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“Get a bike, Royce. You’ll love cycling.” That’s what Royce Scobey’s friends told him. Turns out they were completely wrong. Luckily, Royce eventually found ElliptiGO bikes and he fell in love with stand-up cycling.

Royce grew up primarily in Oklahoma City, with some time also spent in north Louisiana. Today he lives in Clermont, which is west of Orlando, Florida, and works as a Senior Data Engineer for the Walt Disney Company.

“Fitness, conditioning and health are my passions,” Royce says. In 2017, his usual exercise routine consisted of indoor weight training and cardio workouts. Eventually, he was ready for a change of pace. His bike-riding friends assured him that he would love cycling outdoors. They encouraged him to buy a traditional bike. Royce went all in and bought a $5,000 road bike. Then he set off on his very first bike ride.

And he hated it.

The seat pain was awful. The hunched-over position of traditional cycling was uncomfortable.

He tried again. And he still loathed it. “I absolutely hated bike riding!” he recalls. 

And so, after riding a grand total of eight miles, Royce parked his brand-new bike in the garage. He was distraught that he’d invested so much money in a piece of equipment that he never wanted to use again. He even covered the bike with a blanket. “I couldn’t stand to look at it because it reminded me of the wasted money,” he explains.

A couple of months later he was at a brewery located on the West Orange Trail in Florida. He jokes, “I was sobbing in my cider over the mistake I made, buying that bike.” Then he looked up and saw a group of people on odd-looking bikes that had no seats.

“What the h***?!?” he recalls saying to himself. As he observed the seatless bikes, he realized that he might be looking at the right bike for his fitness goals. Then the riders were gone, and he had no idea who manufactured these bikes or where to find them.

Luckily, Royce later saw the riders again in his hometown of Clermont. He decided to go to the shop where he had bought his dreaded road bike to ask about the seatless bikes he’d seen. Unfortunately, the shop was not an ElliptiGO vendor and most of the staff were unwilling to assist him with a bike they weren’t selling.

But one helpful employee pointed Royce toward the ElliptiGO website and the ElliptiGO Facebook pages. Royce dove in and learned more about stand-up and elliptical bikes. Then he took a test ride. For Royce, it was love at first ride!

Royce told his cycling friends that he’d found the bike he wanted. They generously pooled their funds to buy back the road bike that Royce had only ridden twice. That gave him the money to purchase his first ElliptiGO bike in May 2018.

Next, Royce joined GERC, the Global ElliptiGO Riders Club. He says, “GERC provides me the opportunity to meet and ride with other awesome people who share the same passion for these bikes.” He enjoys meeting up with other fellow Goers for group rides. And he always represents! “I love wearing any and all GERC and ElliptiGO swag, from shirts to jackets, shoes and headbands,” says Royce. 

He has racked up the miles over the years, riding nearly 20,000 lifetime miles to date, including a century (100 miles). His most memorable ride was the 55th Anniversary Selma to Montgomery Bicycle Ride in 2020, which commemorated the anniversary of the civil rights activists’ march, led by Martin Luther King Jr., from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery, Alabama. The bike ride is held every five years, and Royce is looking forward to participating in the 60th anniversary ride in 2025.

Now Royce rides one of his ElliptiGO bikes (he owns two ElliptiGO elliptical bikes, as well as an RSUB and a MSUB) two or three times a week for 20 to 35 miles at a time. His favorite bike is currently the RSUB, thanks to its quiet yet challenging ride. Additionally, he does another form of cardio once a week and weight training or resistance training three times a week. Royce adds that he also has followed a plant-based diet for more than 12 years.

When asked what he would tell someone who was on the fence about buying an ElliptiGO bike, Royce notes that his level of ElliptiGO passion is difficult to attain. Instead, he says, “I just offer them test rides on my spare ElliptiGOs so they can convince themselves off of the fence! 😊”

We love that passion, Royce! We’re so glad you found ElliptiGO bikes and made them part of your conditioning workouts. And thanks for wearing ElliptiGO gear on your rides. After all, you never know who may be looking at your seatless bike and realizing that it might be right for them, just like it is for you and the other 40,000+ ElliptiGO owners worldwide!

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