GYM blues?

For anyone who enjoys an outdoor workout, the thought of being trapped in the gym on a gorgeous day – and there are plenty of those in San Diego – can be torture.

Meet elliptiGO, a new glide bike that takes the low-impact stride of the elliptical machine out of the gym and onto the streets.  Launching in September from Solana Beach entrepreneurs Bryan Pate and Brent Teal, the trendy transporter creates a cardiovascular workout that replicates running, without the stress on the joints or the monotony of the gym.

“After years of endurance running and contact sports, I couldn’t run for fitness anymore; I took up the elliptical and really liked it, but I hated being in the gym,” says Pate, who teamed up with fellow endurance athlete and mechanical engineer Teal to design equipment that could meet the needs of hard-core athletes who want to stop being so hard on their bodies.

Now in its fourth generation, the elliptiGO ($1950, elliptigo.com) is ready for market, starting locally with just 250 in production.  Through word of mouth, almost half have already been purchased or reserved.  “Most of the sales have been from people seeing Brent flying down the Coast Highway at 26 miles per hour and saying, ‘What is that thing?’” says Pate.  “People can’t believe he’s going that fast.  It really catches their attention.”

Pate has dropped 10 pounds using elliptiGO as his primary form of exercise, and Teal has taken the bike on 70-mile rides up to 7,000 feet in elevation – both without feeling the next day joint pain they used to experience from running.

“With elliptiGO,” Pate says, “you can get the same level of workout as running and the same appreciation of the outdoors, while also being engaged in your environment.”

San Diego Magazine
September 2009
Front Pages
By Christina Orlovsky

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