1 October 2012 - 16:54The End?

So as some of you might know, things in Waterbury have not been terribly rosy since our visit from Irene last summer. It effectively squashed the life out this little town, but what was fantastic and exciting to see was the community rallying to the aid of their neighbors. One year ago today I was sharing the bike shop with another business. It helped to share the burden of the lofty overhead while the town was rebuilding. Unfortunately, many of the people that used to work in town still haven’t come back. And it isn’t likely that the nearly 1500 employees of the State of VT will be back any time soon. Without the people, there was a huge hole in retail visits, a crippling blow to many of the small business in town, including mine.

While I managed to hold on through the summer, it was becoming increasingly more obvious that something had to be done. And unfortunately, that meant closing the bike shop. I started Five Hills Bikes almost 7 years ago, not knowing what would happen. I watching it grow out of it’s original space on Rt 100, and into Waterbury’s downtown where it has been for the last 5 years. I’ve spent every day working toward the success of the business. There were some bumps along the way, but also a lot of really good times. I’ve gotten to travel to some really cool places, meet some really fantastic people, and lets not forget all the awesome bikes I’ve owned along the way.

Bike 29 will keep on keeping on for the time being. The beauty of an online business, is that it isn’t 100% dependent on having a physical location. The current plan is to find a suitable spot to reopen the shop and keep doing the things I did well, but on a much smaller and more manageable scale. Until then though, I guess I’ll have to just ride my bike!

So that’s that. It was a great ride while it lasted. And I have to say that I have no regrets about any of it. It did feel pretty good to hand the keys back to my landlords today. But now I get to look forward to new adventures, which I will most likely share here. Having been at this for the last 7 years, I’ve developed somewhat of a writing habit, even though I’ve been pretty quiet lately. So with that, I’ll say see ya’ll down the trail.