Several decades ago, lifelong Manhattan Beach resident Don Spencer lugged his road bike to Mexico City and cycled 60 miles south to Cuernavaca, riding up to the peak of a mountain and back. It was his longest trip as an avid cyclist, he remembered. Now at age 76, such a feat seems daunting.
“If I wanted to do any distance riding, it’s a penalty to pay,” Spencer said, smiling. “That pain on the rear end from riding too much.”
Enter the BananaHama. A line of recumbent bicycles with a long frame resembling a banana, the design shirks the typical triangular-shaped saddle and instead fashions a seat out of a height-adjustable hammock. Invented by metal artist Brent Ingrim, the boyfriend of Spencer’s daughter, the BananaHama is quickly making rounds on national media – it was featured on NBC’s “Today Show” last Friday and KTLA’s morning show Wednesday – and generating a mixture of fascination and curiosity.
Just a few prototypes are in existence as of now, but the BananaHama team plans to spread the comfort revolution to the rest of the world. With just three days left to reach its Kickstarter campaign goal of $65,000, the team hopes to raise enough money to fund its first production run.
As the project’s primary funder and self-proclaimed “advisor in fun,” Spencer has embarked on countless bike rides in the comfort of the BananaHama’s hammock seat, or “Hama,” made of sun and tear resistant material.
“I’m the one who has ridden the bike more than anyone else because I seem to have more time to get out,” said Spencer, a retired art professor. “I feel like a kid again because I can ride that bike for a long time. And I get great comments.”
The idea first sparked as a joke two years ago on Fourth of July, after a longwinded bike ride along the ocean from Manhattan Beach to Redondo and back. Spencer’s daughter, Danette Vega, had taken her boyfriend along on the seven-mile trek, but upon return to Vega’s family home on Crest Drive, Ingrim’s rear end was quite impacted.
“He was complaining that he was a little sore,” Vega recalled, “then we were talking about it, joking around saying we should make a hammock seat to make it comfortable.”
The concept apparently struck a chord in Ingrim, whose artwork is widely commissioned throughout his city of Visalia. He went home, and about a week later, he had built the first prototype of the BananaHama, Vega said.
The following Fourth of July, the couple again cruised along the beaches, this time with Ingrim riding a bright yellow prototype of the BananaHama Cruiser. Onlookers were fascinated, serving as motivation for Ingrim to found BananaHama LLC with friend Barry Weingart. They have since brought in Jay Townley and Elliot Gluskin, veteran consultants in the bicycle industry.
“It has been fun, to have a new concept for the bicycle,” Spencer said. “I never dreamed that I’d be involved in an activity that has this kind of potential, and that potential is comfort.”
The BananaHama team has yet to determine a key demographic, but perhaps the challenge lies in its appeal of comfort across the board, from older folks with back problems to bike aficionados who appreciate the state-of-the-art design. The most recent addition to its line, which currently includes a seven-speed BananaHama Cruiser and a 27-speed BananaHama Urban, is the BananaHama Mini, a kid’s tricycle-slash-stroller. (An adult tricycle is in the works.)
Ingrim showed up one day with the smaller model, Spencer recalled, as a gift for his 2-year-old grandson, Cain. As his legs were too short to reach the pedals, Ingrim installed a canopy and a metal handle, allowing his mother to use it as a stroller. When Cain grows tall enough, they can easily remove the handle, and just like that, he has a tricycle, Spencer said.
“We saw potential here too,” he added, “because the child on this hammock is more secure than on the seat of a regular tricycle.”
Spencer noted that people have required an initial 15 to 20 minutes to figure out the center of gravity between the two wheels, given the long frame. After that, the world is at your disposal.
“It’s almost like learning to ride anew,” Spencer said. “But the rewards are worth it.”
For more information on BananaHama’s Kickstarter campaign, visit bananahama.com.
