Everyone likes a “feel good” story, even news professionals. In a chance meeting with the News Director of a local TV station, Ryan Hawes asked me to explain my story. I explained how I was doing a cross-state ride and by the fourth day, my bum hurt so bad I was walking the bike down the road. He looked at me in a bit of disbelief. I am not a big person, 5’2” and 127 pounds. I don’t strike others as an athlete. When I continued to explain that I started RideOut years ago and we are the only 100% female-owned, independent bicycle seat manufacturer in the United States, (probably the world but I’m not certain of that.) Well, that was enough for him. Everyone likes it when an underdog wins and KBOI featured RideOut for the National Small business week highlight. Thanks Boise’s Channel 2 News!
“I am a lifetime rider and I have ridden bikes my whole life,” says entrepreneur and cyclist Jeri Rutherford. “And around my mid-forties, bicycling became too painful, it just hurt.”
–KBOI Interview with Jeri Rutherford
The full article can be found at KBOI’s website here.
That story is not unusual, it is quite typical that people stop bike riding with age. Yet for me, that was just not an option. Biking is more that just an activity, it is a way to keep my weight in check, a way to see the country side and a time to share when riding with others. So the uncommon part of that story is that one day I went out a bought a welder and started reading about carbon fiber and Kevlar, I set out to build a comfortable seat. In my mind’s eye, I could see what I wanted; a seat that would flex with the movements of my body.
Universities that specialize in Bio-engineering have developed anatomical studies using a mat that measures pressure between the seat and the rider. This mat creates a computer readout that shows blue as a very light pressure changing to yellow than red with increased pressure. These studies also explain the source of the pain. On a normal seat the surface is static and will not move, your body’s weight pressing against the seat can compress tissues such that the blood supply to the tissues is cut off and hence, creating pain. Our RideOut line of seats are very different, they flex to match the rider’s movement.
These two pages below were put together to illustrate these concepts and feature several videos, graphics and many links to relevant research.
• How We Set Out to Achieve Bike Seat Comfort
• The Science Behind a Comfortable Bike Seat (with several videos)