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Irv Housinger is a Bike Friday booster from the company's early days in Eugene. His passion is designing bicycles for otherly-abled cyclists like his wife Marion. Thank you Irv, for bringing possibility and mobility to the Friday fold.
WHEN ASKED how I wound up a Bike Friday booster and 'tinkerer par excellence', I say, I'm just a guy who likes bicycles! I always thought small wheels were a good idea. Why? They're stronger, they accelerate quicker, they make it possible to pack, and they're universally available because of the widespread availability of kids' BMX bikes (that is, the 406 wheel size). It's a long road to acceptance of the small wheel in the serious cycling marketplace and I believe it's long overdue.
Eugene cycling advocate. I was active in the Eugene cycling scene for years, since 1979. I hosted groups going cross-country on Bike Centennial (now Adventure Cycling Organization) routes, and I hosted the McKenzie Riders bicycle club (now GEARS) monthly meetings at my house.
The birth of Burley. Alan Scholz started Burley and made jackets, bags and panniers - and later, that famous purple and yellow Burley child trailer. Alan later left, and I subsequently heard that Burley was planning to build tandems. I dropped in to investigate, and learned that Alan's brother Hanz was contracted to set up a shop at Burley to make them.
Smaller wheels made sense. Around this time, mountain biking was becoming more popular. I felt someone should start building tandems with 26" MTB wheels, simply because smaller wheels are stronger. Since Burley needed some people to test the tandem prototypes, I and my partner at the time, Eugene Bicycle/Pedestrian Director Diane Bishop, managed to talk them into building a 26-inch wheeled tandem for us. This was Tandem #10, and it was designed so both of us could captain it. It worked great .. now if we could just find a way to take it on a trip without the big box hassle ...
Birth of ATP. Meanwhile, Hanz and Alan formed a company called Advanced Training Products and were building tandems for Burley, recumbents for Ryan, and BMX bikes for someone else. I kept in touch, relishing the two-way exchange of cycling enthusiasm between us all.
Then Hanz did the trip to Australia that got him thinking about folding bikes, thus planting the seed for Green Gear/Bike Friday. Read about that trip.
My first Friday . I bought Bike Friday #3, a diamond frame model called the World Tourist. [That landmark model is on display in the Bike Friday salesroom - Ed]. It was a good design, but it was clear they were still working out details; there were some problems with the steerer. However, I took it on my first trip to Germany and it rode quite well.
I replaced my Bike Friday #3 by #50 - a much better bike, which I used for commuting for several years. Eventually, I traded it for #1863, a Pocket Llama, and eventually replaced it with the Air Glide I ride now. [Owning and upgrading Bike Fridays can be addictive - Ed].
A glimmer in a tandem traveler's eye. People had been asking Hanz about a foldable tandem; there was quite a list of people ready to buy at a moment's notice if someone would just invent it. That concept became reality when I did a challenging bike trip in Alaska with three friends: Hanz's future wife Lisa, Rita, and Oliver. The plan was to ride the route of the Alaska Goldrush, taking a ferry from Bellingham WA to Hanes, the biking all the way to Skagway via Canada's Northwest Territory (Whitehorse etc), covering 400 miles in week. We did it all on Bike Friday New World Tourists, pulling trailers as well as using panniers. The neatest thing of all was flying from Skagway to Juneau on a 6-passenger plane - everything - 4 adults, 4 Bike Fridays - all fit!
During the trip Lisa and I talked about investing in a tandem startup. The proposal on the table was for a transportable tandem, and we both decided to dig into our own pockets to get it off the ground.
On meeting Maid Marion: I met Marion at a diverse dance workshop, designed for the all-and otherly-abled. We seemed to 'click' right away. Marion told me she'd biked before her accident in 1988, which left her a paraplegic. We all know that Germans commute everywhere by bike. Earlier, I had encountered the Counterpoint Tandem, a design pioneered by Seattle symphony musician Jim Weaver. I met Jim on a ride around Mt St Helens, and had seen the Counterpoint at tandem rallies. Here, the stoker sits in front in a recumbent position, over a 20" wheel. The captain sits at the rear in an upright position. (Bilenky is one current maker of this style of bike). One of the projects I did was to put together a trike based on the Counterpoint for world-renowned dance-ability teacher Emery Blackwell, who has cerebral palsy, using funds generously donated by riders in Cycle Oregon III.
Birth of the Tandem Fridays. While all this was going on Alan Scholz popped up with a prototype Family Tandem and brother Hanz popped up with a Folding Two'sday - both packable tandems. These designs looked promising and in a marketing capacity I took the Two'sDay in its 2 suitcases, and Pocket Llama #1853 on a trip east to visit the family, attending a Tandem Rally in NY. There was quite some interest in the bikes.
Our first foldable, packable handcycle tandem. I decided to try and make a tandem for Marion using my experience from making Emery's bike and Hanz' Two'sDay ideas. It didn't fold or pack - we just wanted to see if we could make it work. It differed from the Counterpoint in that Marion sat between the 20" wheels rather than over the wheel, and pedaled with handcranks.
Alas, Marion did not like riding on the front, and I wanted to travel with our tandem. Thus Hanz and I embarked on our 2nd tandem, designing it so Marion could sit at the back in a seat cushioned by an air shock, and we made sure it folded and packed. She liked it! We took that bike to the San Juans in its two suitcases and we still ride it today...
Irv and Marion are leaving Eugene in August to live Germany. Irv hopes to design and make folding handcycles that are a combination of both bicycle and wheelchair. John Barrett (Eugene) and Hanz Scholz hold a patent on this design. Irv also plans to collaborate with our German Dealer Kai Fuchs. Watch this space for news from our European 'handcycle connection'.
Lynette Chiang, Galfromdownunder.com
Read about Irv and Marion's Handcycle Tandem
Read about other Special Fridays
Read about other Bike Friday Boosters
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