Watch for a man and his Velo, in Morristown for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade

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By Barbara Snyder

Gary Bernstein, an  industrial arts teacher at Morris Township’s Frelinghuysen Middle School, has a Velomobile he’s nuts about; he rides it to work, in fact, in all kinds of weather and facing all kinds of road conditions.

Orange Strada
Orange Strada

No idea what that entails?   Neither did I, until I talked with him about it this week.

(Gary will ride with MorristownGreen.com in this Saturday’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, so you’ll be able to get a first-hand look.)

Gary’s got a Strada, one of the four recumbent models manufactured by the Canadian BlueVelo company.

(Recumbents are bikes — or “trikes,” in this case, since they have three wheels — ridden in a laid-back, reclining position.)

BlueVelo took the above photo on the day the company shipped it to him. The caption reads: “As the Fall colours arrive……..our latest Strada turns orange as well.”   He bought the bike in October for $8,500. Here’s a video of Gary and his Strada.

Gary, 41, is a serious bicycle guy. He’s pedaled (on two wheels) across the country twice, east to west, taking about three months to do each trip.  (He sounded wistful when I asked if he’d done the ride on the three-wheeler; I have a feeling he’s going to try that sometime, too.)

Rumor had it that the Strada can get up to 70 mph. When I asked him about that — “70 mph is downhill, I imagine?” – – he answered:  “Big time downhill.”

Gary estimates hitting about 27 mph on flat roads around the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.  (A brisk clip for a two-wheeler upright is about 18 mph.)

He had some fun with an area biking club, on an “A” ride for speed demons.

“I showed up with a latte in one hand and a cigar in the other and said, ‘Let’s go!’ They laughed…until I shot by them like a car,” said Gary.

Gary explains that you get a 30 percent aerodynamic advantage in a recumbent like the Strada; its sleek molded form shoots air around the sides and over the top.  The vehicle weighs 70 pounds.

He uses it to commute from Randolph every day, an 18-mile round trip that takes him about 40 minutes each way.

Gary noted three big benefits of recumbent riding:

  • Safety
  • You can clip your feet in, and never have to put them down when you stop (as you always do when riding a two-wheeler)
  • Uphill balance problems are eased and even eliminated

You can ride in the snow, too. Gary does.  One day this winter, when the air temp was 7 degrees — Fahrenheit, we’re talking- – he got up, got ready for work, and did a bit of exercise to stoke his metabolism.  Then he hopped in the Velo, put on the “kayak-style” foam cover, and rode to work.  He was warm the whole way, he says, and laughed when he talked about the steam rising from the cab when he got out.

Speed, comfort, safety — and electronics, even:  The Strada is equipped with tail lights and turn signals.  It’s simple to change a flat — and there’s plenty of storage inside, too, for carrying spares.  Some Velos — not Gary’s — are “electric-assisted,” sporting a rear-hub electric motor that can offer assistance on steep hills, or help riders conserve energy.

Here’s the view from the cab of a Velomobile — a Quest model, though, not a Strada.  Nice, eh?

Watch for Gary on Saturday!

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