Brief Distractions

To say there’s a lot going around the bike shop would be an understatement. It’s not all bikes, though. Our brick-and-mortar stores are located in Northeastern Bergen County, located minutes from NYC. Tenafly itself is a very diverse town with the demographics of the borough and its neighboring towns (Cresskill, Englewood, Teaneck, etc) bringing a multicultural experience to our daily customer interactions. This is one of the things we love about our locations. Our customer base shows us that cyclists come in all different flavors and people’s love for bikes has no race, religion, or color. There is a vibrant Jewish community in Bergen County including a sizeable Israeli population and our cycling community is made up of many members of this population. We hear stories of the conflict in Israel daily and it’s omnipresent for many of us. It’s hard to bury our heads in the sand these days and like many of the local businesses, we do our best to provide a safe haven without judgment for all of our customers.

During the pandemic in 2020, like many of our customers, we found solace in riding bikes. In difficult times like these, we find it therapeutic to get outside from time to time to focus on something else for a while. Removing the stress in our lives while focusing on things like being faster on a local hill climb, the smoothness of our cadence, or shifting at just the right time, is just what we need as a distraction. For me, not only getting out on my bike but also building and maintaining trails allows me time to focus my energy on something else. I specifically volunteer as a sawyer (one who uses a saw to cut wood) to clear blown-down trees from the trail which requires me to operate a chainsaw. This activity forces me to expend all of my energy on it and is an exercise in clearing my mind to safely operate a dangerous tool in a sometimes difficult environment. Like my saw, my mind has to remain super sharp as I work through the unpredictable nature of a tree that has hit the ground after a storm, at the end of its lifespan, or has been attacked by an invasive species. For a brief period of time, I am completely cleared of all distractions and the turbulent times we are living in are the furthest thing from my mind. Riding a bike requires a similar focus with similar risks associated with it. Whether your attention is drawn to riding on the road amongst distracted drivers or you are navigating a difficult section of singletrack, your focus needs to be pinpointed. This is what allows these activities to get our minds off of things.

In no way are we suggesting that the troubles of the world can be solved by riding bikes or spending time outdoors and we have little to offer our customers as far as what is right or wrong. What we can offer you is the vehicle to get to a place that allows you to be distracted, even if it’s brief. Now is a great time to ride your bike, help us build some trails, or do what you need to take your mind off of this mess.