The retailers were as varied as they come on the first day of BRAIN's Dealer Tour of Seattle. The tour started at mega-retailer REI's flagship store, a stunning and expansive retail space that caters to commuters and families. The jaunt also visited Elliot Bay Bicycles, home of veteran custom frame builder Bill Davidson; Alpine Hut, a family- and service-oriented bike and ski shop; and Bike Works, a non-profit shop that supports youth programs.
Along the way, BRAIN staff, sponsors and visitors enjoyed a 36-mile bike ride that started out cool and cloudy and finished sunny and cool. We rode on city streets, bike lanes, bike paths and, during our lunch stop at the I-5 Colannade, on dirt pump tracks. Peter Verbrugge of the Cascade Bicycle Club ably kept us on schedule and safely on the route past Sleepless in Seattle landmarks, a dedicated bicycle polo court, the first Starbucks, cobbled hills, flaming red and yellow autumn foliage and water, water, everywhere.
Along the way, we experienced a vibrant and distinctive bike scene befitting the community. Bike traffic is high, infrastructure for transportation and recreational riding is ample, and the cycling community is active. The tour continues Wednesday with a route that takes in five retail locations, along with two ferry trips.
BRAIN's Seattle Dealer Tour is sponsored by Raleigh, PeopleForBikes, TRP, White Lightning and Kali Protectives and Interbike. You can follow participants' social feeds by searching for the #braindealertour hashtag on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Bike Works made a bike sticker dispenser from a hub and spoke. Dealing in low-priced donated bikes and new and used bike parts, the shop channels its sales revenue toward creating cycling programs for local youth, including an earn-a-bike program.
At Elliott Bay Bicycles, the home of Davidson Bicycles, Bill Davidson and Bob Freeman have been hand-building custom steel and titanium frames for 30 years. They cut, weld and paint frames behind a retail storefront a few blocks from Pike Place Market. Freeman said by keeping it all in-house they can keep lead times to two months, unlike some newer framebuilders. "There's all these newbies quoting five years to never. I don't know how that business model works—you've got to have cash flow."
Elliot Bay's Bob Freeman built a wheel set with a disconnected center flange. It allowed him to mate a 24-hole hub with a 36-hole rim —?and puzzle visitors.
The Dealer Tour crew took a brownbag lunch break at the Colonnade mountain bike skills park, a project located underneath Interstate 5 that was completed in 2009 by advocacy group Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance. Although we couldn't get the full bike park experience due to the fact we were on a mix of 'cross, gravel and road rigs, we got to appreciate the scale of the 7.5-acre project undertaken by scores of volunteers moving tons of gravel, rock, soil and timber to create a community resource in an area formerly best known as a haven for the homeless and drug-addicted that local residents dared not pass through.
At Alpine Hut, owner Kyle Fisher has the difficult task of maintaining a ski and bike shop virtually year round in a small space. One trick? Fisher built this ski boot storage area hidden behind a clothes display.
BRAIN's Steve Frothingham goes Strava-segment hunting on the test track at REI's flagship store in Seattle. The store has more than 69,000 square feet of retail space including a 5,700 square-foot bike department. In its full-service repair shop, REI reserves one stand for walk-in commuters who need last minute service; otherwise, the shop is often booked up to two months out. Once per week, REI offers bicycle maintenance classes, with every other week for women only, twelve months per year.
The Dealer Tour included 36 miles of riding on its first day, according to Strava.
