“Now we’re starting to see cycling for transport.”
Wired Magazine goes to Interbike and reports that
As America Implodes, The Bike Industry Booms
some snippets:
“The gas prices are the best thing that ever happened to cycling,” says Kevin Menard, whose year-old custom bike business, Traitor Cycles, is thriving. “I hope they go up even more.”
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Cycling enjoyed a “huge spike” in interest in June when gas topped four bucks a gallon, Blumenthal says. Much of the bike industry has enjoyed double digit growth since then. Some manufacturers have seen 50 percent growth in the last quarter, and dealers can’t keep up with demand. The service sector (“tubes and lube” in industry jargon) also is booming as old bikes are hauled out of sheds and garages and dragged into shops for tune-ups and tires. A growing number of people are ditching cars in favor of bikes for commuting to work or running to the supermarket, Blumenthal says.
“Cycling for recreation in America has always been big,” he says. “Now we’re starting to see cycling for transport.”
“The gas prices are the best thing that ever happened to cycling,” says Kevin Menard, whose year-old custom bike business, Traitor Cycles, is thriving. “I hope they go up even more.”
Much of America would view his comments appropriate for his company’s name. Cycling Industry spokesmen with attitudes like this do far more harm than good. Most unfortunate, and yet, those are the exact quotes the press wants to hear from the all-too-willing cycling evangelistas. Great copy, from an editor’s perspective.
Bike commuting can work, but only if you live close enough to where you work and have a safe route.
If you are an office worker, and you live to far from work to commute by bike, you should check into working out of a remote office.
Remote Office Centers lease individual offices, internet and phone systems to workers from different companies in shared centers located around the city and suburbs.
Everyone can commute by bike if they can choose their office location.
Remote Office Centers are fairly new, but can be found in many cities by searching the internet for “Remote Office Centers”, or going to a free web page that lists Remote Offices by location:
http://www.remoteofficecenters.com