Now Available in the Bacchetta Shop Here 

Now you can wear the exact same t-shirt that will be worn by John’s RAAM crew.  Featuring the oval Bacchetta logo on the front, the now famous “Killer B” logo on the back and official RAAM logos on the sleeves, all in a 100% cotton, teal blue tee.  This special addition shirt will only be available for a limited time and all proceeds go to John’s RAAM effort, so act now if you want to be part of the team!

Notice- These will be sent at a reduced shipping price of $2.50, even though on your order it will show up as $7.50. 

Sizes: S,M,L,XL,XXL

Price- $20                                                   

Back in late 2004 there was a split in the Bacchetta lineup which turned the Strada into the preimeir  "budget" dual 26 performance recumbent on the market.  Along with that came a new model, the Giro 26, a bike that we built to "do it all".

The original Strada in 2002-2004 was a great bike and allowed people a lot of options when it came to running fatter tires and  larger wheels (700c).  The problem with larger wheels was the money and time that now had to be put back in the bike, in the form of a 700c fork and Paul rear brake.  When you wanted to go fatter tires, you had plenty of room in the rear, but the fork was a limiting factor.   While the Original Giro 26 solved some of these problems with tire clearance, it left other issues unsolved.

Fast forward to 2006.  The Giro 26 had been a great seller but the Bugatti Blue was beginning to wear and we just weren't satisfied that we had taken this frame as far as it could go, so Mark Colliton here at Bacchetta went back  to the drawing board in early 2006.  But there was a problem: by June 2006, we were sold out of Giro 26 and the new design wasn't finalized.  Rather than just order in more of the original 26's, we sold out and fielded a ton of calls from Dealers and customers wanting to order this bike.  Now, when you're a small company and you have a bike in demand with people wanting to buy it, it's pretty damn hard to clamp down and say, "we're re-designing it and it's going to be a lot better, it will be worth the wait...half a year from now.  But that's exactly what we did and after almost 8 months, the new Giro 26 was released.

The change was fairly dramatic.  The new bike was now designed around a 700c wheel size, rather than a 26" wheel. This allowed the geometry to be consistent if you were running 700c, 650c,26" (559), 24" or 20".  To make it even easier, we even included a 700c fork to take larger wheels and fatter tires, along with a rear road brake tab if someone wanted to build up a true road machine (see 700c bike photo accompanying this article). 

However, the core of what this bike is really all about, never changed: The Giro 26 should be built to do it all and that's why it comes with 26" wheels, disc brakes and a little fatter tire right out of the box.  For the person who wants a dual 26" recumbent that they can ride on the trails or rough roads one day and on the road ride the next then this is the bike.  In most cases, if you have a set of disc road wheels, it's as simple as swapping out wheels which takes all of a couple of minutes.  And did I mention that you can get this bike with arguably the most praised, recumbent seat on the market for the last 3 years, the EuroMesh, at no extra cost? 

The Giro 26 has been a great platform and we're very happy to see others out there following its lead.   Since the  current design came out over a year ago,  it's been one of our top two selling bikes without fail and because of this, you will see some new things on the horizon based on this model's design.   So in the meantime, check out the Giro 26 if you're looking for a bike that can truly "do it all".

Bacchetta Recumbent Bicycles-http://www.bacchettabikes.com/recumbents/bikes/giro26.htm

On Sunday, March 30th 2008, Ray Taylor is undertaking an ultra distance event of his own; a cross country trip that starts in San Diego, CA and ends in St. Augustine, FL.  But Ray isn't doing this for himself, his agenda is quite different.  Below is an excerpt from Ray's website: http://www.raysride.org

Ray’s Ride is dedicated to the effort of raising money for the medical research of Melanoma Cancer and the birth defect, Spina Bifida.   This effort is a tribute to my daughter, Kristen Taylor-Cameron who has fought melanoma since 2003, and to my granddaughter Grace Glaros, born February 14th, 2008, with spina bifida.  So... this challenge might aptly be named, “The Great Race for Kristen and Grace".

So take the time and check out Ray's website and support him in any way you can.  Even if it's only an email saying; we're rooting for you, I'm sure that Ray and his family would appreciate it.

To help out, we've added a model comparison page at http://www.bacchettabikes.com/recumbents/compare.htm. 

This will allow you to look at the bikes side by side, rather than clicking back and forth between pages.  You'll not only find bike specs, but also links to our always important frame design page http://www.bacchettabikes.com/company/framedesign.htm as well as a link to our fitting and x-seam measurement page http://www.bacchettabikes.com/support/fitting.htm#xseam

So, if you're having a tough time trying to decide between the various models, check out our model comparison page, it could prove to be a big help in your decision!