The
RunBike has created low impact running.Colorado 9News Report:
[Requires Quicktime to play movie]
The
RunBike has created low impact running.Why do we need low impact running? Many runners have learned that they cannot tolerate the pounding associated with their favorite exercise. For some this means switching to less attractive exercise alternatives and venues. Ultimately this can mean less effective exercise, or even, less exercise.
The RunBike was developed to enable more people to run more miles for more years in their lives. The basis of the objective lies in two accepted realities. The first is the myriad aches, pains, and injuries associated with conventional habitual running. The second is the burgeoning body of research pointing to the medical benefits of exercise.
So how did all this get started? Well, it is really an outgrowth of a joint unloading and artificial strength technology for skiing called CADS. That was developed by Walter Dandy of Vail, Colorado in the late eighties. CADS has enabled skiers who would have had to give up their sport due to arthritic knees, deconditioning, and even neuromuscular disease and amputation to continue participating, with real satisfaction. Over time, a classic skier’s question became, “Now you’ve fixed me for skiing, what about running?”
Walter Dandy’s favorite exercise had been to run four or five
miles a day, and, as he 
approached
fifty, he saw that a lot of his compatriots were beginning to fall by the wayside.
Millions of Americans had picked up running in the mid seventies, as Dandy had,
but millions had dropped out because, in a word, it was proving too hard. Like
youth itself, running was seemingly wasted on the young. By the time you needed
it, you couldn’t do it. It was too hard on cartilage, but it was also
too challenging to the cardiovascular system to be useful to many who needed
the conditioning. Accordingly, RunBike development began when the snow melted
in the spring of 2001.
The big question was, could weight be transferred to a wheeled frame so that running would feel like running, but the medical objectives of substantial joint unloading and moderation of cardiovascular challenge would be met. There were plenty of worrying theories and questions put forward by the nay sayers, but they were all answered in an instant as the very first RunBike rolled out of the shop and into the Rocky Mountain sunshine.
Suddenly running was very different indeed. All the attributes of coursing over land on one’s own legs were still there, but the problems had disappeared. Moving a third of one’s weight to the RunBike had users saying, “It’s like running on a trampoline,” or, “It’s like running on a smaller planet.” A marginal runner at 205 pounds, became a strong runner at 135. How had mankind missed this application of the wheel for so long?
Perhaps
the ski device had been a necessary step. Learning to use a spring means and
a composition rod to augment muscles and to unload joints, and then the observation
of clinical outcomes; those had lit the way. Even the first prototypes worked
magically, and by the advent of the fourth generation design, the RunBike was
ready for customers. A patent application was filed in the fall of 2003, and
the first RunBikes were shipped forthwith. See
Vail Daily article.
Now we invite you to enjoy a free introduction to low impact running in Avon, Colorado. Call 970-949-4533, and we will arrange a time at your convenience for you to analyze this technology. We have good bike paths here for getting started, and we believe it is only through getting some miles in that you will understand the benefits of this rather revolutionary approach to outdoor exercise. Trying is believing.
See the new version for the treadmill
CADS customers: you know what it feels like for skiing—imagine
what'll it feel like for running.
For more information call: 970-949-4533 (Mountain Time)
or email
Home movie of Walter enjoying his favorite sport, now made easier:
