The COVID-19-inspired bicycle boom is quite real.
My local bike shop is barren, and the masked employees are frazzled with mountains of repairs of nearly forgotten old bikes dug out by people driven mad by quarantine. A couple of weeks ago I was at another bike shop to get a small part. There was a line around the block. People were buying whatever bikes the shop could wheel out.
Tim Blumenthal, president and CEO of PeopleForBikes, has even said this past three months might actually be “the best quarter for the bike industry in the last 50 years.” Blumenthal on Tuesday announced his retirement from the bike advocacy organization after 16 years at the helm.
But does the meteoric rise in bicycle interest and ridership portend a Copenhagen-like shift in the U.S.?
Doubtful, but this article from The Detroit News explores that question and the recent bike boom better than almost any I’ve read in the past several weeks.
