A Short History of the Avatar 2000
The Avatar 2000 was the first commercially produced LWB (long-wheelbase) USS (under-seat steering) recumbent bicycle in the U.S.. It was probably the first commercially produced recumbent of any type and today is considered the “grandfather” of the modern recumbent. The Avatar is actually considered a semi-recumbent because the rider’s posture is similar to sitting in a chair. On the other hand, short-wheelbase recumbents (SWB), due to the basic design necessity of the crank above the front wheel, place the body posture in a much more reclined and lower attitude. The general design of a recumbent however, goes back to the late 1800s.
The Avatar’s origins date to the late 1970s in the Boston area. Two friends, Richard (Dick) Forrestall and Harald Maciejewski (Mah-chey-YEV-ski) 1938 – 2007, co-owners of two bike shops, formed a side company by the name of Fomac, Inc. , the combined initial letters of their last names. The business primarily involved the import of German-made bicycles. At some point they made the acquaintance of David Gordon Wilson (1928 – 2019) a highly respected professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. Professor Wilson had designed, among his many endeavors, a recumbent bicycle, and before long the three worked to refine a final version that came to be the Avatar. Wilson had no ownership interest in the company, but was the “go-to” guy on design issues. Dick and Harald sold their bike shop businesses and focused on the production of the new bike design under the Fomac, Inc company umbrella.
Earlier in his work career, Dick Forrestall had been a tool and die maker. Accordingly, he was the one with machine shop expertise and set up a small workshop within his one-car garage in Wilmington, MA. Harald lived several houses away and used his basement to assemble the bikes. The frames, after mitering, etc., were subbed-out to a couple of fellows who were expert braziers and silver solderers. The ultra-quality leather and nylon mesh seats were also contracted out to a woman with expert custom sewing skills. All of the machine work on the myriad of custom-designed parts was done by Dick in his garage. Some added production help came from Dick Ryan, one of their former bike shop employees. Dick was given a 5% ownership interest.
Original Avatar Sales Brochure.pdf
Patent #4283070A (Applicable to steering/seat design)
Efforts in publicity occurred in 1981 with Len Vreeland (1929 – 2005) of Allentown, Pennsylvania (see Original Players tab) riding an Avatar across the country in a record attempt.
Also, in 1982- 1983 the land speed record was broken by a modified, fairing-equipped Avatar called the Bluebell.
The 52+ mph record was soon eclipsed by other land-speed machines; all specially designed around the recumbent model.
Promotional articles for the production Avatar appeared in various publications at the time:
BikeCentennial (now Adventure Cycling).pdf
Only about 140 bikes were produced. Despite a retail price in 1982 of $2,127.00, ($6,782.00 -thru Nov 2023 inflation adjusted dollars) it was not possible to make a profit and soon real world economics took over. Their original intent was not to continue producing such a high-end and labor-intensive bike, but to eventually find a larger manufacturer that would be interested in buying the business and rights to the bike. Unfortunately, they were unable to find any interested company.
Forced to stop production and find other work to pay the bills, the idea lay dormant for a short while. Dick Ryan started experimenting with the concept in his basement seeking to build the bike in a more cost-effective way. Having purchased the patent, he eventually struck out on his own and built a cheaper knock-off version of the Avatar called the Ryan Vanguard. He had more success throughout the 1990s selling a total of approximately 1200 units and about 250 tandem recumbents. Today, Ryan is out of the business; remnants of his endeavors were sold off or picked up by some even smaller entrepreneurs.