amazing to me this I’m astounded by that I mean I’m also I’m also surprised I started at the beginning the first few days saying uh I’m going to do a video every day at the beginning and then when it gets too hard I’ll just stop and that’s fine but it’s kind of like that sun cost fallacy you know you get you get three days in you get five days in you get seven days in and you’re like well I’ve I’ve done it every day now I can’t break the streak but I could tell you for a fact the I would always do the upload I would upload when I get like in an accommodation with Wi-Fi or whatever and most of the time I would fall asleep uh like typing in the YouTube d dets before I could press upload I would fall asleep before I could press upload any other Adventure uh traveler that I have interviewed of course has always done it after the end of the day and many times gave up you know would have to wait days to do this and so you know I had this question in my interview question you’re like what basically like what did you how did you balance giving up uh you know maybe being more competitive going further during the day so that you could edit but clearly you’ve answered the question now you just didn’t give it you were you you refused to compromise which I salute you I don’t know how you did that Jack that’s well the the compromise is on uh on mental strength I suppose I suppose all right um so I guess finishing up with the actual shooting of video was there anything that you saw that you missed getting on video that you maybe wished you did get on video something like that yeah I mean it’s the phone is good for convenience but I think for sure people catch more stuff when they have like a continuous recording I know some of the guys in the in the chat the check guys they had like car camera kind of thing so if something interesting happens you’re always going to get it for sure in the videos I wanted to I I really wanted to show people like being chased by dogs is horrible and it’s just I didn’t not have the mental capacity to fill being chased by dogs I mean I I film myself in some of my lowest moments on the trip like CU I always know like afterwards you kick yourself you think like Ah that’s the most interesting thing that happened but you didn’t feel like filming but I for being chased by dogs in the country where rabies is still pretty widespread I I couldn’t do it I’m too scared probably more scared I’m definitely more scared than I need to be but I wish I would have got a good video of been chased that’s I mean that’s YouTube clickbait all over now yeah for sure but I honestly I think you made the right choice so you’re right itself and the and the race were compelling enough so yeah I’m glad you didn’t decide to that all right so Jack Let’s uh let’s finish up with talking about your amazing YouTube channel so uh you documented this race on it uh some amazing videos there but it’s not where you started and I’m interested in uh in the Genesis of your thoughts about YouTube what why did you start a YouTube channel when did you start it and what did you start with yeah well my channel has existed for a long time uh I think I started when I was like 17 or 18 or something like this uh back in the day I I wanted to build a the reason my channel kind of got a foothold is because I had this idea like I’m I want to build a a tiny house inside a shipping container but I I just by coincidence come to that conclusion kind of the year before that shipping container tiny house thing was a thing just just by coincidence not by being smart or anything so my videos were there of me trying to do this thing when people started looking for oh shipping container houses oh tiny houses uh so I mean I don’t have many subscribers but that’s kind of what gave me once you have a thousand subscribers I think you know and and your videos are like normal and you’re a normal human uh you people tend to follow you know that the people that followed me and were leaving comments comments in this sun trip were the same people 10 years ago that were commenting on my on my first videos so it’s like so nice like they like you know it’s uh kind of the nice way that you want the internet to be of like this community of people that are real people that exist so yeah it’s just kind of evolved and adapted the I eventually sold the shipping container uh because I realized like oh I really want to travel and you know when you’re when you’re 17 the idea in your head is like this is the place that I live and this is where I’ll always be but um so I sold that and uh eventually I built a van for for living in which is a similar similar transferable skills you know this it’s a shipping container on Wheels almost and yeah I did made some videos on my bike tours and and bits and pieces yeah it’s just kind of of the van was uh notably uh fueled by renewable uh fuel wasn’t that part of what you were doing with yeah for sure the um I I’m trying to keep a very low carbon footprint hence which is what pushed me for the original Sun trip I don’t fly I stopped flying uh many years ago now um originally then I at the time I went vegan to try and compensate the carbon emissions from the flying but then I eventually gave up flying anyway so so now uh now I’m like losing two things uh yeah the van the van I converted to run on used vegetable oil and um so it’s a waste product uh and you know it’s different from mineral uh oil as in like uh fossil fuels in that the carbon that’s in the vegetable oil is just carbon that came from the atmosphere went into the plant and now I’m burning it back into the atmosphere again it’s it’s carbon that already exists in the world in the cycle whereas if you dig it from deep underground you you’re increasing the amount um so yeah and also it’s a waste product so restaurants don’t want it uh cafes want it it cost them money to get rid of it so I’ll take free fuel that’s no problem for me uh especially in Europe it’s uh slightly more expensive the fuel over here than other places I certainly couldn’t afford it if I had to buy diesel all right well Jack your your uh YouTube channel is wonderful and I encourage all of my viewers to uh have a look I think they’ll find lots there to enjoy it’s called Jack Butler videos that’s the channel name yeah the tag is yeah Jack Butler videos or the channel is just in my name which is Jack Butler there’s another famous Jack Butler I’ve just got to try and get more subscribers than him and then we’ve made it on YouTube that’s the current challenge for you yeah I think that’s good you’re always looking for a new challenge clearly so all right well what about uh the future Jack uh what’s coming up for you what do you what are you thinking about for uh future Adventures or plans yeah I mean I really I traveled around in West Africa I think I mentioned it earlier in like morania and guine BAU and Gambia and senagal and uh just the amount of mopeds down there I just really I’ve always kind of had this idea that I want to build like a a super hybrid so kind of a it’s a bicycle electric vegetable oil solar it’s just like a multifuel uh Contraption kind of my end goal my end engineering goal life project is to take my van or take a a a vehicle and convert it to Electric completely myself from a from an engine to electric and I feel like doing a moped or kind of a bicycle moped thing is kind of a good stepping stone in that direction so maybe that’s in that’s maybe that’s in the nearest Future well good I think we’ll have to I’m sure we’re going to see if you if you start that project we’re going to see how that works out for you on the YouTube channel Well Jack uh any before we uh we close out here anything else uh you wanted to talk about that we might have missed uh I can’t think of anything uh but thanks for having me I’m a big fan of the show uh it’s going to be weird seeing me on it but yeah yeah just thank you very much I don’t think it’ll be weird seeing you at all oh maybe for you because I I see myself as well Jack it it it’s quite an honor for me to have you on um I could tell you that when you were racing uh I uh my wife and and I were in Sweden we had been to Germany at spy and uh were visiting a friend in Sweden and uh doing a little touring along the Baltic uh nothing as adventuresome as what you do but uh my friend uh Alva Henrickson who is the the swed that was uh hosting us had taken us along was a huge fan this is really how I uh really got to know you and he every day we would wake up and we’ go wherever we’re going and he goes did you see what Jack did I cannot believe what this guy did and so I started following then and kind of got caught up like so many other people did so Jack a total pleasure for me to have met you online hope hopefully we’ll get to meet each other in person somay I wish you all the best thanks for coming on the laidback B report thank you very much I really appreciate it thank you very much it was a fun interview with Jack uh we were hoping he could be with us live today as Jack mentioned earlier in the interview he leads tours uh of the grand Tours and actually right now he is leading uh a group of folks uh at the tour to France so uh we weren’t sure whether he was going to have time to join us today it looks like he won’t be able to so for those of you who have asked some really good questions uh that only Jack can really answer in the live chat I will uh take a look at those afterwards we’ll make sure that Jack sees them and I I think what will end up doing is putting them in the uh comment section of this video uh when it posts Live on YouTube so uh thanks for those great questions we’ll hopefully get Jack to answer those later and thanks to Jack Butler for the amazing interview all right guys let’s move on to the next segment this is something of interest to many of us uh here in the US for sure cycle con is a uh is an event that we have attended for a number of years uh lots of great recumbent manufacturers uh are there showing off their Wares this year there have been a number of improvements uh things that the guys from whiz Wheels have learned from previous cycle cons uh and I think uh those that attend this year will quickly notice uh some real improvements uh so I had a chance to sit down with Mark Cruz the CEO of whiz Wheels earlier in the week and we talked all about what’s coming up this year in cyle con so Larry let’s have a look I’m happy to be here with by pal Mark Cruz from whiz Wheels Mark how you doing today good Gary thanks for having me Mark let’s start from the top let’s assume that some people have no idea what this cycleon thing is at all tell us what cycleon is and and why do you put this event on yeah yeah um so you’re well aware of the the history with Charles coin has been around for a lot of years um he wanted to back out and retire and we said I mean not that we know any better but we said we’re glutting for punishment let’s take this on and uh keep it going it’s important to the recumbent industry so we want to create an experience for current Riders New Riders and the recumbent curious um that they can kind of come together um we want more people to know about what options are available to them you know not every Bike Shop out there carries recumbents um people are curious about it they’ve never been on one um and we want to expose more people to it um and then by bringing everybody together it kind of builds that community of riders uh in also important from our side and the other brands I feel like is building an industry around it uh before we took on cycleon you know everybody’s kind of left their own devices and the brand would kind of oh what are they doing oh what are they doing and it secretive and and since we’ve taken it on um we’ve we’ve actually built you know good relationships better relationships with the other brands uh to where we can openly talk about where things are at what we need to do better uh as a group so it’s it’s been really encouraging and I think uh the feedback we get from other brands is awesome yeah I agree and from talking to the many manufacturers and retailers that I speak to all year long they would agree with that too it’s a it’s wonderful what you’ve done there all right so this year uh psychon returns to Zen Ohio tell us exactly where and when uh this is happening yeah so September 20th through 22nd in Zenia Ohio will be uh cycleon 2024 um the 20th is a dealer industry day only and then the 21st and 22nd is open to anybody consumers anybody that wants to come and experience it and check it out um the beauty of Zenia and the reason we’re back there again one the Green County Fairgrounds uh just been phenomenal to work with uh getting us what we need and working through the improvements that we want to see this year but Zenia is an area a lot of people just don’t realize but there are four major Trail systems that come together right in town um it’s a it’s a not even a mile away from the fairground so you’ve got tons of riding opportunities so again kind of going with the theme of creating an experience for everybody we feel that any location we go to has to have a good riding trail system the community supports it there and people can come and Camp uh or stay in a hotel whatever form of camping you like and spend the weekend dabble into cycleon experience a new TRS and bikes and then go for a long ride um that’s really what we want it to be all right and Mark last year one of the really fun parts of cycle con that I’m still hearing about from folks are the group rides that were put together are you going to do that again this year we are for sure the group rides were a big hit um I think we had 60 people pre-register and who knows how many unfortunately you know holding up traffic at times but again the community is used to that not you know 100 people riding down the rail trail at once but the community uh was very uh open and we didn’t get any negative feedback from it and people love doing it the brands that put it on um I know like ASA hza had some great feedback for us they were glad that they were help uh helped sponsor one of the rides so we’re definitely doing that again uh we don’t have specific times yet for those rides but that’ll be on the 21st and 22nd um and one thing I did want to go back to real quick just to encourage any dealers bike shops are listening out there the 20th is just for you guys and it’s a chance to conduct business and talk with Brands see what might work for your shop and then uh Schwab Tires once again is sponsoring the uh dinner for those dealers at the end of the day on Friday so it’s a great day to to come for uh for bike shops okay and you mentioned the accommodations hotels airbnbs as an option and camping uh specifically uh I remember folks were camping on site right there at the fairgrounds last year that’s still available any it sure is um to be clear you do have to reserve that through the fairgrounds I believe you can do it right on their website um but that’s all on them uh but it’s an accommodation that they’ve helped us with and yeah great new uh sites there last year that they put in uh electric hookups um so yeah it was great you could literally walk from your camper right over to cycon and right all day on the demo track super super all right Mark uh let’s start talking about the actual uh uh customer coming and attending cycon and there’s been some changes here uh notably about um about the cost of Entry uh you’ve made a little change there could you tell us about the changes you made what’s it going to cost and and why you made those changes yeah absolutely thanks Gary the um so it is $5 per day uh for an entry into cyon and we had some people saying hey let’s you know always keep it free and we really really try hard to do that um but confering with other exhibitors and looking at where they wanted it to go and where we want it to go we do have to add that $5 charge it’s very minimal um but it helps offset the growing cost of putting this event on and when it comes down to holding the events or not holding the event versus charging the $5 we said people want it exhibitors want it let’s charge of $5 um and looking at the feedback we did a customer survey uh last year after the show and there wasn’t a lot of negativity towards something like that so uh we’re going for it but that’s allowing us to do more with the show so one thing is just having more Staffing uh our own team there to help people out uh the biggest thing that you will notice is that we’re in a different building this year at the same Fairgrounds much much bigger um last year we were overwhelmed which is awesome the number of people that showed up but if you remember Gary the aisles were pretty jammed I remember playing traffic cop through there getting people moving and this is going to allow us to expand that presence and give uh more space to the aisles and accommodate the additional exhibitors that are coming this year as well so that’s awesome um we’re going to do better with the uh entrance to the show we had again a we overwhelmed we weren’t prepared uh this year we’re prepared and um there’s some new things that we put into place to help accommodate that again reason for the additional cost um you know simple things like going out and and making sure we have a crew that can go out and actually sweep the demo track this is a Fairgrounds they have livestock they have all sorts of events going on and we want to make sure that the demo track is nice and clear get all the little Stones off of it and stuff so people have a great experience um we have improved food food options one of the feedbacks last year was you know to to have something offer different rather than a greasy burger you know some people are good with that but a lot of people aren’t so we’re expanding that having some better vegetarian options um some healthier options as well um there is a lot of behind thee scenes work you know my staff is running crazy uh trying to get this together and again all these little things just add up to costs for us um one of the cool things that we’re going to do this year here is the first 1,500 pre-registered uh people will get a swag bag can’t say what’s in the swag bag fully yet um but that $5 will help go towards that as well so lots of other things to go through um yeah I don’t know what else did I miss there Gary that we’ve talked about one thing I think you might want to talk about in terms of the test track is there’s going to be a separate test track uh that Stein trikes is involved with I understand yeah yeah talking about the exhibitors um again one of the beauties of of running this is really getting to know the exhibitors and talking through what do you guys want this to be this is our show not not wiiz real show but collectively our show and Stein trikes approached us said man we have the biggest suspension trike out there and we want to highlight it pavement doesn’t do it um they wanted something unique and we said well let’s figure this out we’ve talked with the fairgrounds working with them they’re going to have their own mini demo track um their Booth is strategically placed where you’ll be able to actually go into their booth and then exit out the backs side of their Booth to the outside to a pre-done track and they’re going to have obstacles that people can ride over to really experience what off-road triking is like uh specifically on on their product so that’s going to be pretty cool I expect there will be a little bit of a line at the Ste Stein TR Booth to to check that out so that’s really cool I’m guessing Janet will love the line anyways it’s something she that’s a problem I’m sure that those fol problems absolutely exactly all right and the the other thing that folks have uh talked about uh with me for years especially the attendees is they’ve always felt there was a bit of a lack of ability to buy things to actually go to cycon and purchase anything from accessories to actual Trikes and it has been a bit of a conundrum as far as finding a way to to make that work Mark I understand you guys have been working on that what’s up with that yeah so uh again feedback from exhibitors um and then feedback from consumers too last year which was uh awesome to to get we we love that feedback um initially with with the show we didn’t want it to turn into um kind of a a bargain sale uh flea market type situation and so we’re a little bit resist resistant to that at first and as we talked to exhibitors more and then the feedback from consumers last year again your voice is heard so let us know um was overwhelming that you know they’re not necessarily looking for the flea market aspect but man you see this cool you know Avis lock system that’s there or uh you know a rear rack you need uh from a teror trike or whatever um they want to be able to buy that and the exhibitors can help offset some of their expenses by being able to sell some of that uh to the consumers so we’re opening that up it’s up to the exhibitor uh they’re not required to be able to sell anything that’s on them um but uh a lot of them want to bring some extra things that they can uh sell off to Consumers and let’s face it you know we’ve all been to different shows in the past and be able to walk away with something that hey I bought this that whatever show uh is memorable um and so we want to help create that experience as well so perfect no I think that’s great I think it’s a great Improvement all right let’s stay with the exhibitor uh subject here the and talk a little bit about who is coming who are who are going to be uh behind the tables at the booths this year that you wanted to highlight here for us well first off I got to say what’s what’s awesome to hear is all the exhibitors uh that are are signing up I don’t think we’ve heard from one that says we’re going to bring less stuff this year everybody’s said we’re bringing more product we’re bringing more staff um so I know Mark from Catra just talking to him he’s going gosh we had people waiting we we didn’t have enough product there so he’s bringing more uh more capabilities more trikes more Staffing so in general there’s going to be more opportunities to ride uh there which is going to be awesome U but some highlights too ha ha’s back um they had uh scheduling conflict last year uh so uh they’re going to be back which I know a lot of people are excited about they got some cool products to try out yeah Mark they just uh they just showed a new trike at eurobike I noticed uh so I’m guessing they may even have that there for people to take a look so yeah our fingers yeah go ahead yeah um and then Yan from vobile world uh was super excited after coming last year um and I know you’ve talked with Ben as well they are they are stoked to be there what’s really going to be great is going to actually have some demo velm mobiles there um which is awesome I mean these are as you you’re aware and your your audience where they’re not inexpensive velomobiles uh Top ofthe Line stuff and you’re going to be able to climb in one uh with the help of the staff there uh and go try one see what experience a Vel mobile uh at cycle conon and that’s going to be really really cool um to to help grow that side of the the market as well um we’ve got new exhibitors uh grin Technologies out of Canada uh decided to to come this year that’s great to see their motor systems and what upgrade options uh customers have um we have mattaline jet bike and Tha Arrow hand Cycles coming that’s all brought to their uh the US Distributors bike on so they’re going to bring those there which is awesome uh carbon trike formerly uh petta trikes um is going to be there as well so we’re going to get to see what used to be the CT 2.0 I believe um I’m not sure if it’s renamed or or what’s new but they’re going to be there which is exciting uh Schwab has always been a great sponsor of the show but they’re actually going to have a booth there this year which is exciting you’re can see all the cool tires and tubes and was really awesome is they’ve been pushing for tube Recycling and so they’re going to have on-site tube recycling there and we’re still hashing out the details but if you bring in a tube you’re going to get entered into win something so bring your your blown out tubes doesn’t matter the brand uh just bring them in they want to collect that stuff so just just doesn’t end up in the The Dump so um and then what we’re really excited about as well is Wahoo Wahoo trainers um is going to be there and I think training the indoor trainers from a recumbent industry side there’s plenty of people using them but uh we’ve got a lot of uh people that are kind of new to cycling and getting on recumbent is is getting them back out there well we want to expose them to trainers and what that can be uh throughout the winter so Wahoo’s going to be there and they’re going to actually have some trik set up on trainers which is going be awesome you’re going to be able to see what it’s all about and how you can ride in the winter and how you can ride in the bad weather so we’re super excited and that’s not negate anybody else that’s there as an exhibitor but these are some new ones that I think uh your your audience is going to want to hear and then the attendees are going to want to visit lots of new things to see and a great big new venue which like you say that was one of the drawbacks last year everybody was uh surprised to see so many people and it was a bit cramped but we’ve got that licked it looks like for this year that’s that’s great and so uh finally the seminars so you had a lot of good folks speaking last year that seemed pretty well attended we recorded all of them and those are all up on YouTube so we’ll we’ll be happy to see if we can do that again for you this year how’s that going uh what do you have anything you can talk about yet or what’s going on with the seminars um nothing I want to throw out there as as uh you know dialed in for sure but again we’ve got the customer feedback the attendees that gave us their feedback last year this is what I want to learn about this one I see um we’re we’re working on that we want to create some staple uh seminars for people um you know we will have something on basic repairs um I know uh Larry has has done that in the back in the past and kind of some ad hoc repairs on the road but we also heard people want to know how do I change a flat tire right how do I keep my derailer from clicking how do I adjust the brakes if they get worn so we’re kind of going to dial that back into a more basic uh seminar for people more palatable um and we’re going to have some of the Staples still there uh and there’s some others I’m not ready to throw out there yet that we’re working on trying to dial in the seminars but again we’re listening to that feedback and I think the seminars this year are going to be better than ever super all right well that’s great I I think that pretty much covers it all uh if folks want to stay up to date if they want to get a ticket uh at to attend if they want to see who the latest exhibitors are where can they find out this information yeah go to our website it is cycle hyen con with an n.com with an m and uh you can get all the info there you’ll be able to register through there um we have decided to take on any uh online registration fees you know sometimes hey it’s $5 but oh now You’ got to charge this processing fee we’re eating that so it’s $5 per day go will sign up you can sign up for two days one day whatever if you don’t do it online that’s fine you can register right there at the show uh no problem but again if you want to get your hands on a swag bag you got to pre-register so we know how many to to have there and I really just think it’s a great opportunity for people to come and check things out and they get to see their Heroes like you Gary me you you’re a celebrity well I hope you’re counting on More Heroes besides me to make the draw here but thank you that was very kind of you mark so we’re we’re always excited to come to cycon always a great time you guys have done such a wonderful job we’ll have a booth there as always manned by some of my crew and yeah Trey and I and I think Larry’s coming again this year we’ll be out and about doing lots of interviews and seeing as many of our viewers out there as we can find as well so we look forward to that well that sounds great mark thank you so much for sharing all the information about psychon 2024 uh we will see you there and the rest of the guys from Ang gal from wiiz Wheel so uh thanks for coming on the laidback bike report again Mark yeah thanks Gary appreciate the time and the V of confidence behind psychon um I think it’s gonna be a big great show this year and uh yeah we look forward to seeing you there again see you in Zena okay thanks Mark yep see you all right well that was Mark Cruz CEO of WI wheels and with us now uh we’re happy to have Marshall Randall the marketing director and the other guy deeply involved with psycho con Marshall are you there can I hear you let’s try that out can you yes we can so that’s great because we have uh a couple of questions uh for you that have come up uh first of all anything to add to uh to what Mark said man um just this I mean there’s still exhibitors signing up which is so encouraging even you know we’re halfway through the year not that many months out and yet there’s still some excitement some brands that want to get in especially some of those uh from spey which has been interesting uh I can’t get into the specifics of it I don’t recall all their names but a number of them have reached out to us so that’s kind of cool kind of exciting and then regarding the seminars yeah I think the seminars are going to be top-notch this year again can’t spill any of the beans but man I’m excited so there you go good good all right yeah me too so it’ be great to see you guys there and see what uh the changes that Mark talked about put into action so all right uh first of all I got an email this morning from a a viewer out in California Daryl ask a couple of questions first would it be possible to have a Bike Rodeo for new and experienced Riders to learn and demonstrate riding techniques on city streets and paths so I don’t know if this would be in conjunction with a seminar but I’ve seen the bike radio types of things at other events have you guys thought about that at all you don’t know and and it wasn’t it was so interesting to see as I mentioned in my text to you the shirt you’re wearing because uh I used to own some bike shops down in Charleston South Carolina and one of the things we did we we did host uh bike rodeos for the uh you know younger kids and stuff and get them introduced to wearing helmets and that sort of thing this is a little bit of a different topic if you will but uh I think that’s a neat suggestion uh noted okay yeah the Charleston bike shop that that was a shirt I I wore when I was recording Jack’s uh interview when I was out in Colorado at the time so I think you mentioned that to me before that you actually worked there which is a great Bike Shop of so it’s crazy yep the other question that Daryl asked about is something I think we’ve talked about before with you which I’d love to see could there be a Corner devoted to a do-it-yourself projects experimental bikes and Trikes and the such I would love to see this talking about spy they do have the inventors lab uh which is always a highlight there people love to see what people come up with what do you think about that have you talked about that with Mark and such no but you know here’s the interesting thing too is I think Mark hit on it I can’t recall but we have so much more space this year than we’ve had in the past uh we actually have reserved an empty Hall that’s like my gosh it’s it’s we probably have an additional 5 to 7,000 square feet that we can explore some of these things that have been brought up so you know the inventors lab and things like that uh I’m taking note of that I think that’s again within the realm of possibilities I think the one thing that Mark and I are leery of and that’s compromise what we have taking on too much you know uh our resources get kind of tapped um but these don’t seem like you know crazy difficult things so within the realm all right we’re glad to be in the realm there all right so uh my buddy Mark Feldman has a question and this is a good one we really didn’t touch on we we told everyone it is uh in Zenia is the location of the venue uh there is no Zena International airport so for folks coming from around the country or maybe around the world where are they going to fly into boy I feel like I should ask my friend Gary Solomon that question given that he lives there but of course there is the Dayton Airport that you can fly into and then there is Cincinnati and there is Columbus and I think in that order of closeness would be Dayton Cincinnati and then Columbus very good that’s exactly what I would have said uh Marshall the Dayton is the closest one honestly any of those would work uh maybe if you’re flying in uh check out and see what what the best prices are for each of those because you know that can vary widely depending on what airport you’re uh you’re flying into so that would uh be a good thing I think for yeah you know to to further address that Gary would you say that Dayton probably has the more limited direct flights whereas Cincinnati and Columbus are going to that may be the case honestly don’t know I could I always fly out of Columbus because that’s actually where I am so Dayton is is a pretty big airport usually has a lot of flights but I honestly I don’t know for sure so you should probably and it depends where you’re coming from obviously so you know do uh Google flights or whatever you guys use to uh compare flights to a particular area and see what you could come up with so all right uh unless there’s anything else Marshall I’m going to say uh uh goodbye just for now uh and we’re going to get into Larry’s sports report I’m going to bring you back withar after that because Marshall has his hands in a little bit of everything including racing his uh his green speed arrow and so um Larry will talk a little bit about what happened uh in the sports report we’ll bring Marshall back up to to chat with as well so thanks Marshall we’ll see you in a little bit all righty all right so yeah we’re gonna we’re going to see the sports report now L recorded this uh report from uh uh his uh experience at the Waterford Michigan race and uh he’ll explain all about what he saw and the results uh right now Larry let’s have a look thanks Gary I was excited to take part in the HPR human powered race America racing weekend at Waterford Michigan on June 15th and 16th Gary covered this event in detail last year check out the link in the description below if you would like to see that for today’s sports report I would like to share my experience of the racing and Racers at this year’s event before the first race was the checkin and inspection by the official to make sure brakes and gears were working two mirrors were used and each racer had a properly approved helmet this took longer than I expected let me now explain each bike racing category here first are the streamliners these are restricted to bikes where you cannot get your feet down to start or stop usually these are two wheeled Vehicles next are the stream Street Liners these are where the racers must be able to get feet down or be able to self-start these also include the velomobiles next are the stock vehicles and have any any number of Wheels they can have these can have no fairing or can have either front or rear fairing but not both next was a V with e assist and last are the trikes which use the same rules as stock but must have three wheels the first race was a faed 1-hour time trial this consisted of how many laps each racer could do in one hour Dennis grr won in his Cuda W Streamliner setting a new track record completing 24 laps averaging 32.75 miles per hour Jonathan Walters came in second setting a new record for Street Liners in his bulk velomobile completing 21 laps for an average of 28.67 mph the unfaired 1hour time trial Was Won by Jonathan Walters completing 19 laps averaging 25.99 miles per hour Saturday afternoon was the hill climb and Coast down Riders start at the bottom of the hill and race up one at a time then once at the top they Coast down as far as possible and Mark with chalk the spot the spot where they came to a stop the hill climb Was Won by Ethan elbaz from the Toronto University of Toronto in 18.8 seconds on a stock vehicle Jonathan walers came in fourth but he set a class record for Street Liners in 21 seconds Dennis gr tied the record for streamliners on his way to winning the coastdown Jonathan Walters came in second and set a new record for Street Liners the one kilometer race which was scheduled for 300 p.m was cancelled because previous delays pushed it into dinner time there were discussions of possibly doing the kilo after dinner but time ran out and it never took place Sun day started out with the Sprint where Racers start at the top of the hill pedal down one at a time and are timed over a 200 foot segment Jonathan Walters was the fastest setting a new record for Street Liners with a time of 3.02 one seconds or 45.1 39 miles per hour the last events of the weekend were the road races where the course was modified to take out the hill the these were divided into two separate races in the farer doing 25 laps Max Dennis gr won in his Streamliner lapping the entire field completing the 25 laps with an average speed of 28 miles per hour Jonathan Walters was second and set a record for Street Liners doing 24 laps averaging 26.3 milph in the unfair 20 laap race gr won switching back to a stock vehicle coming in 29 minutes and 39 seconds averaging 25.25 miles per hour also in the stock category Peggy Thompson raced her G4 two- wheeled recumbent this bike made by our husband Ron set a record for the fastest woman doing 15 laps in 30 minutes and 2 seconds for an average speed of 18.65 Miles hour the overall winner in each category is determined by accumulating points for how each racer finishes in each race for each of their categories so in the Streamliner category Dennis grk won that Jonathan Walters won the street liner category Daryl hanger won the stock category in the Vel with e assist category was Jane hun Peggy Thompson won the woman’s category and last but not least I won the trike category thanks to Marshall and Joe leaving before all the racers all the races were finished I participate in many cycling events where I’m the only Rider on a recumbent it was nice to be welcomed and included with so many recumbents in the racing events it was especially nice to see so many young students from the University of Toronto there Mike Mt Dennis gr and the crew divide up the responsibilities of running the event in a way that allows them to race as well they do a good job of splitting up the categories this means that even though I was on the track getting lapped by faster Racers on faster vehicle I was still able to compete against myself and others in my trike category I would like to thank Marshall Randall of whiz wheels for loading me a terratrike spider which I use to race I usually race my green speed Arrow but flying in from Colorado to also visit family sure beats a two-day Drive I felt comfortable and competitive on the spider it turned out to be a great alternative to racing my arrow and special thanks to organizer Mike mowt on for his superb spreadsheets and racing stats which he has generously shared with us today more HPR info can be found at the recumbent. comom website you can find links to all of these races in the description below I had a great time at Waterford this year and hope to come back in the future if you’re interested in the next HPR racing event it will be July 13th and 14th at Northbrook kosha velodromes that’s it for now back to you Gary all right well first of all Marshall I I think you need to explain yourself what uh what did you fear uh for why were you afraid to go up against Larry in that in that spider which apparently did real well what was the problem so you know I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced this fear either one of you but there’s this smallish woman with curly gray hair that accompanies me to a lot of my events uh Gary you’ve had the pleasure of meeting that individual um staying in line and un schedule uh with that particular woman uh stepping out of line is my biggest fear so when I was told I had x amount of time to uh give up for this uh yes I I I Walk the Line so Larry actually owes your wife a vote of thanks and for his for his victory right okay good that’s good enough I I think everyone out there understands what you’re saying Marshall so all right well Marshall can you uh now that you’ve you’ve seen l report I we are interested in your in your thoughts what did you think about Waterford what what do you think wow what was it like so Gary I don’t know what Larry shared with you but there were so many more participants this year holy cow that was so cool to show up and I think there was easily twice as many people if not more than what were there last year that was amazing and so many Vel mobiles wow so many V mobiles participating this year the next thing they are so so stinking fast uh my ego probably got the the better of me and I came into this a little bit well a lot less prepared than last year but that doesn’t really matter I jumped in the first event I did two of the uh both of the one hour sessions and the first one I jumped in with all the Vel mobiles big mistake holy cow I mean I kind of thought maybe there’d be a chance I’d be able to catch a draft off one of them but as soon as I would hear them coming and think about accelerating they were gone yeah yeah there’s nothing behind those there’s no air there there’s nothing there was nothing to grab I just kept wanting somebody to throw a bungee cord out to me something a rope anything let me grab it uh but and then the the streamliners wow again just I think the overall speeds being on the track with those slippery Vehicles is just it’s a amazing it is just really amazing great athletes and great machines yeah good Larry do you want to have any final thoughts here before we leave the report no Marshall summed it up really good all right you guys I obviously you uh you’d recommend others join in on the fun if they can uh on any of these HPR races absolutely because you know again there was such a I just made it sound super competitive and super fast and and maybe that’s a little bit of misjudged uh uh an unjust opinion for that because there were people that just having fun too I mean what a great way to be able to get out of traffic work hard if you want but just to be around all the people the camaraderie it’s awesome well I I just iterate there’s so many race races there’s different one hour races different categories so you’re not not always on the track with all the super fast Vel mobiles at the same time but sometimes you are and you just got to learn how to get out of the way when you know get to one side of the track or the other so you it’s obvious how they can get around you yeah it wasun very good very good well I’m glad you guys had a good time as Larry said I was there last year we did a pretty extensive report I’ll put that link in the uh in the description below if you guys want to watch that but a lot of fun we encourage you all to join up uh we’ll uh also link to the HPR site so you can see the uh the future races coming up maybe ones coming to your area so join that up so um all right guys yeah go ahead Marshall finish hey yeah Ling Larry good to see you made back dude we we’ll see you at cycleon Marshall indeed take care guys all right sounds good thanks guys all right well let’s uh jump to the viewer submissions then uh I in the opening I mentioned that it is international recumbent bike day and that is a proposal put out by uh a friend of mine Vernon Shaw who posted about a week or so ago on Facebook uh just kind of put it out there like maybe this would be a good idea I contacted Vernon I asked him if he could maybe flesh that out a little bit and we would add it to the viewer submission and he sure did uh let me read some excerpts you can also find this uh on Facebook he posted I think yesterday uh these uh thoughts that he had so um yeah the here comes the international bike uh recomed bike day a couple of years uh into my recumbent bike journey I learned of a time in 1933 where recumbent bikes were in the spotlight on July 7th 1933 a second class professional French Cy named Francis foray rode a recumbent bicycle designed by Charles Moshe to beat the worldour record this beat an established record that had stood for nearly 20 years suddenly in 1933 a recumbent bike design stormed the cycling World by establishing superiority over the mainstream recumbent bikes were more than odd bikes they were Innovative bikes that pushed bike design and per performance beyond the constraints established by the mainstream the recumbent bikes time in the mainstream Spotlight was cut short in 1934 shortly after for A’s World hour record the governing body of cycling the UCI bowed to pressure from conventional bicycle manufacturers the UCI imposed limitations on bicycle design that effectively banned all recumbent bikes I believe that that this is when the recumbent bicycle was relocated to the niche of odd bike likee Contraption so here is uh Vernon today and riding around he’s uh he’s a he’s an inveterate uh uh recumbent bike rider and he wanted us to to finish up with this with this in mind I suggest that July 7th be designated as International recumbent bike day what better way to endorse and popularize recumbent bikes than to remind the Republic the the public of their superiority manufacturers could sponsor shows events and bike rides to promote this so let’s celebrate and promote the bikes that we all love so much by pushing for an international recumbent bike day on July 7th Well that’s today guys so uh Happy recumbent bike Day to all of you out there uh this has been picked up all over the place now and Facebook uh gaining some momentum so we would love to see uh we would love to see this idea promoted and pushed so let’s get on with it and guys if you have pictures of your accomplishments other ideas you’d like to share here on the laidback bike report send in your submissions to us at laidback bik report atgmailcom We’ll add them to our viewer submission section all right now let me thank the amazing sponsors that make this show possible starting out with terracycle are you tired of feeling like your bent was made for someone else teres handlebars and Stems allow you to customize your ride so you can feel like the Superstar you are even if you ride like a turtle and Trailside trikes if you find yourself in Florida near the wuchi trail check out Andrew’s shop and amazing crew and terratrike greenp speed the best in Leisure performance Adventure touring electric and portability wherever your adventure leads terratrike will take you there and greenp speed where Ian Sims designs bring performance through science and engineering and laidback Cycles the top USA dealer for terratrike and the Premier Source for catrike ice and greenp speed we give you the freedom to ride and bicycle man where you can find new and used Recumbent Trikes and bikes we’re located at Alfred Station New York and have over 100 bents in stock and ready to try so why wait come ride then decide and asab in addition to Titanium suspension another technological gem brought to you by is is an optional folding mechanism it’s not only easy to operate but works great and looks fantastic and recumbent PDX catrikes West Coast Mega Store schedule your test ride on trikes with pedal assist electric from both Bosch and beang rolloff and schump component groups and adaptive builds experience the joy of catrike and Connecticut Yankee Peddler we feature multiple brands of trikes including electric assist models test rides and Southern Iowa Hospitality are always available at our mega store in chitan all right guys next uh laidback bik report August 18th we are working on a show about off-road bent riding so we’ve heard a little bit about that even today with that uh Stein trike uh off-road uh uh test uh test track at cycleon well we’re going to do a lot more about off-roading with recumbents uh with a couple of guys who know a lot about it more coming up uh as time goes on but we look forward to seeing you guys August 18th next month now if you want to support the laidback bort you can like us on Facebook subscribe to us on YouTube or click that little white ey over there head to the laidback B Report website where you can find out about our past shows future shows you can buy a hat we do have a podcast an audio podcast that you’ll find uh there every month for those who like to listen instead of watch and of course you can become a patreon member like these guys we sure appreciate their help it makes um it makes great financial sense for uh our for them to support us thank you so much for doing that for as little as a dollar a month now let’s uh let’s get everybody back on stage let’s see who’s left here there we go there’s Peter Marshall still with us Trey and Larry so guys thank you so much uh for uh helping us out today on the show it was a good one we appreciate you guys helping us out so thanks to all the of the crew members and thanks of course to to all of you viewers uh this would be nothing without you guys watching and supporting us we really appreciate it so until our next webcast from all of us here at the laidback bike report so long bent Riders [Music]
3 Comments
Everyday should be International Recumbent Cycling Day! 😄
Thanks for the report and all your great sponsors. PS: Sounds like your mic battery needs to be replaced.
Great Suntrip interview! This will be my first trip to cycle-con since it was held in Chicago suburb several years ago.