Lower Rider

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While the bicycles that Bent-Up Cycles sells take a laid-back approach, its owner, Dana Lieberman, doesn’t.

Lieberman’s shop sells recumbent bicycles that place the cyclist in a reclining position, allowing for a more relaxed ride.

Recumbent bicycles are still a tiny niche in the industry – accounting for only about 2 percent of U.S. sales – but are gaining popularity with aging baby boomers who complain of physical pain on traditional uprights.

Riding this trend, the energetic 41-year-old has peddled to profit and growth since opening up his business in 2003, moving out of his garage to a shop in Van Nuys that he’s since expanded twice.

“It’s kind of like being on a recliner instead of feeling like your face is falling forward toward the street,” Lieberman said. “It shows you a whole different perspective on the road compared to anything else.”

Bent-Up Cycles mostly sells two kinds of recumbents: two-wheelers known simply as “recumbent,” and three-wheelers known as “trikes.” The shop also sells tandems, which Lieberman uses to take his kids to school.

The store offers several brands, such as Bacchetta from St. Petersburg in Florida and Inspired Cycle Engineering, or ICE, in Cornwall, England. But since there are only a handful of manufacturers, recumbents tend to cost more than traditional bikes, ranging from $700 to $5,000. Lieberman also custom builds more than 30 bikes each year under the Carbent brand.

All in all, he sells about 200 bicycles a year, as well as an assortment of gear. His annual revenue is approaching $1 million, and he recently acquired a second brand that he hopes will boost his custom bike business.

As for competition, there are only a few dedicated recumbent bike shops on the entire West Coast, according to manufacturers, meaning Bent-Up is largely up against regulator bike shops that sell them as a side business.

“It’s a very small niche market and there isn’t a lot of research available on the growth potential there,” said Megan Tompkins, editor of Laguna Hills-based Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, an industry publication. “But it does have a very loyal following and customer base willing to spend a lot on the bikes.”

Valley storefront

A longtime cyclist, Lieberman got into business shortly after buying a recumbent made by VeloKraft, a manufacturer in Zielonki, Poland. At the time, the L.A. native was growing dissatisfied with his career as a social worker helping kids in South Central Los Angeles with developmental disabilities. He felt bureaucracy and budget cuts prevented him from doing the best job he could do.

Lieberman was so enamored with the bike, called a VK2, he called the manufacturer and requested to be a dealer. He was successful in his bid and started selling the bikes out of his garage in North Hollywood in October 2003.

“Once I rode one, I knew there was no peddling backward,” he recalled.

Lieberman said the advantage of riding a recumbent is ergonomic: It allows the rider’s weight to be better distributed over the back and tailbone, compared to an upright where the weight rests on a few square inches of tailbone, feet and hands.

Lieberman kept his day job for about a year, which allowed him to pour about $50,000 into the business without needing to take out any loans or use credit cards. Finally, he quit his job on Memorial Day 2004 and about a month later opened up a storefront on Balboa Boulevard in Van Nuys. In the last five years, he has expanded that 800-square-foot patch into a 20,000-square-foot store with an assembly and repair station.

“I’m not a trained person in bicycle repair, I just read a lot and speak to people who do know about it and learn from them,” Lieberman said. “So it was important to hire a trained bicycle repair and assembly expert, which I did.”

He’s already established himself in the recumbent bike industry, though. He has a Web site – BentUpCycles.com – that not only sells bikes and gear, but has a social networking feature allowing enthusiasts to post pictures and messages.

Steve Cohen, a USC administrator, has purchased several recumbents from Bent-Up and visits the shop regularly for tune-ups, accessories and to look at expanding his collection.

“It’s just a great place to go and chat with the staff in person about cycling and how to get the best use out of your bike,” Cohen said.

Jeremy Massey, production and shipping manager for Bacchetta, said Lieberman’s shop is now a leading outlet.

“Dana has been among our top five sellers every year since he started carrying our bikes. Dana’s a big player out there on the West Coast,” he said. “We send him between 30 to 40 bikes a year and they do pretty well out there in California, which is our second biggest market aside from Florida.”

Peddling forward

Although Lieberman humbly calls his ambitions and store modest, in November 2007 he purchased Layton, Utah-based Carbent, a manufacturer of custom carbon recumbent bikes. He declined to discuss the acquisition cost.

The company was run out of the owner’s garage and was a one-man show, so Lieberman had the inventory shipped to his store and placed it in a 1,000-square-foot warehouse, where he and another employee hand-build carbon-fiber frames, weld parts and paint the bikes.

He makes about 30 to 35 Carbent bikes a year, selling most of them at his shop, but the rest at a small dealer network the manufacturer had established.

Last month, Lieberman closed a deal for his second acquisition, Barcroft Cycles of Falls Church, Va. Barcroft designed and assembled the bikes, but most frames were imported from cheap sources such as China. Lieberman plans to make Barcroft an exclusive in-house brand.

He is now in the process of moving the inventory and some equipment from Virginia to his shop, which he said he’d like to expand again if Barcroft boosts business by 15 percent as he anticipates.

“I’m not looking at making any more acquisitions, but these deals were too good to pass up,” Lieberman said.

Bent-Up Cycles

Founded: 2003

Headquarters: Van Nuys

Core business: Retailer and custom-builder of recumbent bicycles

Employees: 4

Goal: To expand recumbent bike sales through manufacturing and additional

marketing

The Numbers: Company started out of owner’s garage with $30,000 in sales in first year but now operates a store, has acquired two manufacturers and is poised to break $1 million in annual sales

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