New Geometry
In 2003, the company introduced a major new design: the Townie. This bike's innovation was what the company calls "Flat Foot Technology", now more widely known as the crank forward design. When the rider is sitting on the saddle, his or her feet can still stand flat on the ground, which feels safer and more comfortable for some riders. The design also allows riders to get full extension when they pedal. The design combines aspects of the cruiser frame with some of the geometry of recumbent bikes, moving the pedals forward and the seat back.
The design has won wide acclaim and has enticed many older Americans back onto a bike. The Townie has advantages as a first bike or a re-entry bike for lapsed riders, because it is easy and comfortable to ride, and the "flat foot" design mitigates one fear of many non-cyclists: falling off the bike. "The bike had to be easy to ride and put a smile on your face," Bänziger says.
Other bike companies have introduced bikes with a similar crank forward design. These bikes include Day 6 Comfort Bicycles, the Giant Suede, the Trek Pure, the K2 Big Easy, the Sun Bicycles Ruskin and Rover, and the Rans Fusion. The Raleigh Gruv and the Cannondale Day Tripper were introduced after the Electra Townie, but as of 2009 are no longer in production.
Read more about this topic: Electra Bicycle Company
Famous quotes containing the word geometry:
“... geometry became a symbol for human relations, except that it was better, because in geometry things never go bad. If certain things occur, if certain lines meet, an angle is born. You cannot fail. It’s not going to fail; it is eternal. I found in rules of mathematics a peace and a trust that I could not place in human beings. This sublimation was total and remained total. Thus, I’m able to avoid or manipulate or process pain.”
—Louise Bourgeois (b. 1911)
“The geometry of landscape and situation seems to create its own systems of time, the sense of a dynamic element which is cinematising the events of the canvas, translating a posture or ceremony into dynamic terms. The greatest movie of the 20th century is the Mona Lisa, just as the greatest novel is Gray’s Anatomy.”
—J.G. (James Graham)