We have looked at alot of folding bikes recently trying to choose which one combines all of the great features a folding bike should have at a fair price.  We realize that you can find a folding bike for under $100, and if you'll never ride it than that is probably the best purchase you can make.  But if your looking for one of the lightest, strongest, and most compact folding bikes on the market than the Aerlite B is the bike for you!  Weighting in at just 24 lbs. this one feature alone blew away all of the low cost throw away folding bikes we have looked at.  We also love the 3 speed internal hub design.  If your riding a folding bike than most of your riding is in the campground or on paved bike trails so the 3 speed transmission works perfect.  But a even bigger benefit is that the chain is higher up and there is no greasy rear multi gear cassette to ruin your carpeted RV bay and clothing during storage.    For a folding bike that can accommodate a person up to 6' 5", it folds up incredibly small at just 28" x 25" x 13".  And due to the strength and shock absorbing qualities of the magnesium frame, this bike rides comfortably on surfaces that would jar riders on low cost throw away folding bikes. Additionally, this is one of the few folding bikes built to accommodate riders up to 300 lbs.  With all of these great features and a manufacturers limited lifetime warranty, the Aerlite B is a clear winner!

Features:
• Rust free, light & shock dampening magnesium frame
• Designed for riders up to 6'5" tall and 300 lbs (with high psi tires)
• Fits in a typical 31 inch suitcase w/minor disassembly
• Shimano Nexus internal hub 3 speed as standard equipment
• Shimano Rivo style Grip Shift
• ProMax V-Lock brakes
• 98% composed of rust free alloys (including the 16" wheels)
• Folding pedals, 2-tone comfort saddle, comfort grips, kickstand, reflectors, fenders/mudguards
• Spring loaded safety latches prevent bike from accidentally folding when being ridden
• Weighs just 24 lbs.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MIDDLEBURY, IN, January 25, 2007 — The premier of Coachmen Recreational Vehicle Company's Aurora™ Full-Wall Slide-Out at the National RV Trade Show in Louisville breaks new ground for Coachmen gas Class A motorhomes. This is Coachmen's first full-wall slide-out and represents a total redesign for the Aurora product line, featuring incredible exterior pass through storage (107 cubic feet), side opening compartment doors, all new sleek automotive front and rear molded cap designs, one-piece windshield, seven-foot interior height, and most impressively, a creative one of a kind floorplan.

"Response to this new product at Louisville was fantastic," said Mark Weber, product and sales manager for Coachmen's gas Class A motorhomes. "Dealers were really wowed by the innovation and styling of this new model." The manufacturer's suggested retail price for the Aurora 36 FWS begins at $118,000.

This coach is 35-feet-7-inches long. The 25-foot slide-out room starts behind the driver's seat and goes well into the rear of the bedroom, greatly enhancing the interior space. Weber noted that Coachmen engineers took extraordinary care while designing the slide to ensure a good balance on the coach, and their dedicated work paid off.

Coachmen builds this motorhome on the W-22 platform from Workhorse Custom Chassis. This chassis provides 22,000 lbs. GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating), giving the coach plenty of carrying capacity. The Vortec™ 8100 V8 8.1L engine from General Motors coupled with the Allison™ six-speed automatic transmission powers the coach, giving it exceptional ride and handling characteristics.

The Aurora FWS sports eye-catching exterior graphics with partial paint applied to high-gloss sidewalls. Beefy 22.5-inch wheels, custom fiberglass front and rear caps and the one-piece windshield contribute to the overall sleek look, Coachmen incorporated its Sight Rite™ dash with the windshield to improve visibility and reduce front blind spots. For operator convenience, Coachmen built Aurora Full Wall Slide with fully automatic hydraulic leveling jacks plus heated and remote controlled exterior mirrors.

Finding room for all the gear needed for any adventure is simple with the 107 cubic feet of pass through storage. Accessing that storage is also easy with side-hinged compartment doors and lighted storage bays.

Driving Aurora is a pleasure. The coach is equipped with deluxe pilot seats with integrated three-point seat belts. The cockpit is designed for comfort and convenience with a tilt steering wheel, defrost dash fans, dash air conditioning, power sun visors and even a passenger-side pullout computer desk. The state-of-the-art three-way rear view camera is activated by the turn signal, allowing the driver to see directly behind or on either side of the coach.

Step into the living area and forget you are in a motorhome. Aurora exudes spaciousness. The coach is a full eight feet wide before the full wall slide is activated and the extra high interior ceiling is seven feet tall. Large windows and bright decors add to the feeling of spaciousness. Coachmen offers four different fabric choices: Onyx Haze, Sicilian Umber, Castleton Cream and Blue Saxony and two wood options, Welbeck Birch and Brazilian Cherry. The upscale living area features a 70-inch sofa, a leather recliner and a 26-inch LCD overhead television.

Solid surface kitchen countertops grace the galley, which comes equipped with a stainless steel microwave oven, stainless steel three-burner range with oven, a double bowl kitchen sink with a designer faucet, and a large double door refrigerator. A deluxe side-by-side refrigerator is optional. Serve meals at the legless buffet style dinette that seats two or pulls out to comfortably fit four.

The yacht style bedroom is in a class by itself. The queen bed is set at an angle, yielding a new and innovative furniture arrangement. A 20-inch LCD television is mounted on the wall, and the huge wardrobe provides exceptional storage space.

Aurora represents the top of the line for Coachmen's Class A gas motorhomes. The Aurora 36 FWS takes that top of the line up another notch.

Coachmen Industries, Inc., through its prominent industry subsidiaries, is one of America’s leading manufacturers of recreational vehicles, systems-built homes and commercial buildings. The Company’s well-known RV brand names include COACHMEN™, GEORGIE BOY™, SPORTSCOACH™ and VIKING™. Coachmen’s ALL AMERICAN HOMES® subsidiary is one of the nation’s largest producers of systems-built homes, and also a major builder of multi-family residential and commercial structures with its ALL AMERICAN BUILDING SYSTEMS™ products. Coachmen Industries, Inc. is a publicly held company with stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker COA.

Vortec™ and Allison™ are trademarks of General Motors Corporation.

The following was delivered by Elden Smith, President and CEO, Fleetwood Enterprises at John Crean's memorial service on January 18, 2007.

I want to thank the Crean family for inviting me to celebrate with you the business life of John Crean. Having this opportunity is an extraordinary honor.

Fleetwood, founded in 1950, was the launching pad for an incredibly intense, very creative man with an entrepreneurial spirit, and the strong belief that he could build a better trailer. The 1950s were a period of learning for John, a decade of highs and lows, successes and failures. But out of this period came the basic principles of a great company, a multibillion dollar enterprise that by the time he retired led both the manufactured housing and recreation vehicle industries in every segment by a wide margin.

And, out of the '50s came a more single-minded, focused entrepreneurial leader. John determined that good, functional, reliable, high-quality product, produced by a financially solid company comprised of loyal motivated people, was the foundation on which his company would grow. Motivated employees would be attracted to a company by the same things that gave him a sense of satisfaction. An opportunity to be creative, to make decisions, to learn from mistakes, to control their own destiny, and to share in the resulting profits and provide for their families at a level that before joining Fleetwood could only be a dream.

His managers were expected to be, above all, honest, dedicated, hard working, focused and loyal. He rewarded these character traits with trust and opportunity.

In the '70s he became our "teacher." He taught the principles of entrepreneurship. He was not a conventional teacher. No lectures. Most times he taught by example. For example, my first real lesson on the importance of "function and convenience" came a little over 35 years ago. I was in charge of the Recreational Vehicle Group. John would come by every few weeks and we would go to lunch to discuss the market, our latest products and operational direction. He picked me up one day with his new Rolls Royce Corniche Convertible, white with a gorgeous burl wood and red leather interior, complete with the latest CB radio bolted to the floor. . . the most beautiful car I had ever seen. While on our way to and from Denny's he demonstrated both the car and the CB radio. A few weeks later he came by again. I got into the car and the first thing he had to show me was how he no longer had to reach down to the floor to grab the CB microphone . . . to my dismay he had taken two hex head screws and screwed the bracket for the microphone to the beautiful burl wood dash at arm's length from the driver's seat. He reached out, without having to lean over, without taking his eyes off the road, and grabbed the microphone and pleased as punch made a call to an unknown trucker. . . function and convenience.

Everything to John was a "house," be it a mobile home, motor home, travel trailer or folding trailer. And they were all expected to meet the same high standards for function and reliability. Every cabinet in the kitchen of a house, or galley in an RV, must easily accommodate the things it should: pots and pans, canned goods, and cereal boxes; and tables must be large enough to accommodate full-sized plates and place settings opposite each other. No compromises.

John was well aware of manufacturing and material cost. Vacationing in RVs, in Mexico, a group of five Fleetwood families and John and Donna enjoyed a wonderful week together in the late '70s. While most of us on this vacation read, fished, swam, hiked and generally experienced the outdoors, John took his ever-present toolbox and went through the unit we had provided him, from front to rear and top to bottom. On the last day he and Donna departed early. When I got up in the morning, propped on the top of the spare tire carrier on the back of our motor home, was a box of parts that John had taken out of his motor home: excess wiring, ducting for the heating system, unnecessary screws and brackets, and other miscellaneous parts . . . the message: "you are getting loose with your manufacturing processes and design specs . . . tighten up."

Regarding warranty costs. Water leaks and electrical shorts were problems in early motor homes. One evening, while on a trip to visit dealers, John was playing a game of gin rummy with our motor home director of production. Early in one game, as John threw down his hand with Gin, he said good-naturedly, "Take that, Mr. Director of Leaks and Shorts!" Subtlety was not one of John's strong suits, but effectiveness was.

As an inventor and innovator John was unparalleled: a Venetian blind mechanism in the 1940s, an innovative manufactured home in the 1970s and the Bounder motor home in the 1980s.

The Bounder motor home revolutionized the design of motor homes throughout the industry. Put very simply, what John did was raise the floor of the motor home. This provided bus-like storage below the floor, and allowed for more functional floor plans and operational features. John developed this motor home with the help of a drafter, and one of our prototype assemblers, in his workshop at home. Within a few years the Bounder motor home was the best selling motor home in the country . . . 90% of the motor homes sold in the country today contain most of the unique features John put in that first Bounder unit.

Earlier I mentioned John's toolbox. The toolbox was probably the first thing John loaded in every motor home or trailer he used. He is legendary among Fleetwood Owners Club members. When John and Donna attended Owner Rallies, John would place a writing pad outside their unit and invite anyone that had a problem with their motor home or trailer (something that needed adjusted or fixed) to put their name and space number on the list and he would come by and take care of it. When he had time he would grab his toolbox and head out into the park. You have no idea how many people there are that state with great pride that the Chairman of the Board of Fleetwood Enterprises came by and adjusted their screen door.

At the corporate offices, John's office was the least used office in the facility. He spent most of his time in the shop of the product development building, in the offices of managers and staff, in the plants visiting with management and associates on the production line, with our dealers and with owners. If he had papers to sign, he signed them, as often as not while "talking shop," on the corner of someone else's desk.

John was a natural born entrepreneur, a child of the depression and poverty, educated in the school of hard knocks, and he never forgot a lesson. John Crean instilled in us such simple wisdoms as:

"When things are bad it will get good. When things are good it will get bad. We need to manage our business accordingly."

"During difficult times if you net just $1 you will not go broke."

"The most important 'tool' in the product development area is the dumpster." He felt the dumpster should always be full of failed efforts to improve our products. You might say success comes as a result of many failures.

Years ago I saved a quote by Clarence Francis (a world renowned business leader of the 1930s and '40s) that I believe frames the essence of John's leadership. It says:

You can buy a man's time; you can buy his physical presence at a given place; you can even buy a measured number of his skilled muscular motions per hour.

But you cannot buy enthusiasm.
You cannot buy loyalty.
You cannot buy the devotion of hearts, minds or souls.
You must earn these!

John Crean earned our enthusiasm, our loyalty, our minds and our hearts. We at Fleetwood will never forget him or the things he stood for, and we will be forever grateful.

John's company, Fleetwood Enterprises, has since 1950 built more than 1,300,000 homes, 1,700,000 recreational vehicles, and provided jobs and careers for tens of thousands of people. Because there is a Fleetwood, millions of people are able to enjoy their leisure pursuits more comfortably, afford better homes, and achieve greater career success and opportunity. Their lives, our lives, are better because John Crean passed by this way.

New for 2007 is our MaxxFan remote control that operates all fan functions from the palm of your hand. The first ever all-in-one RV vent fan that automatically provides rain free ventilation.

• MaxxFan, a new, one-of-a kind ventilator system that protects your RV interior - always - in any weather - rain or shine
• Brings in fresh air and removes hot musty air and odors
• A complete all in one system that fits standard 14" x 14" inch RV roof openings
• Remote control operates all fan functions from the palm of your hand.
• Includes a powerful 4-speed fan, thermostat, air intake and exhaust functions. Thermostat also displays room temperature.
• Easy to remove interior insect screen, simply rotate four retaining knobs to remove for cleaning, no tools required
• Features a powerful, fuse protected, sealed ball bearing, 12 volt fan motor and a 12 inch, 10 bladed fan
• Provides over 900 CFM of airflow on High speed using 4.4 amps.
• Limited 2 year warranty
• All mounting screws and hardware included. (Roof sealant must be purchased separately)

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