The Practical Cyclist

Ride every day

The Practical Cyclist is an in-real-life bicycle repair shop COMING SOON to Northwest Washington, DC. We'll be in Manor Park or Brightwood or Takoma DC, near the Metropolitan Branch Trail, not too far from Georgia Ave and Rock Creek Park. We want more people to ride bicycles for fun and transportation in and around Washington DC. People’s lives get better with bikes. 

What kind of bike repair shop?

Hopefully the kind you WANT to visit. Maybe the kind where you can hang out and have a decent coffee. Maybe the kind where you can fix your own bike.

We'll fix bikes. We're pretty good at it, we've been doing it for a while, sometimes professionally. It's not rocket science, but it does require knowledge, skill, and experience, which we have.

We'll stock utilitarian parts and accessories, and some special fancy-pants ‘Alt-Cycling’ items that you don’t find in typical bike shops.

We'd like to offer some non traditional service models, maybe a DIY workbench, and regular classes and workshops. We'd prefer that you maintain and fix your own bike, and we'll help when it gets complicated.

Bikes for kids

The last fifteen years have been good for kids who ride bikes. There are several well-designed and well-built kids bikes available now, and twenty years ago this was not true at all. Good kids bikes are expensive - but they're durable and high-quality. They last through generations of kids, and hold their value remarkably well. There's a thriving peer-to-peer market for these bikes, but peer-to-peer sales can be risky, or can feel risky. What can we do to make things better?

1. Offer a kid-friendly and kids' bike-friendly environment. In a lot of shops, kids and kids' bikes get short shrift.

2. Sell good quality USED kids' bikes with really good warranty policy and follow-up service. We might make a little money here, probably not a lot, but we might help folks avoid the risks or discomfort involved with peer-to-peer sales.

3. Sell good quality new kids bikes, and offer a generous trade-in policy so that parents can invest with confidence in good quality kids' bikes.

While I was writing this, some of my favorite kids bikes got LESS GOOD. Jumped the shark. They got TOO FANCY. Sometimes less is more, and there is value in simplicity. 

Bikes for adults

We'd like to sell used bikes for adult-size humans. In Washington, DC, this requires a 'reseller license,' the same kind of business license required for a pawn shop. This makes sense - no one wants to be selling stolen bikes. We'll figure it out.

We don't especially want to sell new bikes for adult-size humans. There are a lot of places to get new bikes, and the industry isn't super-supportive of small operations just getting started. Even if we do start selling new bikes for adults, they'll likely be brands that you don't see on TV.

Opinions

We've got 'em and we'll share them, but we're also open-minded. We think the DIVERSITY OF BICYCLING EXPERIENCES is the best and most important thing. Also, there's almost alway more than one reasonable way to do something.