They look like exercise bikes stuck on top of oversized surfboards. To their owner, Gene Arbetter, they promise to be the biggest thing to hit town since last summer’s cows.
“When I rode them with my wife down the Chicago River to the Michigan Avenue bridge last May, people stopped and gawked,” says Arbetter, a massage therapist who lives on the North Side.
Arbetter saw his first watercycle a year and a half ago while vacationing on a beach in Mexico, and he bought two for his family from a dealer in Oak Park. Then he realized that these vessels–invented only five years ago–might be ideal for recreation on the river. He quickly formed a company called RiverBikes of Chicago and began assembling a fleet of single and tandem bikes.
“Riding one is probably one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways of exercising,” he says, “and it’s stable enough so you don’t have to worry about wakes from river traffic.”
The mechanics of the RiverBike are simple: Riders pedal as they would a bicycle, and the pedaling turns the propeller under the craft; steering is controlled by handlebars connected to a rudder.
More information can be found at www.riverbikes.com., or by calling 773-348-9903.
