Cycles of Life

I was up in Leadville this weekend enjoying the snow and sunshine. Both were in abundance. On our way up we had stopped for lunch at the Sunshine Café in Silverthorne as we often do. If you haven't been there you're missing out. They're open for breakfast and lunch and the food is delicious. Its also been 'discovered' and at this time of the year there's often a short wait for a table. While waiting I picked up a copy of the Summit Daily News which had an interesting article detailing marijuana usage in Colorado. Like most Coloradoans I voted to legalize its usage so I was somewhat curious to see what the data showed. The study, released by the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment, shows that out of every 100 of us adults in this great State 15 have partaken within the last 30 days and, as you might suspect, usage was highest in the 18-25 age group at 29% using in the last 30 days. The highest usage came with those individuals reporting as LGBTQ with more than 34% using in the last month.

All of this got me to thinking how these rates compared to other things. For example, how does marijuana usage compare to the rate at which folks ride bikes? Colorado has long been known for being bike crazy but I suspect that more Coloradoans are now using pot on a regular basis than are swinging a leg over their two-wheeled steed and going for a ride. Of course there are stats for almost everything so it wasn't too hard to track down bike use statistics. The numbers might seem to be on bicycling's side: about 43 percent of Colorado residents 18 and older reported riding a bike at least once in the last year (compared to 29 percent of the U.S. population). But riding a bike one time a year compared to the numbers above where folks are using marijuana at least 12 times a year ("every 30 days") perhaps shift the stats in a less healthy direction. Please don't mistake me - I have no problem with folks legally using marijuana but I do find it somewhat sad that there may come a day when more Coloradoans are using marijuana than hiking, or biking, or climbing 14'ers. 

My passion for cycling is no secret and I'm afraid the sport I love may be on the decline. Recently my bike shop of choice, Performance, announced they are closing all their stores nationally. The annual Interbike trade show geared at bicycle retailers announced they are cancelling their 2019 show with hopes that it might return in 2020. Denver's B-Cycle program saw ridership peak 5 years ago with the number of rides declining 9% between 2014 and 2017. There are days on the more popular Denver trails where you'll see more e-scooters than bikes. 

In Colorado the most active cyclists live in the mountains. Some mountain towns, in an effort to not be inundated with scooters, are setting up electric bike or e-bike programs instead. I'm not sure quite where I stand on e-bikes. To me bicycling can be many things - recreational, competitive, touring - but in all those forms it is at least in part exercise. There will be a day, sooner rather than later, that e-bikes make effort totally unnecessary to going for a bike ride. I'm not sure that's absolutely a good thing. Several years ago, when various forms of cheating seemed to color every aspect of competitive cycling, concerns started to be raised that Tour De France riders were using small electric motors to give themselves an edge. Notwithstanding these concerns, some of the legends of bike makers are now adopting electric bikes into their line-ups. Pinarello for example, which has made top of the line race bikes since 1952, now offers the Dyodo eRoad Bike. Its a stunningly beautiful bicycle that markets itself as a pedal-assist bike for group rides or commutes. I don't know, but with a price tag of $7,999 the $75 annual unlimited fare that Denver B-Cycles charges sounds like a pretty good deal with the possible exception that you do have to actually pedal. 

Pinarello's Dyodo eRoad Bike

I recently blogged about the AAA Travel Show. I spoke to one of the reps from Vermont Bicycle Tours and asked him for his thoughts on electric bikes. He was, no surprise, fairly non-committal, but did acknowledge that almost 30% of their patrons now saddle up on an e-bike when on one of their tours. I titled this blog Cycles of Life to highlight some of these changes that seem to reflect the natural progressions inevitable in life. Cycles of

Life is also the name of the local bike shop in Leadville. With Performance Bike Shops out of the picture, no more than a historical footnote, perhaps it is apropos that I'll likely be spending more time at Cycles of Life. One of my favorite sayings from my business career remains appropriate - if you're not moving ahead, you're falling behind...