"Race Across America" History Makers Jim & Maria Parker of Cruzbike-Laidback Bike Report

★​TABLE OF CONTENTS AND LINKS BELOW-CLICK "SHOW MORE"★Cruzbike was founded by Jim Parker and John Tolhurst in 2005 creating the largest and most widely known MBB/FWD bike in the world. Today Jim is the Director and Maria is the CEO of this innovative company. We chat about the whole front wheel drive/moving bottom bracket design and about racing these bikes around the world. In what was called "One of the greatest rides in Race Across America history", Maria Parker overcame the kind of adversity that would have stopped most all of us. After having her follow vehicle and backup bikes destroyed in a rear end collision and crew members injured including her son she pulled out of the race. She was in this competition to raise money for brain cancer research a cause she created after her sister was stricken with the disease. With the suffering of these people in mind she determined that she had to continue and finish the ride. Twenty four hours later she was back on her bike and heading east. Watch as we talk with Maria about the remainder of this race and how it affects her today.  Here is a Table of Contents for this month’s video. Just click on the section of the video you’d like to jump to: 00:02:24 Panel introduction 00:03:50 Introduction of guests Jim and Maria Parker from Cruzbike 00:04:53 Interview of Maria 00:10:10 Jim tells the story behind the Parkers and Ultracycling 00:14:27 Maria’s Ultracycling experience 00:21:50 Maria tells the story of RAAM 2013 00:32:12 Maria talks to us about 3000 Miles to a Cure 00:37:20 Maria tells us about the plans for RAAM 2016 00:40:02 Jim’s background and the origins of Cruzbike 00:45:20 Jim discusses the Dynamic Boom/Front Wheel Drive concept of Cruzbike 00:50:20 Jim describes the learning curve for riding a Cruzbike 00:52:48 Jim talks about Cruzbike performance 00:55:00 Jim and Maria weigh in on the banning of recumbents in racing 01:01:38 Cruzbike product breakdown 01:07:12 Larry Varney asks about the Cruzbike TTrike 01:12:10 Viewer question about possible carbon frame and steering stabilizer 01:14:50 Where to demo ride a Cruzbike 01:16:19 Final words by the Parkers 01:18:00 Denny with the Laidback Sports Report 01:21:12 Google+ Recumbent Biking Community Business-Posts of the month winners 01:23:30 Laidback Bike Report announcements and closing thoughts Here are the links to the websites we referred to during the show: http://cruzbike.com/ https://www.3000milestoacure.com/ https://www.3000milestoacure.com/film/ http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/ http://www.gofundme.com/spezi Here is a message from Jim and Maria on how you can help end "Bikism": We would like recumbent riders to contact their local USA triathlon board member and ask that the ban on athletes that ride recumbent bicycles be lifted. We also have a petition that we will circulate, but a phone call or e-mail is much better. Board members can be found here: https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Triathlon... Recumbent athletes can learn more about the issue here: http://cruzbike.com/end-bikeism And finally the list of our March winners of the Google+ Recumbent Bike Rider Community Posts of the month: Picture of the Month Pilleus Pulcher-Recumbent in Late Afternoon for Fun https://plus.google.com/u/0/+pilleusp... Video of the Month Bruce Johnson-Riding Linear with Google Glasses https://plus.google.com/u/0/+BruceJoh... Discussion of the Month Sherri Hyde-Training for 36 mile ride https://plus.google.com/u/0/101526289...