The Recumbent Silly Smile

Most recumbent sales start by teaching the customer how to ride the bike. My first question to the customer is "Have you ever ridden one of these before?"
Most of the time the answer is no, so we head out together to a spot where we can safely do a roll down and let the customer feel the bicycle's different balance point.
Most of the time, the first try has the customer not being able to lift there feet off the ground for anything more that a second or two.
The second try has most riders in more control and more at ease.
"Light touch and look up", is usually shouted as the customer rolls away and not until a smooth descent is accomplished, do we head on to the next step,
We meet at a flat spot and discuss starting from a stop. There are a couple ways of doing this but the way I like to teach is one foot on the pedal and the other on the ground. "Like sitting on the floor with your back against the wall and your foot on your refrigerator. Your going to push the fridge across the floor and out the door.
The first couple of tries is difficult for most customer's. Either they don't push hard enough or they start to fall over and catch themselves and stop.
Its always different with each customer but usually after a few tries, they figure it out.
Three laps of the parking lot has them with the look in there eyes on the first lap like there really not in control.
The second has a look like, "I can do this!"
The third lap if there smiling the "Recumbent Silly Smile" you know the bike has been sold.