CityView Magazine

FEATURE A Bike-Friendly Community I Find your cycling niche in Fayetteville By Jason Brady t's 10:30 a.m. on the Saturday starting the Memorial Day weekend. Hawley's Bicycle World, the iconic bike shop on Raeford Road, is already busy with customers. Some are looking to buy, others are bringing in their bikes for repairs or tuning. Hawley's three bicycle technicians are in the brightly lit repair shop plying their skills: changing inner tubes, tuning spokes and giving what is obviously a young child's first two-wheeler the once over, making sure everything is working properly. Hawley's is a familyowned business that sells bikes for two-year-olds and grandmas alike. It also prides itself on keeping bicycles bought at the store in tiptop shape. Much of the business at Hawley's consists of loyal customers who have invested in a top-quality bicycle and want it serviced by top-notch bicycle mechanics. In spring, particularly around the Memorial Day weekend, sales for bicycles pick up dramatically since the Christmas season, according to Sandy Hawley, one of the owners of the shop started by her father-in-law back in 1964. Ironically, he only stocked bicycles to capture customers for the Christmas and off-season when people were obviously not mowing grass or going camping. The rest is history. Cycling and thus bicycles have evolved tremendously over the past decades. While one might still find a replica of Pee Wee Herman's Schwinn model, replete with baskets galore and lion's head speaker at a yard sale, today's bicycles are made for efficiency and a particular genre of bicycling. "We sell a lot of road bikes, probably Cannondale is our best-selling brand," Hawley noted. She added, "We do sell a lot of mountain bikes too." Across town on McPherson Church Road, Chris Anderson who manages The Bicycle Shop, is also having the usual increase in business that spring and summer weather brings. His best seller is a hybrid, which comes in two forms: one for comfort and one for fitness. "The comfort hybrids are just that, comfortable. They put the rider in a more upright riding position and tend to have more of a riser handle bar and wider seats," Anderson acknowledged. The fitness hybrids are for those who want longer rides or who want to commute to work and want a bike that's both efficient and comfortable. "Our second most popular bike is the mountain bike followed by the road bike, which gained popularity in the early 90s," he said.And what Hawley's, The Bike Shop or any locally owned bicycle shop can offer that big box stores can't is a bicycle that fits the rider and a bicycle that the business stands behind. To ensure a proper fit, Hawley's for example, stocks bicycles that come in six frame sizes for men and three for women. Hawley explained that size and weight of the rider determines the frame size. For extended riding, a bicycle has to fit the rider's position and angle over the bike and his or her leg extension on the pedals. For the most serious bicycling aficionado, Hawley's uses the "Fit Bike" by Guru, one of only 50 computerized hobbyhorses in the world. The computerized bicycle facsimile ensures the most efficient fit. It can take from one to two hours on the device to ensure a maximum fit resulting in the most efficient coordination between man and machine. According to Hawley, there's a huge biking community in Fayetteville who enjoy a variety of bicycling venues. There's CityViewNC.com | 43

• Cover