People Just Want To Ride Their Bicycles!

        More so now, than ever....people just want to ride their bicycles! Once busy thoroughfares are quiet and therefore accommodating. The danger of contracting a virus is far less than the dangers we cyclists usually face...the threat of being run over by a distracted motorist.
        In California, bicycle shops (specifically the store that performs maintenance and service on bicycles) gets a pass here in the Spring of 2020. We are considered an essential business...for commuters, families and recreationists who have been told, "Get out in the fresh air and sunshine while physically separating from others by two meters. The warm sun and circulating air is the enemy of the Covid bug."
       Who is going to keep these self-propelled vehicles operating throughout the Spring?... Bicycle shops. Families are spending more time together now than ever. The kids are not going back to school for months. Most parents are working from home, if at all. They are facing the hour by hour dynamics of home isolation like never before. We only imagined this kind of huddling when we considered burying a bomb shelter in our backyard during the Cold War with the USSR. A bicycle ride can provide the perfect opportunity for an 'attitude adjustment' superior to any other outing. Shopping used to give us the chance for that getaway time...no more, keep shopping to a minimum. Just get out and get up on your bike.
        A Spring Tune Up is usually inexpensive, especially if you go to the store where you purchased your bicycle...a little air in the tires, a little lube on the chain is often all you need (unless you left your cycle out in the snow all Winter). Bicycle mechanics are used to washing their hands several times a day. In fact, most of us are familiar with decontaminating our hands with solvents and alcohol based grease removers from the time we get to work until the time we lock the door in the afternoon.