Introducing the sixthreezero Relaxed Body Bicycle
Video Blog
February
25, 2021
Introducing the sixthreezero Relaxed Body Bicycle
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http://www.sixthreezero.com/blogs/bike-advice/introducing-the-sixthreezero-relaxed-body-bicycle
Hey, guys. Dustin here, CEO of Sixthreezero. I'm joined by Peter, our head of customer service and quality control. Today, we are excited to introduce you to one of our newest products, the Relaxed Body. All right. So today I'm here with Peter, our head of customer service and quality control.
Hey, guys.
We're super excited to talk to you and introduce you today to our newest product in the Sixthreezero lineup, the Relaxed Body. This is a super unique concept that no other bike company that I know of right now is doing. It is what we would like to call semi-recumbent, really geared towards comfort. I've got Pete here with me. He can talk a little bit more extensively about some of the details. I'll get into it real quick and just give you a brief overview of what we're trying to achieve here with the Relaxed Body.
So you may or may not know about another product we have called the Every Journey. If you've never seen it before, you can take a look at that on our website, or we have some videos on that model as well. That bike is a forward peddling design. We have another bike, our Around the Block, which is our standard cruiser. The cool thing about this bike, the Relaxed Body is this is a different riding position than both of those. Now, Every Journey is similar in that it does have a forward peddling design, but the Relaxed Body has an extreme forward peddling design. What this really does is a few things.
One, it is almost a recumbent bike. Now, a recumbent bike if you're not familiar is a bike where you're sitting with your legs parallel out in front of your body. So you've got you... A recumbent bike, in theory, you'd be sitting here and your feet would be right out in front of you. These types of bikes are great for a rider that may be struggling with mounting or dismounting a bike, has some extreme pain in their joints, and doesn't want any pressure down on their knees or their hips. So the Relaxed Body is in between the Everyjourney and a fully recumbent bike. So what we're trying to accomplish here is still give riders an upright feel so it looks like you're on a traditional bike, however, with some slight adjustments, by moving the pedals forward, elongating the frame a little bit, we're turning it into a semi-recumbent.
So your feet are out in front of you, less knee pressure, less hip pressure, and also by bringing these handlebars into your body, we're still allowing the upright riding position, but in a very, very relaxed way. So huge advantage for someone that maybe has had knee surgery before, back surgery, can't mount or dismount the bike very easily and wants just extreme comfort. So I'll turn it over to Pete. Pete, anything you want to point out, thoughts, ideas, or concepts about this bike that a rider should know?
Yeah. I love this bike. This bike is so cool because the pedals are moved forward, even farther forward than the Every Journey which leaves this huge opening here. It's a lot of room just to step through nice and easy. It's very low for anybody who has trouble mounting the bike as Dustin said. So you got the room here and then you can also have the seat low if you like, which makes people feel more stable. The riding position is still quite comfortable and you still have a lot of power to go quickly. One thing that's nice with that is also the tires are smooth and higher pressure, which will make the rolling resistance less. The seat and the handlebars can be almost infinitely adjusted for a wide range of heights and riding preferences.
This one can come up quite high. If you're tall, this is a great bike. For some of the taller riders that may find it hard to ride other bikes because of their height, up here, we have the ape hanger handlebars, which is a unique feature. It doesn't have the cruiser sweep as you see on the normal cruiser bikes, nor does it have the flatter bar on hybrids or more performance bikes. So I can show you with my Allen wrench right here, six millimeters.
Yeah. While Pete's adjusting that, one thing I just wanted to point out was for the forward peddling design. So on a standard bike like our Around the Block, the pedals are situated directly below the seat. So you're pedaling straight down. Your hips and your knees are all in line. On the Everyjourney, the pedals are moved about five inches forward. So your feet are a little bit out in front of you when you're pedaling. On the Relaxed Body, they're eight inches out in front of you. So it's definitely a more extreme forward peddling design. You are going to lose a little power with that sort of setup, but you're going to gain more in comfort and ease on joints. So all right, Pete's got the handlebars loosened up here.
Yeah. So I loosened the handlebars just to show you how you can either open up the frame or kind of close it in depending on your height, statute, or riding preference. So if I put the seat up higher, you may want to move the handlebars more forward. There's just so much adjustment here that's possible. If we were to lower the seat, we can bring it down this far with the standard seat post that comes with it. We can also get a different seat post that's shorter and lower it even more, and then we can bring these handlebars down into you. We can show you what this looks like. So it actually comes with quite a long seat post. This is of course so that the seat can come up very high. If you want it to go lower, we can also provide you with a shorter seat post so then it can go all the way down and it can come [crosstalk 00:05:40].
Do you want to have a seat there too?
Yeah, absolutely.
If you see, even with Pete, now Pete's about 5'11". But you can see now if he grabs the handlebars.
Yeah. [crosstalk 00:05:49] exactly.
No, obviously the seat's a little bit too low for him but-
It is a little too low for me. But yeah.
You can get this feeling whatever is comfortable for you in terms of your elbow bend, your extension, this handlebar gives a lot of flexibility to how you set it up.
Yeah. Don't forget the back, keeping the back nice and straight. That's what we're looking for to relieve back pain.
Yeah. There's another adjustment feature here too. Actually, on this particular stem, you have another adjustment bolt here. So you can push these handlebars even farther away. So if you're 6'3", 6'4", and you got long arms, you can adjust these bars farther away from your body to make sure you're not in a cramped riding position. You can also bring it even closer to your body. So I'm going to say this in a sort of a general thought, we haven't done a fitting video yet for this bike, which will be to come later. But my estimate is this can accommodate riders about 4'9, 4'10" up to about 6'5". I think that's a pretty safe bet. Now, if you're in the 4'8", 4'9" or 4'9", 4'10" region, you may need the shorter seat post which we can accommodate, and send that to you. That's not a problem to allow the seat to go down all the way.
But I think one thing Pete touched on that I want to elaborate a little more on is the step-through area. The benefit of having this far forward peddling is that your step through gap here, the area where you'd step through the frame, I mean, it's a solid five, six inches. On a normal bike, even if it has a low step-through height, you're still only going to have about an inch or two at that sort of lowest point to be able to step through. So this just makes it easy, like Pete said, to get right through the bike, step right on. I like to point out too, Pete and I are wearing jeans. Jeans are a little more restricting, it's still simple to get on and off. So yeah.
Then just to run through, front and rear handbrakes. We've done a seven-speed derailleur with the twist shifter. One other thing, and Pete, maybe you can talk a little bit about this, it's for hills. Now, this is going to be ideal for flat road riding just because of the leverage you can get on the pedals. This type of frame will be a little bit more challenging on really steep inclines. Do you have any thoughts, opinions on that?
I mean, a seven-speed is a really good range for most riding. 21-speed takes it to another level. That's if you are encountering more really steep hills and things like that. But a seven-speed gear range gives you a really wide area of use. Also, the lowest gear here is an extra-large cog back here, which makes it a super low gear. So you get close to that easiest gear that you're going to have on 21-speed anyway. The 21-speed definitely will give you more range, but for most folks, this would probably fit I would say 90% of a customer's needs.
Yeah. Yeah. So my recommendation, my thought. If you're getting back into bicycling or even if you're not super comfortable with bike riding just yet, or you just want extreme comfort, this is a great choice. This is a great bike I think for someone who's getting back into bicycling, isn't 100% sure on a bike, but you know that you want to be on an upright bike. When I say upright, meaning you don't want to be on a fully recumbent. This is the greatest alternative to that. Because again, it's going to allow very simple on and off. One other thing I'll point out is you can very quickly and easily get your feet on the ground when riding and still have that ample leg room when pedaling because of how the pedals are shifted forward.
So for any reason you have balance issues or you're just not 100% comfortable being higher up off the ground on a normal, upright bike, the Relaxed Body can give you that peace of mind knowing should something go wrong, just boom, your feet are right there. Because on a typical bike, you want to be sized where you're sort of on the ball of your feet to enable the proper leg extension. That's because, on a normal upright triangle frame bike, the design is more concerned with the power output and the efficiency of the pedal strokes versus the comfort necessarily. On this one, we're putting a little bit more emphasis on comfort, the safety, the ease of use, and that's truly the benefit to the Relaxed Body. Anything else Pete? Do you want to take a quick run-through about just the specs so everyone knows kind of what is happening in terms of the spec level and the specs that we're using, the three-piece crank?
Yeah, sure. We specked this out nicely. This is an aluminum bike, which is wonderful. It's lightweight, it's high-quality material. Also, the three-piece cranks, which you're going to find are going to be very durable and lasts a long time. They're also going to be very smooth. We've outfitted it with Shimano components for the gears. I mean, my basic thought on this bike is just you feel that urge to get out there and get some exercise, but walking or jogging isn't going to do what you need. Also, if you want to go farther and see more things, there's just nothing like getting on a bike and feeling that gliding feeling and getting your heart pumping a little bit. This is an easy bike to do it on. Just pull it out of the garage or wherever and you can mount it so easily and just head on out. It's going to be easy on your back, easy on your knees and you can adjust it infinitely.
Yeah, yeah. The Relaxed Body is named for a reason. We call it the Relaxed Body because we think you can adjust this bike to get any rider's body in a relaxed position, be comfortable, but still get out and get exercise. So that, if you have any other questions, please comment below. We're happy to respond. We'll answer back as fast as possible. Or you can always call us at 310-982-2877 or send us an email, theteam@sixthreezero.com. Don't forget on our website, we have the body fit quiz. Take the quiz. It's going to fit you to a bike for your lifestyle and your body. We asked specific questions about the type of riding you're going to do and also if you have pain or no pain in your body, our proprietary algorithm will choose the right bike for your body. Don't forget, we have a 365-day return policy, so anytime within 365 days, if you don't love your bike, you can send it back no questions asked and we'll give you a full refund. So don't forget. It's your journey, your experience, enjoy the ride.
Hey, guys.
We're super excited to talk to you and introduce you today to our newest product in the Sixthreezero lineup, the Relaxed Body. This is a super unique concept that no other bike company that I know of right now is doing. It is what we would like to call semi-recumbent, really geared towards comfort. I've got Pete here with me. He can talk a little bit more extensively about some of the details. I'll get into it real quick and just give you a brief overview of what we're trying to achieve here with the Relaxed Body.
So you may or may not know about another product we have called the Every Journey. If you've never seen it before, you can take a look at that on our website, or we have some videos on that model as well. That bike is a forward peddling design. We have another bike, our Around the Block, which is our standard cruiser. The cool thing about this bike, the Relaxed Body is this is a different riding position than both of those. Now, Every Journey is similar in that it does have a forward peddling design, but the Relaxed Body has an extreme forward peddling design. What this really does is a few things.
One, it is almost a recumbent bike. Now, a recumbent bike if you're not familiar is a bike where you're sitting with your legs parallel out in front of your body. So you've got you... A recumbent bike, in theory, you'd be sitting here and your feet would be right out in front of you. These types of bikes are great for a rider that may be struggling with mounting or dismounting a bike, has some extreme pain in their joints, and doesn't want any pressure down on their knees or their hips. So the Relaxed Body is in between the Everyjourney and a fully recumbent bike. So what we're trying to accomplish here is still give riders an upright feel so it looks like you're on a traditional bike, however, with some slight adjustments, by moving the pedals forward, elongating the frame a little bit, we're turning it into a semi-recumbent.
So your feet are out in front of you, less knee pressure, less hip pressure, and also by bringing these handlebars into your body, we're still allowing the upright riding position, but in a very, very relaxed way. So huge advantage for someone that maybe has had knee surgery before, back surgery, can't mount or dismount the bike very easily and wants just extreme comfort. So I'll turn it over to Pete. Pete, anything you want to point out, thoughts, ideas, or concepts about this bike that a rider should know?
Yeah. I love this bike. This bike is so cool because the pedals are moved forward, even farther forward than the Every Journey which leaves this huge opening here. It's a lot of room just to step through nice and easy. It's very low for anybody who has trouble mounting the bike as Dustin said. So you got the room here and then you can also have the seat low if you like, which makes people feel more stable. The riding position is still quite comfortable and you still have a lot of power to go quickly. One thing that's nice with that is also the tires are smooth and higher pressure, which will make the rolling resistance less. The seat and the handlebars can be almost infinitely adjusted for a wide range of heights and riding preferences.
This one can come up quite high. If you're tall, this is a great bike. For some of the taller riders that may find it hard to ride other bikes because of their height, up here, we have the ape hanger handlebars, which is a unique feature. It doesn't have the cruiser sweep as you see on the normal cruiser bikes, nor does it have the flatter bar on hybrids or more performance bikes. So I can show you with my Allen wrench right here, six millimeters.
Yeah. While Pete's adjusting that, one thing I just wanted to point out was for the forward peddling design. So on a standard bike like our Around the Block, the pedals are situated directly below the seat. So you're pedaling straight down. Your hips and your knees are all in line. On the Everyjourney, the pedals are moved about five inches forward. So your feet are a little bit out in front of you when you're pedaling. On the Relaxed Body, they're eight inches out in front of you. So it's definitely a more extreme forward peddling design. You are going to lose a little power with that sort of setup, but you're going to gain more in comfort and ease on joints. So all right, Pete's got the handlebars loosened up here.
Yeah. So I loosened the handlebars just to show you how you can either open up the frame or kind of close it in depending on your height, statute, or riding preference. So if I put the seat up higher, you may want to move the handlebars more forward. There's just so much adjustment here that's possible. If we were to lower the seat, we can bring it down this far with the standard seat post that comes with it. We can also get a different seat post that's shorter and lower it even more, and then we can bring these handlebars down into you. We can show you what this looks like. So it actually comes with quite a long seat post. This is of course so that the seat can come up very high. If you want it to go lower, we can also provide you with a shorter seat post so then it can go all the way down and it can come [crosstalk 00:05:40].
Do you want to have a seat there too?
Yeah, absolutely.
If you see, even with Pete, now Pete's about 5'11". But you can see now if he grabs the handlebars.
Yeah. [crosstalk 00:05:49] exactly.
No, obviously the seat's a little bit too low for him but-
It is a little too low for me. But yeah.
You can get this feeling whatever is comfortable for you in terms of your elbow bend, your extension, this handlebar gives a lot of flexibility to how you set it up.
Yeah. Don't forget the back, keeping the back nice and straight. That's what we're looking for to relieve back pain.
Yeah. There's another adjustment feature here too. Actually, on this particular stem, you have another adjustment bolt here. So you can push these handlebars even farther away. So if you're 6'3", 6'4", and you got long arms, you can adjust these bars farther away from your body to make sure you're not in a cramped riding position. You can also bring it even closer to your body. So I'm going to say this in a sort of a general thought, we haven't done a fitting video yet for this bike, which will be to come later. But my estimate is this can accommodate riders about 4'9, 4'10" up to about 6'5". I think that's a pretty safe bet. Now, if you're in the 4'8", 4'9" or 4'9", 4'10" region, you may need the shorter seat post which we can accommodate, and send that to you. That's not a problem to allow the seat to go down all the way.
But I think one thing Pete touched on that I want to elaborate a little more on is the step-through area. The benefit of having this far forward peddling is that your step through gap here, the area where you'd step through the frame, I mean, it's a solid five, six inches. On a normal bike, even if it has a low step-through height, you're still only going to have about an inch or two at that sort of lowest point to be able to step through. So this just makes it easy, like Pete said, to get right through the bike, step right on. I like to point out too, Pete and I are wearing jeans. Jeans are a little more restricting, it's still simple to get on and off. So yeah.
Then just to run through, front and rear handbrakes. We've done a seven-speed derailleur with the twist shifter. One other thing, and Pete, maybe you can talk a little bit about this, it's for hills. Now, this is going to be ideal for flat road riding just because of the leverage you can get on the pedals. This type of frame will be a little bit more challenging on really steep inclines. Do you have any thoughts, opinions on that?
I mean, a seven-speed is a really good range for most riding. 21-speed takes it to another level. That's if you are encountering more really steep hills and things like that. But a seven-speed gear range gives you a really wide area of use. Also, the lowest gear here is an extra-large cog back here, which makes it a super low gear. So you get close to that easiest gear that you're going to have on 21-speed anyway. The 21-speed definitely will give you more range, but for most folks, this would probably fit I would say 90% of a customer's needs.
Yeah. Yeah. So my recommendation, my thought. If you're getting back into bicycling or even if you're not super comfortable with bike riding just yet, or you just want extreme comfort, this is a great choice. This is a great bike I think for someone who's getting back into bicycling, isn't 100% sure on a bike, but you know that you want to be on an upright bike. When I say upright, meaning you don't want to be on a fully recumbent. This is the greatest alternative to that. Because again, it's going to allow very simple on and off. One other thing I'll point out is you can very quickly and easily get your feet on the ground when riding and still have that ample leg room when pedaling because of how the pedals are shifted forward.
So for any reason you have balance issues or you're just not 100% comfortable being higher up off the ground on a normal, upright bike, the Relaxed Body can give you that peace of mind knowing should something go wrong, just boom, your feet are right there. Because on a typical bike, you want to be sized where you're sort of on the ball of your feet to enable the proper leg extension. That's because, on a normal upright triangle frame bike, the design is more concerned with the power output and the efficiency of the pedal strokes versus the comfort necessarily. On this one, we're putting a little bit more emphasis on comfort, the safety, the ease of use, and that's truly the benefit to the Relaxed Body. Anything else Pete? Do you want to take a quick run-through about just the specs so everyone knows kind of what is happening in terms of the spec level and the specs that we're using, the three-piece crank?
Yeah, sure. We specked this out nicely. This is an aluminum bike, which is wonderful. It's lightweight, it's high-quality material. Also, the three-piece cranks, which you're going to find are going to be very durable and lasts a long time. They're also going to be very smooth. We've outfitted it with Shimano components for the gears. I mean, my basic thought on this bike is just you feel that urge to get out there and get some exercise, but walking or jogging isn't going to do what you need. Also, if you want to go farther and see more things, there's just nothing like getting on a bike and feeling that gliding feeling and getting your heart pumping a little bit. This is an easy bike to do it on. Just pull it out of the garage or wherever and you can mount it so easily and just head on out. It's going to be easy on your back, easy on your knees and you can adjust it infinitely.
Yeah, yeah. The Relaxed Body is named for a reason. We call it the Relaxed Body because we think you can adjust this bike to get any rider's body in a relaxed position, be comfortable, but still get out and get exercise. So that, if you have any other questions, please comment below. We're happy to respond. We'll answer back as fast as possible. Or you can always call us at 310-982-2877 or send us an email, theteam@sixthreezero.com. Don't forget on our website, we have the body fit quiz. Take the quiz. It's going to fit you to a bike for your lifestyle and your body. We asked specific questions about the type of riding you're going to do and also if you have pain or no pain in your body, our proprietary algorithm will choose the right bike for your body. Don't forget, we have a 365-day return policy, so anytime within 365 days, if you don't love your bike, you can send it back no questions asked and we'll give you a full refund. So don't forget. It's your journey, your experience, enjoy the ride.
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