Richmond Outside

Carytown Bikes aims to create customer “experience”

By Andy Thompson | May 3, 2012

Credit: RVANews

Nathan Cushing of RVANews has a cool feature on the new and improved Carytown Bicycle Co. shop. Just two doors down from venerable Agees, the shop attempts to be not just a bike shop, but a space that’s “‘almost like Cheers,’ according to co-owner Tim Mullins, ‘”where people can come in, ‘have a beer and talk,’ and watch an international cycling race…”

Whoa, did he say beer? Is that BYOB? That’s pretty cool, as far as I’m concerned. I heard Spike Toler say a similar thing about her new bike shop, Coqui Cyclery, at the intersection of Forest Hill and Semmes avenues, except without the beer. They both want to offer more than just transactions — a new bike, parts, repairs. The guiding philosophy, Cushing writes, quoting Mullins, is, “Let’s create an experience.”

Hopefully, it works for both of them. In the meantime, check out the RVANews piece on Carytown Bikes.

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Lots to do for “Richmond Bike Week”

By Andy Thompson | April 13, 2012

Ride Richmond and VCU have come together again for the second annual Richmond Bike Week, and this year promises to be a lot of fun. All of the events can be found in the RichmondOutside.com Slate of Events, but as a little teaser there’ll be an Earth Day ride, a bike swap, a film festival, a pizza crawl, a cycling symposium, races at Southside Speedway, a defensive cycling course and night rides. Check out the flyer by clicking here. Richmond Bike Week starts April 21st — next Saturday — and runs through April 27th.

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Richmond Urban Assault a hit despite weather

By Andy Thompson | March 25, 2012

Team RichmondOutside.com accepts the spoils of a third-place finish

A low fog hung over downtown Richmond, and temperatures hovered in the 60s. It looked like it might rain at any moment. But about 400 Central Virginians decided those conditions were perfect for bike ride this morning. When the starting gun went off, the 200 teams of two took to their bikes and pedaled in all directions. Participants in the New Belgium Urban Assault Ride, they covered ground in search of checkpoints all over the city. At each checkpoint they had to complete an kind of obstacle course to move on to the next one. At Pibby’s bike shop, it was a big wheel race. At the YMCA it was a dip in the pool in search of rubber duckies. At Forest Hill Park it was a kind of ring toss game.

When the dust settled, it was clear there were first and second place teams. More importanly, the valiant duo of Jeff Jennings and a mystery rider carried the RichmondOutside.com banner to third-place glory. It was an epic showing for the fledging team sponsored by Richmond’s favorite outdoors-focused website. Way to go guys!

 Check out the coverage of the race by Jeremy Slayton and Mark Gormus in today’s Times-Dispatch.

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