Bikes

You’ve probably noticed during this COVID-19 pandemic that people
are spending a lot more time enjoying parks, public green spaces
and the great outdoors – whether walking, jogging, hosting
socially distant backyard gatherings, or riding bikes.


When the pandemic hit earlier this year, those of us in south
Louisiana were just beginning to enjoy the best of a lovely, cool
spring and, based on anecdotal observation and hard data about
bicycle sales, a lot of us started took to do it on two wheels,
many for the first time since childhood.


Not all business have been hit hard by the pandemic. Bike
business is booming.


Dustin LaFont is owner of Mid City Bikes, which has a large
selection of new and used bikes, as well as accessories and bike
parts for the DIY biker. Dustin is also Director of Front
Yard Bikes, a nonprofit organization that he runs out of his bike
shop, dedicated to teaching kids from underserved communities how
to work on and build their own bicycles. Dustin founded Front
Yard Bikes in late 2012, and in the years since, the community
bicycle center has enabled hundreds of children to receive free
bikes in return for putting in a little work or sweat
equity. 


Matt Chambers works with whole other types of bikes. Matt's
two-wheelers are high-end custom-designed electric motorcycles.
Yes, battery powered motorbikes. But these are not toys. Far far
from it. Matt's company is Curtiss Motorcycles,  which you
may remember by its original name, Confederate Motorcyles. That's
the name Matt christened it when he founded the company in Baton
Rouge nearly 30 years ago. In the years since, Matt moved the
company to New Orleans then, after Katrina, to Birmingham, and
the bikes Matt is building today have also changed, from gasoline
to electric. The development is as exciting on the road as it
sounds on paper: Curtiss Motorcycles is the Tesla of bikes.


See photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at our website.


Hear more about Baton Rouge based automotive businesses here.


 


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