When the clock strikes midnight, it will be perfectly legal to
put down that champagne glass and ride a seatless bicycle.
Bill Lindelof, The Sacramento Bee
When the clock strikes midnight, it will be perfectly legal to put down that champagne glass and ride a seatless bicycle.
While that might not be in the New Year’s plans, a new state law allows a person to ride a bicycle without a seat if the bike was designed by the manufacturer to be ridden without something to sit on.
The change authored by state Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, was prompted by a San Diego-based company headed by former Sacramento resident Bryan Pate.
Pate’s San Diego-based company will next year be selling the ElliptiGo – a cross between a stationary elliptical trainer usually found in a gym and a bike with smallish wheels. The first prototype, sketched out on newspaper in 2005 in a San Diego County coffee shop, had wooden pedals and cromoly steel tubing.
Pate, 36, envisioned the ElliptiGo after he had worn out his knees and hips from running. Riding regular bicycles provided low-impact exercise, but he was uncomfortable on a bicycle seat and and didn’t like the riding position, Pate said.
Also, a workout on a bike took too long, Pate said.
Working out on an elliptical trainer in the gym was low-impact and did not hurt his knees, Pate said. However, he hated being inside and longed to exercise outdoors.
Fast-pedal ahead five years, and the company is nearly ready to start selling the new bikes, which are upright and propelled with foot action similar to an elliptical machine. Eighteen production models are in use.
Retail sales of the $2,200 Taiwan-produced bikes will first begin in Southern California. In June, sales will spread throughout the rest of the country.
But first, the company decided to get a law change so that it was legal to go sans seat. Pate said there are quite a few pedal-powered conveyances classified as bikes that don’t have seats.
“We are probably the first people to come across the law, think about it, and conclude they should get it changed,” said Pate.
Pate said that before the law change, riding a seatless bike on a public road could result in a rider being cited for the violating the same provision that prevents double-riding – a rule designed to stop people from sitting on handlebars.
“The way they wrote the old law was that every passenger on a bike has to have a seat,” Pate said. “Technically, a seatless bicycle would not be in compliance with that provision.”
To see the bike in action, view the company Web site.
