Time for Shop Rides to Begin!

Those of you not living under a rock know we moved our shop to the South Perry District in November 2012 - for the rest of you this is breaking news.  Hands-down, it has been a great move in terms of shop organization and layout, free parking for our customers and being part of a vibrant and hip business district on the lower south hill.  One area in which it has not been so great is that of safe riding routes for large groups of riders during the evening when everyone is trying to get home - in other words our shop ride.

The old shop ride route out to 7 mile bridge and back to the shop was really very cool and offered very little in terms of traffic issues for large groups.  Riding from 8th and Perry on to the south hill is a different story.  Starting up hill, crossing a major arterial and then riding up hill some more made us very nervous from a safety standpoint.  Also, it required that everyone who wanted to ride had to be about the same speed and ability - not exactly the best way to build community around riding together.  We looked at several different routes to get up and over the south hill and all had disadvantages.

It was time for some re-thinking of the whole approach and time to try something new.  We began conversations with Patrick McPherson at Manito Tap House at 3011 South Grand Blvd since they are very bike friendly and a very cool meeting place on the south hill.  If you have never been there, you are in for a treat with 50 beers on tap, great food and a great atmosphere.  A perfect place to start and end a bike ride with a multitude of routes for all types of cyclists.

Patrick was very enthusiastic about the prospect of working with a south hill bike shop and joining forces to bring people together on bikes.  We are pleased to announce that beginning May 2, Two Wheel Transit weekly shop rides will start at Manito Tap House at 6:15 pm every Thursday until fall.  He has some special programs in place for these weekly rides which are sure to make the after-ride socializing as much fun as the ride itself.  One new thing this year is that our respective Operational Risk Management consultants have made it clear that everyone will need to sign a liability waiver to participate so prepare to put down your best signature the first time you ride this year.

A couple of other cool things in the works include Saturday rides starting on May 11 and Saturday women's rides in cooperation with both Manito Tap House and our friends at Title Nine.  Check back for more details next week.

We are very excited to be able to work with Patrick and his crew in this capacity and look forward to a great season of riding together.  See you on the road.

•