SANTA FE, NM (BRAIN)—More than 35 companies, including some of the industry’s biggest brand names, filled a community center and its parking lot with exhibition tents and trailers Saturday at the second annual Pedal Queens’ Bike-A-GoGo.
Interspersed between companies like Giant, Trek, Scott, Specialized, Cannondale, Moots and others were six Santa Fe retailers selling bikes and accessories while giving away free advice to all who asked. Business was brisk.
Tiffany Brown, Giant Bicycle’s women’s program manager, described the GoGo as the only event she knows of that reaches out to women to bring them into the cycling community. Giant had a variety of women’s road and mountain bikes on hand for testing, while Rob & Charlie’s, a local Giant and Trek dealer, had comfort bikes available for testing.
Tony Farrar, owner of Santa Fe’s Bike’n Sport, said foot traffic during the all-day expo had been good. And Farrar, working with Specialized, Cannondale, Scott, Yeti and Gary Fisher, hosted a demo day Sunday at Hyde Park, a picnic and campground area a few miles from Santa Fe on a road to the Santa Fe Ski Area.
Preston Martin, co-owner and vice-president of BTI, a national distributor with offices in Santa Fe, said the event attracts mostly women thanks to the Pedal Queens, a growing group of active women cyclists.
“The word is getting out and we have women coming from as far away as Las Cruces (in southern New Mexico) and Denver," he said.
Inside the Genoveva Chavez Community Center, a series of clinics were held throughout the day ranging from bicycle maintenance while on the road to resistance training for cyclists. And at the Betty Bike Gear booth visitors could compete against the clock in a tire-changing contest. —Marc Sani
