Flat Foot Comfort Bicycles-Benefits of Riding a Crank Forward Bicycle

Flat foot comfort bicycles are different breeds from other bicycles. Fat foot technology allows you to place your feet flat on the ground when you come to a stop while remaining seated on the bike saddle. The crank is moved forward further than a traditional bike design. The bikes are a little hard to take up hills and will work some new muscles when you do take them up hills, but on flats there is nothing more comfortable to ride casually then a bicycle with flat foot technology. Here are some bicycles to look at if you are interested in riding a bicycle like this. Even if you are not interested in a bicycle such as this I still highly recommend you down to REI or your local Trek dealer and take a Trek Pure or Electra Townie out for a test ride. I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised with how comfortable these bicycles are.

Electra Townie

The smooth flowing lines on this bicycle and the huge marketing campaign helped to bring the flat foot technology style of bicycles to the mainstream. The Electra Townie was advertised in numerous bicycle related magazines including both mountain bike magazines and road cycling magazines. The ads would often show a man on a road bike leaned forward spilling coffee all over and then next to it would be a picture drawing of someone on an Electra Townie sitting in a comfortable position and holding the coffee without spilling it.

The advertising campaign did a great job of getting people into their local bike hops to test ride the Electra Townie, but once they test rode it the pure joy of this bicycle helped to sell it. The Electra Townie is best compared to a beach cruiser, but is lighter weight, easier to ride, looks better, and is much more comfortable to ride. The Electra Townie was able to get a lot of people into casual cycling.

Electra offers numerous variations of the Townie bicycle for ale. You can even get Townie bicycles with large balloon tires like a beach cruiser if you want to go for the ultimate in styling; although the skinnier wheels 0n other models make the bike easier to pedal. You can also get the townie with 1 peed, 3 speeds, and multiple speeds. I would recommend you get a Townie that has numerous speed and skinnier tires because once you begin riding the Townie around your Neighborhood you will soon want to begin riding it all over town. You probably will not do any cross-Country bicycle touring with the Electra Townie but you will want to ride it all over your City.

Contrary to what many believe, the Electra Townie is not the first crank forward designed bicycle. The Electra Townie is however the company that popularized the crank forward bicycles.

Trek Pure

The Trek Pure is the bike that Trek came up with to compete against the Electra Townie. In prior years the Trek Pure came in multiple models including a Trek Pure Sport model which was designed with road wheels and designed for faster riding. Basically a hybrid fitness bike with feet forward technology. For 2012 Trek only released 2 different models of the Trek Pure. There is the Trek Pure and then the Trek Pure Lowstep. In reality the Trek Pure Lowstep is an ugly bike. It is a women’s specific design but many women choose the regular frame style of the Trek Pure because it looks great with the swooping and flowing lines of the frame.

RANS Bicycles

RANS makes many bicycles with crank forward technology. The difference between RANS and other crank forward designs like the Trek Pure and Electra Townie is they do not have the swooping designs flows on the frame. Much of the visual appeal of the Townie and Pure is the swooping frame design; however many people may prefer the performance and possible even the styling of the RANS bicycles. RANS is shipping a whole lot of crank forward bicycles to people of all ages.

Giant Suede

The Giant Suede looks like a cross between a Townie and a bike from RANS. The styling cues on the Suede are definitely unique, but it is more important that they offer numerous models of the Suede which has a crank forward pedaling technology. There is even a Giant Suede model that has automatic shifting!

Sun Bikes

Sun Bikes makes a few models of crank forward bikes. Their bikes actually look pretty good to the eye with nice visual cues but unfortunately Sun Bikes uses high tensile steel on their bike forks. High tensile steel is much weaker than regular steel and will easily bend, warp, or even twist. Sun Bikes makes some really nice bikes except they throw cheap high tensile steel on the forks and that makes Sun Bikes and no buy in my opinion.

Benefits of Feet Forward Bicycles

They Are Comfortable Bikes to Ride

Not only are flat foot bicycles comfortable to ride on , but you are also extremely comfortable when you come to a stop because you feet can be flat on the ground while you remain seated on the bike saddle. You sit in a more upright position so if you suffer from a breathing condition like lung-based Sarcoidosis then a more upright riding position will make it much easier to breather for you. Flat foot bicycles also generally come with big padded saddles that are very comfortable to sit on.

Fun

The biggest advantage to pedaling a crank forward bicycle is that they are fun. No you will not be riding a road race or bombing down some North Shore, but you will have s upper comfortable bike that is not only a lot of fun to ride, but also looks dang good. If a bicycle is not fun to ride then you will find that you are not having fun. If you do not have fun then you will not cycle. By buying a bicycle such as the Trek Pure or the Electra Townie you will find that riding a bicycle is definitely fun.