Welch invents new bike

Mountain Brook residents may periodically see Mayor Stewart Welch riding around town on an unfamiliar contraption.

It doesn’t fit the mold of a traditional bicycle or scooter, but rather resembles a mishmash of the two.

Welch calls it the UpRyder, a stand-up bicycle five years in the making. He usually takes it on 10-minute trips to his tennis matches at The Country Club of Birmingham and, eventually, would like to see it mass-produced.

“The way it came about is, I like riding a bike, but the position of a traditional bike, ... the position of your body is not real comfortable,” Welch said. “You’re hunched, and I had a lot of neck problems.”

Welch thought about designing a stand-up bike for quite some time before finally pulling the trigger in 2014. During a meeting at work, he heard about a cyclist who died from crashing into the back of a truck.

The cyclist had been riding with his head down and his eyes fixed on the road at the time of the accident. Welch said that’s a common posture for cyclists, particularly when they are pedaling quickly.

“With that story, I said, ‘You know what, I’m going to quit talking about it and I’m going to do it,’” he said.

Welch, who owns The Welch Group financial advising firm, contracted local engineer and “bike enthusiast” Jose Santiago to help him design the bike. That process began with Welch drawing stick-figure renderings on a conference room whiteboard.

He set out with four goals in mind: to design a bike that weighed under 30 pounds, cost less than $1,200, had 20 speeds and targeted the recreational rider.

“I wasn’t going after the guy who wears the slick clothes,” Welch said. “I was going to somebody who likes to walk, somebody who likes to jog, somebody who likes to ride on a bike but wanted a different experience.”

After jotting down ideas on the whiteboard, Welch and Santiago turned their attention to building a prototype. To do so, they purchased two traditional bicycles, deconstructed them and then used their parts to build a new machine. Welch said they patched the original model together with duct tape, which made for an admittedly “awkward” first ride in the parking lot at his office building. But the experience provided him with enough encouragement to proceed.

Eventually, Santiago refined the renderings on a computer and had a new prototype built. It’s the one that Welch rides today. He said it’s made of steel, weighs between 40 to 50 pounds, has 10 speeds and relies on 26-inch tires.

“This would be a perfect bike for 30A down in Florida,” Welch said. “You’re down in Florida, you’re looking to ride a bike, piddle around.”

Welch compared the current prototype to a Richter set, with pieces of metal screwed together. He would like the bike to be made of welded aluminum in its final iteration, which would reduce its weight.

Welch said he is in the process of patenting UpRyder, and his goal is to enter a licensing agreement by 2021 with a manufacturer that will produce and sell the bike. In that arrangement, he would receive royalties on sales.

Welch said he has invested around $20,000 to $25,000 in UpRyder so far. When he steps on it, he no longer experiences the pain that once plagued him.

“It’s like you’re in the perfect position,” he said.