Home > Fit City > Archives > 2012 > February > 07
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Time for a Dreamslide
If bikes roll, Dreamslides sashay.
I jumped aboard one of the two-wheeled contraptions, imported from France, yesterday when Miguel Ferguson dropped by the newspaper offices, proud as a papa to show it off.
Ferguson, a 46-year-old professor of public policy in the School of Social Work at the University of Texas, ordered a pair of the ‘Slides last year. Now he zips around town on the scooter-like vehicle, garnering admiring glances — and looks of confusion — from onlookers.
Ferguson bought his Dreamslides because he was tired of pumping gas into a car. “I realized I was part of the problem,” he says.
He considered getting a bike and riding it to work, but says his knees bother him when he pedals. Not so with the Dreamslide, he says, which generates power not by a circular pedal stroke but through short, no-impact running steps.
“I think they’re great. A real alternative to a car,” he says.
He showed me how the neck and handlebars fold down into a compact size, so he can roll or even carry his Dreamslide onto a bus. “It’s Cap Metro friendly,” he says.
Three days a week, he rides from his South Austin home to the UT campus about 7 miles away. He stands, doesn’t sit, as he cruises along. Besides saving him gas money, it’s helped get him in better shape.
I had to try it, so I climbed aboard, placing my feet on the shoe-shaped plates, stepping down and engaging the independent cranks and variable lever arms.
It seemed awkward at first. I kept wanting to sit down, but the Dreamslide has no seat. It felt a little unstable at first, too. That feeling passed as I figured out how to sway with the Dreamslide, shifting my body weight as I slid along.
There are no gears, although Ferguson jokes that it’s got two — the left leg and the right leg. And Ferguson says he avoids big hills when he’s on his Dreamslide.
Unfortunately, that’s not an option for me, so I can’t see this as a daily commuter. Another issue? No place to install a rack, so I could haul all the stuff I need to shuttle back and forth from home to work to pool every day. You’d have to wear a backpack. That’s uncomfortable in the summer heat.
Still, I like the ingenuity of the thing, and I like the commitment to taking another car off the streets.
Ferguson is so enthusiastic about his Dreamslide that he helped persuade Bill Kasson Yamaha on South Congress to start carrying them. They sell for about $1,600.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment Categories: cycling
