Spring, Fine Art, and E-Bike Helmets
It feels amazing outside and I love it
I’m a big fan of the way the spring vibrations trigger some sort of animal nostalgia deep inside a part of my brain that’s older than language. Riding a bike is such a great way to catch this feeling! The other way I like to experience spring is standing around.
A lot of my time lately has been spent standing around [inside, tirelessly maintaining and repairing your bicycles]. Thanks for the work! Keep it comin’--currently we’ve got just over a two-week turnaround on tune-ups, which is a pretty hot iron for this time of year. Let’s get you ready to [keep] roll[ing]!
Plenty of newness at the shop for you to check out if you’ve been away for a while. We’ll talk about two such elements below (one’s a new helmet; the other is a sweet bike), plus a plug for the event we’re taking part in this Saturday.
But first:
Art Reminder
Two local artists near and dear to myself and to the shop had shows this spring, and though they’ve come down already it’s always a good time to remember about art. Claire Kellesvig’s A Body of Water was up at Tory Folliard Gallery in Milwaukee and Rachel Sanders’s MFA show was a hop, skip, and a jump away at UWM.
Absolutely love these friends and their art. If you’ve been to the shop, you’ve noticed a certain glow emanating from Claire’s immersive swamp scape Snake Pit, which hangs above the chill zone/reading area. Rachel’s iconic faces drawings are all over our water bottles.
Congrats to both of these local wizards for your accomplishments and thank you for your work.
There’s a new e-bike helmet in town
E-bikes go fast…um, any questions? No really though, there’s a Dutch safety standard called NTA 8776 which is guiding product development in the newly minted e-bike helmet space. The basic idea is if you’re going faster you’re going to experience harder impacts and your safety equipment should perform accordingly.
Lazer Sport Helmets, our chosen brand of Belgium-designed headgear, have just issued a new e-bike helmet, the Verde Kineticore, which is NTA 8776 certified. It’s also got a 4-star Virginia Tech safety rating and is remarkably lightweight for all that protection. The price tag is $100, and if you’ve shopped around for e-bike helmets, that’s notable. Bonus: it happens to be crafted from 70% recycled materials.
It comes in two sizes and four mature, distinguished, matte-finish colours, and we have each one in stock.
New demo bike: Tern NBD
Tern Bicycles has deep roots in folding bikes, and they’ve pioneered the compact cargo bike niche, but the newest addition to my salesfloor is neither. Enter the NBD. I’ll get this out of the way, it actually is kind of a big deal.
The NBD is a city e-bike with a comfortable upright posture, stable handling, and a remarkably low step-over. This last piece of the puzzle is what really turns my head. Despite having a Bosch e-bike motor between its pedals, the midsection of this step-thru bike sits at least an inch lower than my Reid Comfort 1 bike, which is *not* an e-bike. How in the heck? The drivetrain is an internal gear hub (Shimano 8-Speed Nexus), and it comes with a suspension seatpost.
Tern is upfront about the fact that this is designed to be “One of the easiest electric bikes to ride,” and uses the word “welcoming” in their description. I have to agree; the NBD can fit riders from 4’10” to 6’3”. Over the past few months, I’ve had several conversations with folks who already had a too-big e-bike or who were just getting started on their search and somewhat daunted by the stature and posture of the options they’d seen. I kept wanting to put them on this bike for a test ride. Now I can! If this piques your interest, please come on down and take this bike for a spin.
We’ll be at the Earth Day Fair this Saturday
10AM-2PM | 557 North Street
This Saturday at the Northstreet business triplex (I’m the only one who calls it that) it’s the second annual Earth Day Fair, orchestrated by Green Life Trading Co and Green Box Compost. We’ll be there with several Tern bikes to test-ride to help fuel curiosity about cargo biking, e-biking, family biking, pet hauling, and so forth! Come talk shop, kick a tire, grab some stickers. We’ll have some small items for sale, but answering your questions and offering informative test rides is goal #1!
There will be a host of other vendors showing their wares in concert with the Earth Day theme—and of course great food and bevs from resident businesses Bloom Bake Shop, Cafe Domestique, and Youngblood Beer Co.
***Please note our storefront will be closed Saturday while we are at this event!
Thanks for reading, see you ‘round!
