E-Bike Biz Pontential in Vermont

D

Dave-C

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Nov 18, 2014
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The beautiful and vibrant town of Brattleboro in verdant southern Vermont is looking like a great place for an e-bike technician with entrepreneurial skills and spirit to open shop for retailing e-bikes and retrofitting cargo bikes and standard bikes with e-assist systems. Starting in 2015 the state of Vermont will be launching an exciting program to promote e-bikes and cargobikes - see http://www.connectingcommuters.org/biking/ On top of that, Vermont's largest credit union will be offering great low-interest 'green' loans for these bikes! There's great potential here for national media attention once these two programs are officially rolled out.

Vermont is the perfect state for "green" thinking and action, and Brattleboro is the right place. Check out http://digital.vpr.net/post/e-bikes-are-catching-hilly-vermont . For more info contact Dave Cohen at (802) 258-7013 or at vtbiketransport@gmail.com
 
So you are opening a shop, or you are looking for somebody to open one?
 
That's right. I have a contract with the State of Vermont to promote cargo bikes and e-assist options, however I'm really not writing this from that capacity at this moment. I'm just trying to let Endless Sphere folks know that there is some great activity here in Vermont that is real conducive to establishing an e-bike business here. Between the work with the state and the low-interest bike loans, I think that there will be some great potential opportunities here.

Unfortunately, the bike shops are slow to respond or get up to speed with the technical skills needed to service and maintain a fleet of e-bikes. My role right now excludes me from having anything to do with starting an e-bike business or partnering with someone to do that - I'm a psychotherapist, but some call me a "cycletherapist." However, with my state contract I will be in a position to help any e-bike startup shop with finding some great local and state resources, and to be part of an totally exciting wave of activity.

If you want to see some of the stuff I've been writing connecting e-bikes and ecopsychology, check these links out -

http://www.greenenergytimes.net/2014/02 ... -the-rise/ - concerning cars. cargobikes, and ecological responsibility
http://www.sentinelsource.com/parent_ex ... 963f4.html - about families and e-cargobikes
http://www.commonsnews.org/site/site05/ ... HS7xcl5Vk1 - about the sensory experience deprivation in an automobile and how it transforms our worldview
http://www.greenenergytimes.net/2014/04 ... -movement/ - an outline of the Slow Transportation Movement

Looking forward to hearing from folks...
 
Ok, thanks for clarifying.

The company I work for is definitely trying hard to recruit bike shops to sell, install, and do simple repairs of hubmotor kits. But many shops are very much uninterested in having to learn new skills, take on new risks, and invest more capital in product to showroom.

I find it amazing though, that the guys with the skills, golf cart retailers, seem to have similar disinterest in ebikes.

Hopefully efforts like yours will help convince them that their future business growth is depending on baby boomers that increasingly need help. Along the way, it would be really cool to see another generation adopt e bikes as better than a car for the trips under 20 miles.
 
You're right about convincing the younger generations about alternatives the the ICE fired car, modus operandi in America. I believe the marketing angle different for young versus old. Hence, when considering a bike for my latest build, putting it together with a Trek "comfort bike" - the Shift 3. I'm a boomer appealing to other boomers. Not a technical or downhill MTB - an affordable set of second wheels designed for a pleasurable urban ride.

But the younger generation will find a technical bike build more appealing and it is about sustained air time. But once hooked, they may be more likely to forgo an ICEr and be car-free, the ultimate goal for those who are ESer's on a mission.
 
Easy to see though, how somebody who is 25 years old right now, might think "Lets drive around in a high powered gas car now, while we still can".

Same rationale that led me to buy a hot air balloon and a giant truck to haul it's crew 15 years ago. Then it was affordable to burn 40 gallons of propane and 20 gallons of gas for a day of fun flying the balloon.

Now, mostly due to higher costs to insure and keep a balloon in repair, no way. Glad I grabbed some conspicuous consumption fun when I could. Selfish as hell, but at the time definitely the thing to do.
 
Cargo bikes enter the transportation mainstream
SOVAL-07.fob_.cargo_bikes.Dave_with_Phil_reading.jpg
 
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