Any biker can attest to the fact that bike seats are often uncomfortable. It’s something that rugged off-road warriors and weekend wannabes can agree on.
Which is probably why Jeri Rutherford of RideOut Technologies in Libby has sold her patented bike seats around the world.
“Bike seats don’t discriminate,” Rutherford said. “They make people around the world miserable.”
Today, RideOut has three different types of bike seats on the market. What sets the seats aparts is that they have a carbon-fiber leaf spring suspension under the seat that is easier on a biker’s backside. It’s also made from a much lighter material.
Rutherford, who is a native of Eugene, Oregon and later lived in Boise, Idaho, first realized the need for a better bike seat 11 years ago when the lifelong biker was embarking on yet another long trip. After a day or two she just couldn’t sit on the seat any longer, but she knew the fix.
“I could see the bike seat I really wanted,” she said. “I wanted a bike seat that could be flexible and move with my body.”
So Rutherford did what any frustrated biker would do: She hired a welder and started making seats, more than 50 prototypes in all over nearly five years. In the late 2000s she finally got a seat that she liked and let a few friends borrow them. She knew she was on to something when they stopped returning them.
She then spent the $20,000 to get the seat patented and embarked on a two-year journey trying to find out if someone could build them in the United States. Unfortunately, the costs to make it domestically would push the price tag up. Then, while attending a trade show in Las Vegas, she made a contact with someone from Taiwan who liked the idea and agreed to make the seats for less overseas. In 2010, RideOut Technologies was born.
Most of RideOut’s seats cost upwards of $80 or $90, but Rutherford said that little bit of extra cost is worth the quality of the product. The bike seat uses infused carbon fiber in the base plate that allows the seat to absorb more of the impact from bumps in the road. The seats themselves are covered in Kevlar side panels that can withstand more abuse and the rear part of the seat has 3M fabrics sewn into it so it is more visible. The seat is also lighter than traditional bike seats.
All of those amenities have earned the bike seat accolades from professional bikers to police departments and doctors.
In recent years, the company has also expanded its product line, including an item called FireFly Bike Grips. The ergonomic bike handles look like just about any other bike handle except they include working signal indicator lights. Rutherford said she designed the product after there were 22 bike-car collisions in Boise in 2013, half of which involved children. She said the product not only helps drivers see where bikers are going, but they also seem to help children be more aware of where they biking, in part because they like using the lights.
RideOut has also made an Urban Touring Bag that connects to the seat and lights up. Again, Rutherford said safety was the primary motivator in developing the product.
Earlier this year, Rutherford married a man from the Lincoln County area and the couple decided to relocate to the Libby area. She recently opened a small facility with three employees, her included. While most of the seats are assembled overseas, some are pieced together in Libby and she thinks the business will expand with the introduction of a new mountain bike seat.
As for the biking in her new home, she said Lincoln County is an undiscovered biker’s paradise.
“I’m wondering why I didn’t move here years ago,” Rutherford said of the biking and recreational opportunities.
Rutherford said it took a decade to get her company to where it is today, but she’s excited about how far it’s come and its future. She said her business is more than just a hobby turned career; it’s a calling.
“Every time you’re on a bike you’re not driving a car,” she said. “We’re saving the world one butt at a time.”