Surprisingly, HP Velotechnik has run out of supply of its US-available Gekko FX-20 folding recumbent trikes for 2017.

Demand must have outstripped supply as dealers looking for Gekko FX20's in HP's US warehouse have been turned away empty-handed.

Gekko FX-20 trikes are some of the tightest-folding recumbent trikes in the industry and have all 20" wheels. This configuration is a bit slower than the 26" larger version of the FX20, but it folds up tighter and doesn't require a supply of two different tire and tube sizes.

HP Velotechnik maintains a supply of US-available Gekko FX-20's in their US warehouse and because these are shipped directly from Taiwan without touching German soil, they don't some with the same price constraints as the same model coming out of Germany. Gekko FX-20's are still available when custom-ordered out of Germany, but come at a $600 premium to cover the additional duties and international air-shipping.

This puts the price of a Gekko FX-20 shipped to the US from Germany on par with the base price of a Catrike Trail, or a base-model ICE Sprint-20 or Adventure-20.

The Catrike Trail has a similar folding system, but is U.S. made with a higher component specification. ICE recumbent trikes are of a modular design with each trike priced depending on configuration. ICE trikes are custom-configured in England and air-shipped to the U.S.

HP anticipates having Gekko FX-20's in stock in America for 2018.

The 2017 summer travel issue of Recumbent Tandem Rider Magazine is finally in print and on the shelves at recumbent stores across the U.S.

This issue features

• a thrilling tale of cycling in the Argentine Andes from Mendoza, past one of the tallest mountains (Aconcagua) in the world and on many tall mountain roads on a RANS Screamer tandem recumbent bike.
• a side-by-side comparisons of the Azub Six and the HP Velotechnik StreetMachine GTE by two recumbent travel adventurers
• recumbent-friendly trails and roads at Lake Almanor in California just up the road from AlphaBENT's warehouse location in Chico, CA.

The current issue is FREE and available at fine recumbent shops like AlphaBENT.

Recumbent Tandem Rider (RTR) Magazine has been covering the recumbent industry these last many years since the beginning -- and now, for the first time, the print copy of RTR magazine is available online.

RTR magazine publisher, Charles Coyne, is a constant shadow monitoring the comings and goings in the recumbent industry. He has also taken the initiative of creating the Recumbent CycleCon (the industry's only trade show in the United States).

As regularly as clockwork, stacks of RTR magazines have arrived in leading recumbent dealer shops like AlphaBENT. These unique magazines have been a key source of product information, reviews, and adventures dealing exclusively with recumbents and tandems.

Recumbent Tandem Rider Magazine will continue to be available in its print version and physical copies of the latest issue can be picked up for free wherever they were available before. But, now, the exact same magazine can be viewed online at RTRmag.com

[Disclaimer: This item was posted on April Fools Day, 2017. It is not to be taken seriously, though, perhaps, half-seriously. The rack and the trike are real and not Photoshopped. The trike is a Terratrike (perhaps an older Tour) and the rack is based on HP Velotechnik design.]

Today only, AlphaBENT is selling recumbent trike racks that are half off.

These racks are for trike owners who know that "less is more".

They are specially designed for non-touring trike-riders who have half a mind to take something with them, but aren't quite sure. The novel design leaves one side available for mounting dynamos and other accessories.

Manufacturers benefit from the 1/2-off concept by only having to design half of the rack and production is half as fast.

The first partial prototypes are in and AlphaBENT is selling them to test the market.

The new concept ushers in an era of fractional sales of fractional goods in the Fractional Economy.

Adherents of the Fractional Economy Concept say the economy gets a strong stimulation because recumbent trike buyers can purchase their trikes as they can afford to.

"I can see a day coming when people will buy 60% of a trike one month and then buy 15% more when their next paycheck comes in.", said AlphaBENT owner, Hugh Kern, "I'm only partially sure that this is going to take off. A lot of people have been telling me that this is a half-a__ed idea, but, I decided to just run with it."

Catrike has discontinued its popular Hyper-yellow and Eon-green colors due to supply issues with the green powder-coating ingredient used in both colors.

Because Catrike builds and powdercoats its own frames in-house, they have tremendous flexibility in making production changes on the fly. They also enjoy experimenting with powder combinations to make unique colors.

Hyper-yellow and Eon-green were the result of this experimentation and both relied on the same green ingredient component. However, late in 2016, there was a glitch in the supply of this green powder.

Now, the few remaining new Eon-green and Hyper-yellow Catrikes will be the last ones.

Other manufacturers using standard European RAL colors can produce a hyper-yellow equivalent by using an RAL equivalent.

(Note: some day-glo / flourescent-style colors can have long-term fading from exposure to the sun.)