2008 wrap up

We want to thank all our customers and friends for support over the last year of our venture here to spread bicycle love, and in the process, rethink transportation.  We wouldn't be here without everyone's support, we truly appreciate it.

It has been an amazing, and challenging year. On the broader scale, 2008 will go down in the history books as a year of substantial change, most of it for the negative.  The financial world has been in turmoil, dragging the economy with it.  But some changes have not been bad.  The crazy ups and downs of gas prices have a lot of people thinking more deeply about America's dependence on foreign oil.   While various sides of the political spectrum are not necessarily in agreement about how to solve the problem, the important thing is that there is increasing consensus that something needs to be done.  

Cycle 9 was founded in 2007 after we decided that we didn't just want to complain about oil dependency, but to do something about it.  It always feels better trying to fix a problem than just to complain about it (even if that involves mortgaging ones house to the hilt to get a business going).  Bikes won't solve every problem.  Cars are useful conveyances for many purposes.  But the more we use bikes and watch our energy usage in getting around, the more it becomes clear that moving a 3,000 pound hunk of steel around to transport a single human is a huge waste of energy.  Many kilowatt hours of energy, for even a short trip.  And bikes can be one piece of the puzzle, along with more walking, more public transit, high speed trains, and etc.  At some point in our future, when oil is more scarce, I bet most of us will prefer to have that oil go towards producing our food and other necessities.

So, if we can have one wish for 2009, it is that the incoming administration realizes the importance of developing better infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists in our towns and cities.  By far, the biggest complaint we hear about cycling is about its "danger."  While statistics show that it is probably not nearly as dangerous as many people think, statistics don't change most people's minds.  Regardless of the highly controversial subject of whether bike lanes are good or bad safety-wise, it is a simple fact that bike lanes/paths promote more people biking.  I was recently in Madison, Wisconsin, which has developed a network of rail-trails around the city.  In warmer months, those are very well used, I saw other riders out at all times of the day.  

But, here in the Southeastern USA, we have the double whammy of fast drivers and narrow roads.  For many people, even if they want to bike, they just don't feel comfortable doing it on these kinds of roads.  And so they get in the car.  Sadly, our state's department of transportation has often been actively anti-cyclist in their road planning.  Talk about lack of foresight.

When Obama announced plans for new infrastructure, he mentioned roads and bridges.  I really hope he does some more thinking about this before implementing it.  Certainly, some roads and some bridges do need work - those that represent the central transportation corridors should be brought to modernity.  But beyond that, it is a matter of priorities.  I hope we place more priority on making our cities easier to navigate by non-car means, rather than just spending willy-nilly on automobile infrastructure.  

Two thousand and nine will be a challenging year.  But often it is the challenges that cause people to become engaged, rise up, and work towards solutions.  We sincerely hope that in trying to meet the challenges, the solutions that get implemented aren't just "more of the same."  We've tried that for the past 30 years.  Let's try something new - livable, walkable, bikeable cities and towns.  Places where children can play in their neighborhoods again, walk to school safely, breath clean air, and not become obese by being driven everywhere.  If we as a country put our minds to something, we can usually do it.  I hope we will put our minds to this as our new year's resolution.

BMC motor face-off

Recently, we went to one of the steepest hills around to test the new BMC 600 watt, internally geared brushless hub motors. There are two versions, a "torque" (the V2-T) and a "speed" (the V2-S). We wanted to see how they did for steep hill climbing on an Xtracycle equipped bike, and did some head-to-head rides with them. Note that Morgan is the heavier rider by about 40 lbs, so we did multiple tests by swapping bikes back and forth to get to the heart of the question, "which motor is best for climbing?"

SALE and Holiday Closure

Please join us for a SALE at our retail store, Friday Dec 26 and Saturday Dec 27.  All accessories on sale 15% off. Bikes also on sale $30 - $100 off. Selected other items on sale as well. We will be open regular business hours - Friday 11-6 and Saturday 10-5

We will then be closed for winter break and inventory activities Sunday Dec 28 - Thursday Jan 1. We will reopen Friday Jan 2.

Thanks to all our customers for a great year! 

From the Cycle 9 team (Elise, Morgan, Kristen and Chris)

Change

(I wrote this a few months ago, and am finally posting it. It still seems relevant today).

Change is scary. No doubt.

The world is headed towards major change, or so many people think. I regularly read several websites that talk about these changes, such as The Oil Drum, and iTulip. The mood on those sites has grown dark. The sites come from very different perspectives - iTulip from the macro-economic-political view, and The Oil Drum from a resource (mainly oil) point of view. Yet they seem to converge on the same conclusion: we are now past the peak of our wealth/opulence/lifestyles, for some time to come (or, according to the pessimists, forever). The recent major failures in monetary systems are taken as signs of systemic problems that indicate we as a society and species have been living beyond our means, both financially and resource-wise.

It gets worse. Visions of chaos, riots, political upheaval, and war are often brought out. At minimum, the specter of drastically declining lifestyles is brought up, or worse, of wealth destroyed.

It's easy to get lost in depressive visions of possible outcomes and futures.

But, for those of us doing that, it is important to step back and have some perspective.

What else is new? That cliché applies to all of the change we seeing around us. Our period in history was nearly unprecedented in its lack of major war, high degree of globalism, and so much wealth distributed so widely*. There is no time in history that 30 years of adult work would generate enough wealth to support someone through a work-free retirement, except recent history.

So if the pessimists are right, wealth-wise we are simply returning to "normal". I'm no happier than anyone else about loosing the ability to access the wealth for a nice retirement - but the skeptic in me long ago said that day would never come anyway.

Loss of wealth is scary. Just as is loss of health, loss of a loved one, or any major change. War and political upheaval are scary too.

But I do not have much control over those things. I do have some control over my own life, and how I interact with the changes.

For years, I've felt change was coming, in my gut. At times it was sickening. So I've done things to prepare, like learning to live with less. One view is: hey, if we're going to loose our wealth tomorrow, why not enjoy it to the maximum today, and party it up?

My own view is rather than partying until the end and then crashing suddenly into unplanned misfortune, I'd prefer to gently ease myself into the change. My purchase of an Xtracycle was one of the many steps taken in that direction. I am learning to live without using a car very often, even though I still own one. I keep extending the range of use of my bike, helped by newer battery technologies and electric assist. And also helped by my enjoyment of riding the bike.

That's the thing of it. I am enjoying not using the car, except for an occasional longer trip. The bike is really fun. But wait, wasn't I saying above that change is scary? Now I am saying that I'm having fun with it. How can this contradiction be explained?

As I've mentioned before, biking is more connected with my environment, it is slower, more relaxing, more enjoyable. This is a clear case where, for me, the wealth represented by an automobile does not bring happiness, but quite the opposite.

Today in USA Today (10/20/08), there was an article, "Lower Gas Prices come as a relief". With the lower gas prices recently, it states: "... motorists are no longer facing the kind of gas prices that had forced them to eat out less, avoid travel, and bike to work." As if biking to work was a real hardship! Ouch.

This goes to point out that the pain of change all depends on how one responds to that change. If, say, gas prices go to $10 in the future, that change will have only a moderate effect on me (mostly in food prices), because I don't depend on gas for my day-to-day activities any longer. I enjoy biking, and I have at least some insulation from future drastic change. My remaining car trips are mostly discretionary, and can be cut if necessary.

The same is true of things like eating locally produced food. If one develops relationships with local farms, e.g. through a CSA membership, then if gas prices go through the roof, or if other upheavals occur, one will be more insulated to change than those dependent on groceries shipped cross country. In my own experience, doing this has many other rewards, such as getting to know the people that produce my food, visiting the farmer's market regularly, and knowing that my food is grown without supporting a big agribusiness. If, in the future, I have to ride my electric-Xtracycle 30 miles to the farm to pick up my food, I can see it as a pleasant outing rather than ordeal (especially if less fast moving SUV's are on the road).

Change does not have to be painful. There may be regions of the globe where change results in very negative occurrences, such as dictatorship, war, famine, etc. Other places change could simply result in downshifting of standards of living**. Regardless, one can either choose to be happy and enjoy what they have, or to be sad and glum about what was lost and how things used to be. I think that the first step in being happy with change is being prepared for it, mentally if not physically. And then focusing on what one has, rather than what one doesn't have.

I am very happy to have my health (helped by regular bicycling), have food (transported by bicycle to my home), have shelter, have transportation (by bicycle), and have the opportunity to work on things that are interesting to me.

This results in a mostly positive outlook for whatever may come. That is not a positive outlook about the external circumstances, but about my own ability to deal with whatever those circumstances are.

Biking is a change that doesn't have to be a hardship, despite what the mainstream media may say about it. We have a lot of customers who write to us, telling us what great enjoyment they get out of riding their bikes. We have people who couldn't ride a regular bike due to a disability, but now can with an electric assist, and really enjoy it. One such customer recently had a little glitch with her bike, and while we had it in our shop, she called every day to find out how the repair was going -- she missed her bike!

It is my hope that as the change becomes more apparent, more people will discover ways to cope with the change that don't involve desperate lashing out into war or riots or whatever, in hopes of maintaining what used to be. I hope more people will find biking as a way to lessen environmental impacts, oil dependency, and health problems that are associated with automobile use.

This is the core mission of Cycle 9 - these are our values.


* Not widely enough, but moreso than any period in history.

**Scientific studies have confirmed the following relationship between wealth and happiness:
1. Being very poor, such that one can't afford food and clothing, makes people unhappy

2. Being very rich, such that one can afford any material luxury, also makes people somewhat unhappy (not as unhappy as #1, though)

3. Being of moderate means - enough to afford food, shelter, and clothing, but not a lot of extra - makes people the happiest.

Store is now open!

Our new store is open, at 601D W Main st. in Carrboro, NC.

Carrboro is the sister city to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The two have "grown up" and melded together. But they still retain somewhat distinct personalities. One thing we really like about Carrboro is its bicycle infrastructure. There are lots of bike paths here, that encourage people to get out an ride more.

Here's a map to the store:


View Larger Map

Brick and Mortar Store? not quite yet...

Due to delays beyond our control from the power company and contractors, we haven't been able to open our doors to the public quite yet. We're clearing the hurdles one step at a time and still aiming for this weekend to be really open. We do have staff at our location during our regular business hours to answer your questions, but don't have all of our goods available for you to see and touch just yet. Stay posted everyone!

New Store open Tuesday, Dec 9

We're getting closer on the new retail store, but we're still finishing some renovations on the building, waiting for the power company to turn the power on, and will be moving in this weekend. So, we anticipate being able to open the doors on Tuesday, December 9. We'll still be getting organized, but you can see and ride our bikes and check out what we've got on special for your holiday shopping. See you then!