BentLovers and Friends

RideSouth wishes all of our customers and friends happiness and health for the upcoming holidays! Lane & I are avoiding travel and gatherings to try and stay free of the virus. We hope you are, too! We continue to work by appointment at the shop and our inventory is shrinking. We have Catrikes and eCatrikes on the floor ready for sale! For those who have already ordered, we expect our shipment of eKits to arrive in late Janurary. There are still models from Greenspeed, Ice, AZUB, HP Velotechnik, Hase and Terratrike looking for a home . . . at bargan prices!

We have some great news for Old Fannin Road cyclists! Today, Rankin County will finish a thorough cleaning of both bike lanes on this road!! The county is sweeping with their sweeper and then picking up debris . . . by hand! They are hauling it off to fill in a landfill somewhere, we imagine! This has not been done since this road was built! Bill Greenleaf and I personally inspected the work and thanked the County official on the job. It is very clean!!

In other news, we are sorry to hear of the passing of John Schlitter’s wife, Jacquie. John supported RideSouth for many years and we know this is difficult for him. We wish him and their family healing and safety during these difficult times.

None of us know the future. We can only expect the best and plan for the worst. We sincerely hope your future is full of hope and goodness in the new year, and years to come!

Happy Holidays!

Keep Your Distance Ride: Ride Report

Our first event since Spring turned out great! The weather was nice and everyone attending seemed to have fun! We launched promptly at 10:00 AM, as advertised, and quickly out ran a light rain shower in Hattiesburg. Lane showed off a bit by leading the pack for a while on the new Catrike eCat, and we all made good time to Sumrall. Most turned around, but David kept going towards Prentiss on his tricked out Greenspeed Aero prototype. Seems we were no match for him and he went looking for some action! Way to go, David!

The sun and 76 degree November temperatures was a welcome combination for all riders. It was great to see so many trikes on the trace! Awesome lights were highly visible everywhere! We were back in Hattiesburg well before 2:00 PM, where we offered rides on the eCat for interested folks. We think this will be a popular option for many and it is now Lane’s favorite bike! We hope all who made the ride enjoyed the event. As a few folks missed us this time, we will entertain the idea of doing this again in December if you are interested! Please let us know!

RideSouth . . . The Way to Keep Your Distance!

www.ridesouth.com
[email protected]
601 992-2490

November!

BentLovers and Friends

Are you ready for November? For many years, November included our Birthday Challenge Ride, always a crowd favorite! This November 7th, we will have our first Keep Your Distance Ride on the Longleaf Trace! We will launch from the Hattiesburg Gateway for the LongLeaf Trace at 10:00 AM sharp on Saturday! Participants can ride toward Sumrall for as long as they wish, and as slow as they wish! The only ask is that you wear a mask when not riding to help contain the virus, please!

We will be showcasing the new eCat from Catrike! If you are interested, see Lane after the ride to test it out! We are excited about this product for many reasons! Also, many of you have reserved the eKit from Catrike to upgrade your own Catrike to electric assist. A great way to improve your distance and speed without purchasing a whole new bike!

If you haven’t already discovered, we are still operating by appointment only for sales at RideSouth. We have limited our service to bikes we have sold, for the most part, to allow time for sales and assembly. We still have a good selection of new and used trikes on the floor and a few two wheeled bikes. Our focus in the future will be trikes only.

We think outings such as the Keep Your Distance Ride will encourage many to safely enjoy cycling on the LongLeaf Trace and keep your legs active yearround, while practicing social distancing. We look forward to seeing your smiling eyes just two weeks from this Saturday in Hattiesburg!!

RideSouth . . . The Way to Ride!
[email protected]
601 992-2490

Evolution

A half year ago, we talked about change. We are sure you have changed, and we hope all are well! Here is how our shop has changed:

We are still working by appointment only. This has prevented congregating in the shop, and is easier to manage giving individual assistance to customers wearing masks. We expect to continue for the foreseeable future, for everyone’s safety.

We have curtailed most outside repairs for two reasons. We quickly became overwhelmed, and our suppliers could not supply the basics, like tires and tubes! We hope that will change by the end of this year.

We have sold all of our upright bikes except for two! We have a great Marin commuter bike, 17 inch size, reduced to $499. We also have a Marin road bike (48.5 cm, small), for the same price. This will deplete our non-recumbent bikes offered at the present time. With prepayment, we can order Marin, Fuji and other brands.

We have one used long wheelbase, and four used short wheelbase recumbent two-wheeled bikes on sale. Prices vary from $700 to $2900. These bikes are in great shape and are real bargains!

We have one demo kayak left. It is a great fishing kayak from Point 65 North Sweden, dubbed the Kingfisher! It will fit in your SUV, so no trailer or rack is needed. You can stand up in it to fish, or sit and pedal, forward or backwards! Also comes with a paddle. We have an inflatable SUP by Jobe for $799, also. Price includes pump, bag and paddle!

Our inventory of recumbent trikes has dwindled from more than 50 to about 30 . . . today. Trikes rule here, and will be our mainstay in the future! The real evolution at RideSouth is electric assist trikes. That’s right, we have come full circle from our past philosophy of only human-powered machines! Customers want the assist, and Catrike has the best system we have found. We can even retrofit your old Catrike with an eCat kit!

We’re still evolving and don’t know our future. Organized rides have been put on hold. We want to plan a ride on November 7, launching from Hattiesburg. We will call it “Keep Your Distance Ride”. We plan to Launch from the Hattiesburg Gateway on the LongLeaf Trace at 10:00 AM, ride to Sumrall, and return to Hattiesburg. We hope everyone will wear a mask when not actually riding, and, well, will keep your distance! Please email us if you are interested in this ride!

Thank you for continuing to support us and continuing to believe RideSouth is The Way to Ride!

We are implementing a new policy at RideSouth. To limit COVID 19 exposure, we will only see you or your bike by appointment. Gloves and mask are required to enter the shop. Please call 601 992-2490 to set up an appointment for purchase or repair.

Thank You!

A Way Forward

We have come a long way, BentLovers and Friends! We feel for all of you who are limited to interactions with grandkids through window panes, or worse. We have been closed now for a couple of weeks, to help prevent the virus spreading from and to our customers. We are ok, and are remaining in isolation to remain so. We sincerely hope you are, too!

Our hearts go out to all of our caregiver friends and customers. We know you take unbelievable risks, and we applaud you everyday . . . with clean hands! For a while, we took in repairs to help folks cope with the isolation and extra time on their hands, but we have curtailed that to prevent cross contamination. We have, and will continue to take calls and try to guide you through some simple repairs, via telephone.

We are considering doorstep delivery for new trikes you might be considering. Of course this will have to be discussed and the details worked out for each case. Many of you have shopped for a trike before the pandemic hit, and desperately need an outlet for solitary exercise and mental therapy. If you know of someone that could benefit from this service, please contact us. Of course all precautions will be taken to provide a clean and safe transfer.

Survival is not inevitable these days. But change is. So, we hope to change and survive. We will post reopening on our website. Until then, feel free to call us for advice and repair help over the phone or through email. If you have had your eye on a new trike, now may be the best time for it to appear on your driveway! We wish safety and health for all of you!

RideSouth . . . The Way to Ride!
601 992-2490
601 291-1004 (cell)
[email protected]

We will remain closed until further notice. Please check our website for updates.

We will have an old fashioned Rise and Shine Bread Ride from the shop at 8:00 AM this Saturday! Come and join us if you want the tradition to continue! We will keep our distance and you can keep yours! We still need to ride! See you Saturday!

We have added sales to the shop floor and continue to do so every week! All Hobie items are half price and we have great deals on Greenspeed Magnums! Upright bikes are on clearance sale, and we have some fantastic deals on used recumbent bikes! There are bike and kayak racks galore priced for quick sale!

RideSouth . . . The Way to Ride!

www.ridesouth.com
[email protected]
601 992-2490

Spring . . . what will it bring to you? New life, or maybe a renewal of life from the past? Sunshine and warmth will be welcomed in all cases. Enjoying the Southern outdoors goes along with Spring, and that’s where we come in!

RideSouth has a hundred bikes and kayaks that we aim to move this Spring! We have been sitting on many of them for way too long and they need new homes! We also have a couple of used kayak/bike trailers we are selling! Ask us to show them to you and make an offer!

You may have noticed we have the RideSouth Bus for sale, too. It is a Nissan 12 passenger van that has only 16,000 miles on it! Come by the shop to check it out and take a test drive! Great for large families or as a cargo van!

We think “The Roaring Twenties” will have a whole new meaning after this year becomes history! Be an integral part of history and do something worth writing about this year! Like maybe your first century, or a ride across the country! Or take small steps and make this year memorable with a personal challenge completed, whatever it may be!

We have talked about adding solar panels to our shop and are glad to report action on that endeavor last October. It is a good feeling to welcome the sunshine in a totally different way now! Great to be a part of the solution as well! We hope more of you will consider renewable energy this Spring and spend your own energy riding your bike and paddling your kayak!

RideSouth . . .The Way to Ride!
[email protected]
www.ridesouth.com
601 992-2490