Related article: Spring Cycling with Clever Cycles and Veloce Bicycles
Walking with co-op member Dean Mullin around their family oriented bicycle store that he and his wife Rachel co-own with another Portland family is like taking a best-of tour of the planet.
If you have little ones, the end of this email has some great information on wooden scoot bikes and all weather toddler gear.
For all of us, there are several cool things I know I’m glad to learn about.
First of all, we can be grateful to the folks in Denmark for Reelights www.reelight.com, a light set that attaches to your front and back wheel that uses magnets passing by on each turn of the wheel to make lights flash with out batteries. Works every time you pedal and, in the upgraded model, also for a little bit after you stop. Reelights have already saved over 10 million batteries on the planet. You could add a few to the count. Light sets start at $55. Sure you can order them on line, but Clever Cycles will help you install them if you like for a small charge and all the money you spent will stay right here in town.
I’ll be forever in awe of the Brompton folding bikes that Dean has been promoting for several years www.brompton.co.uk. Do you hate the thought of getting your bike on and off the bus or Max? How about carrying it on like a brief case? OK, these really cool bikes are a little larger than a brief case and a bit heavier but not by much. Designed in London, they start out an just under $1,000 and outfitted just for you are more around $1,250.00 so you have to really care about biking as a form of transportation to consider this purchase. If it helps at all, everyone in your family 8 and older can ride with one easy seat adjustment and it’s a bike that your child, once they first fit it, will never outgrow. So, like the family car, this is truly the family bike.
Weather like what we’ve been having for the past few days makes everyone reevaluate their rain gear. If you go into Clever Cycles and invest in a set of Ortlieb bike bags there really won’t be anything you bring with you gettting wet as you ride. The Germans behind these bags are serious about waterproofing with welded seams instead of stitching and rolled bag tops. I know all about stitching and water since my daughter’s low price rain coat from Fred Meyer was soaked inside and out on a field trip yesterday. The kid’s rain gear at Clever Cycles is meant to last through several kids and, if you don’t want top of the line Ortieb bike bags for yourself, Dean has other lower cost options plenty adequate for a short ride through town on drizzly days.
When I checked in with Demetri of Veloce Bicycles at 32nd and Hawthorne, our other Roost bike shop sponsor, to ask him about what rates as a good holiday gift, water proof bags were high on his list too. His favorite brand: Chrome.
While other cycle shops including Veloce have riding/racing clothes, Clever Cycles has all purpose wool clothing from around the world for all occasions – pants, knickers, shirts a coats – so you can get wet and stay warm whether you bike or not.
Just in case it seems like everything comes from somewhere else, the best grips they have for bicycles are made right here in Portland.
One of the best things they have for toddlers are “Muddy Buddies” a $30 one piece zip into rain/mud suit that would let you send your toddler outside to play and unzip them at the end of their play to find a happy kid ready to come back into the house warm and dry.
And then there are the wooden scoot bikes. Dean sold the original wooden bikes with no pedals that came out of Germany after they were first designed in the late 90′s but the over $200 price tag limitted who could afford to have one. He thinks they are great but sees a better value in the same Scuut bike that your kids can ride at Swap Shop gym time on Monday mornings and Friday afternoon and evenings. They are in his shop for $95.
I looked on line and, with shipping, they would cost you more from the discount internet stores. So, if you’ve got an eye on one of those for the holidays or the new year, call Dean first to make sure they are still in stock and get one for your family that you can share with many others since they pass on kid-to-kid really well. Dean’s first two kids came of biking age before wooden scoot bikes were available and he indured the training wheel tears and slow progression to two wheel riding. His second two had scoot bikes and never used training wheels, hopping on their two wheelers with pedals much more ready to go with a great sense of balance.
A great sense of balance, now that sounds like the perfect gift for the new year at any age. In SE Portland, near as I can tell, a great sense of balance comes from a community focused life with family and friends. Thank you Rachel and Dean for being part of our community, for the hoop jams in our gym on Friday nights and for running a great store like Clever Cycles.
Clever Cycles www.clevercycles.com 908 SE Hawthorne Boulevard Mo-Th: 11-6; Fr: 11-8; Sa-Su: 11-5 503.334.1560
