Trexit: Another Consequence of COVID-19

 Just before Christmas, I wrote about an irony of the COVID-19 pandemic:  The dramatic increase in bike-related sales has actually forced some small shops, like Larsen's Bicycles of Powell, Wyoming, out of business.  The same surge in demand that has filled the coffers of bike companies and larger shops has left smaller shops like Larsen's--usually the last to be supplied--without inventory.  

It seems, though, that some other shops are closing, or their owners are shifting their focus to related businesses, by choice. 

People often look at the price tags on bikes and assume that the bike industry is lucrative.  The reality is that margins on bikes are new bikes are smaller--and, the more expensive the bike, the smaller the margin.  Prior to the pandemic, the bike could stand on the showroom floor for months, or even years.  In the meantime, the shop's owner or manager had to pay all the overhead of running the business, not to mention the mechanic who assembled the bike.

In addition, most bike shop owners, like their counterparts in other industries, carry long-term debt, whether for the business itself or in mortgages for their business buildings or homes.  That is often a deterrent to any would-be buyer of a bike shop, or any other small business, and a reason why shop proprietors are running their enterprises long after their peers have retired from salaried jobs.

I have just described some of the reasons why I have no regrets over not opening a bike shop or a book store, even though I was offered opportunities to do both in my youth.  One retailer described the situation well:  "It just did start to feel like we were in the store-running business instead of the bicycle business."  Having worked in both bike shops and book stores, I realized that I love books and bikes, but had absolutely no love for "the store-running business."  That, in essence, is why Chris Kulczyki sold the business he started--Velo Orange--almost four years ago.

Unfortunately, according to that retailer, "the store-running business is where this industry is going."  That is one reason, I think, why some are leaving the industry. The retailer in question admits that he, and other shop owners, have benefitted from the current "boom." Their "store running" has allowed them to pay off old debts and put some money in the bank.  It's also allowed them to get out from under a pile of old inventory.  For the first time, many who opened bike shops during the 1970s and 1980s, can leave with a "clean slate."  

As sad as it will be to see some of those shops go, I really can't blame their owners for selling out or closing down.  You really can't blame anybody for quitting while he or she is ahead, especially if it's taken decades to get to that point.  Also, as more than bicycle entrepreneur has said, "I'm tired; it's time to retire."

Some of those shops were Trek dealers. In recent years, the Wisconsin-based company called in some of its debts by taking over stores, essentially leaving the proprietor with nothing.  Some shop owners were on the verge of such a fate early in 2020.  But the COVID-induced surge in demand allowed them to pay down their debts and allowed negotiate more more favorable terms to their Trexits.

From the Financial Times

What Will They Dig Up?

Four and a half years ago, a gold miner used a water cannon to blast through a wall of permafrost in Canada's Yukon Territory.  That day, Neil Loveless didn't find any precious metal.  Instead, he chanced upon something far rarer:  an almost perfectly-mummified wolf pup who died 57,000 years ago.  Her body was so well-preserved that scientists could tell what she ate (salmon!) for her last meal.

That leads me to wonder what some miner or forager will find 57,000 years from now.

From marquettemagazine.com

  

Enforcement, For A Day

Nevada law stipulates that motorists must give cyclists a berth of three feet (a bit less than a meter) when passing.  Other states have similar laws but they are seldom enforced.  One reason is that police officers can't be, and surveillance cameras aren't, everywhere.  

While some motorists deliberately ignore such a rule because they feel entitled to a road "my taxes paid for" (well, so did mine and those of every other cyclist!), others don't realize such regulations exist.  For that matter, many law enforcement officials aren't cognizant of them as well.

On Wednesday morning, a Las Vegas police officer rode a bicycle equipped with a laser device that measured the distance between bicycles and passing cars along a popular loop. He called out violations to  more than a dozen other officers staged  along that route. By that afternoon, 170 cars were stopped for violations or warnings, 184 citations were handed out and about 30 warnings were given to drivers.

Sgt. Michael Campbell rides bicycle as part of enforcement effort on West Charleston Boulevard in Las Vegas. (Photo by K.M. Cannon for the Las Vegas Journal-Review

Of course, roads and other bike routes are almost never as heavily-patrolled as that Las Vegas loop was on Wednesday.  I am all but certain that the nearby road where a truck ran down Gerard Suarez Nieva, Thomas Chamberlin Trauger, Erin Michelle Ray, Aksoy Ahmet and Michael Todd Murray on 10 December didn't have the kind of police presence--or a video surveillance camera. 

Moving Forward To 2021

Happy New Year!

The past year was difficult for many of us, for all sorts of reasons.  I have no idea of what this year will bring--well, all right, I think the first few months, at least, will be difficult as the COVID-19 pandemic rages. However and whenever the pandemic ebbs, all we can do is to move forward.

That is what we, as cyclists, know how to do. Even--actually, I would say "especially"-- those of us who like vintage or "retro" bikes are forward-looking:  We are riding toward a landscape free of the encumbrances of fossil fuels, social and economic hiérarchies and the tyranny of companies that dictate what we can and can't use. 

Pioneering female cyclists Violet Ward and Daisy Elliot, 1895.  (Alice Austen, collection of Historic Richmond Town.)

One thing I can't help but to notice is that social progress--which is to say, equal access to dignity--comes as more women and girls ride bicycles.  (Why do you think I underwent a gender transition? ;-)) Think of the bike booms of the 1890s and 1970s:  Those are, perhaps not coincidentally, when the first and second waves of feminism washed over American society.  I would like to think that we are in another boom and that it will result, current setbacks notwithstanding, long-term gains for women.

Women cycling in Davis, California, 1967

If nothing else, if we see more women (and people of all other gender identities) on bikes in 2021, things have to get better.  I hope so.

Annis Horribilis Or An Opportunity?

Queen Elizabeth II (How often have I referred to her in this blog?) referred to 1992 as an annis horribilis.  Her Majesty likes to project an image of someone not given to hyperbole, so perhaps she was just trying to show her former tutors that she still remembered some of the Latin they taught her.

Now, to be fair, I would think it was a pretty bad year if a fire destroyed part of my house.  And I wouldn't look back too fondly on a year in which one of my relatives, however distant, committed suicide.  But the other "tragedies," which include divorces, infidelities and the like were merely instances of Royal Family members showing that, well, maybe they're not so different from the rest of us.

In comparison, many people--and large parts of the world--suffered real tragedies, mainly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also because of natural disasters and other disruptions to what was considered "normal."

One can hope that the coming year will be better.  For one thing, Donald Trump lost his bid for a second presidential term.  For another, vaccines against COVID-19 are making their way into the world.  

What really gives me hope, however, is the knowledge that tragedies and disasters are opportunities to learn, and there are always resilient people. (Meeting Cambodians who survived the Pol Pot regime and Greeks who have come through wars, invasions and economic crises taught me much about both.)  One example of resilience includes the people who got on their bikes during the pandemic, when mass transit systems shut down or cut back their services and other forms of recreation weren't available.  I hope that the new "bike boom" shows planners, policy-makers as well as ordinary citizens that the future need not (actually, can't) be as auto- and fossil fuel-centric as the past century or so have been.  

If nothing else, I hope this year helps us to learn that we must--and, I believe, can and will--learn and change.