Our Take on the State of the World
The rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic has caught all of us by surprise and is forcing all of us to rethink so much. Many of us will suffer either directly from the impacts of the virus, economically or some other way. Amidst the doom and gloom, it’s important to remember that new growth and positivity will also emerge.
Many of us will have to dramatically reevaluate our focus and direction and in so doing, we will need to ask for help. We also must prepare ourselves to offer help where we can and join together to solve problems.
What’s Happening at Campfire Cycling
What an intense last 3 weeks it’s been! We squeaked in a group bikepacking trip literally just as social distancing was becoming a thing. When we headed out on Saturday, March 14th, the idea of riding as a group but keeping our distance from each other seemed reasonable enough. But by the time I was back at my desk on Monday, it was clear that we should not be leading any group bike campouts for a while.
Like many businesses in this moment, Campfire Cycling is in a fragile place. We’re wondering what the future holds and doing our best to adapt to the changes that roll in daily. At the moment, both our Tucson repair center and ecommerce operation are open for business with our COVID-19 precautions in place to address customer and employee safety.
Last November it was our great pleasure to launch our Tucson showroom and repair center. Since then we’ve had an amazing times hosting events and rides and welcoming folks to our space. Thank you for being a part of our new community coming together!
We’re brainstorming how we can keep things growing despite these challenging times. We’ve been hunkered down for the last few weeks, getting ourselves reoriented to the new reality. But we’re ready to start the conversation up with you again.
April 12th UPDATE: Survey Results Are In!
Thank you to all who filled out our survey! We got 350 replies to our survey. I am very grateful for this enthusiastic response. It really did cheer us up that so many of you were willing to take some time out of your day and give us this very valuable feedback.
Reading through your responses was grounding. I understand that many of you are deeply worried. Others are a combination of uneasy and bored. While others of you came across as remarkably unfazed while staring into these headwinds with stoic resolve.
Regardless of your mindset, almost all of you sounded like cycling and bicycle camping were still on your mind to some degree whether you were planning for after COVID-19, capable of doing some trips soon or just stoking the fire for some inspiration while you’re hunkered down.
The New Plan
What stood out the most from the survey was a strong interest in local (to you) bicycle camping routes. Even before COVID-19, I was excited to develop overnighter bike camping routes around Tucson. As conditions improve, locally-based bike campouts will be one of the first forms of adventuring we can enjoy.
Local bike camping is the best entry point for bicycle campers – both seasoned and new. Keep an eye out for our upcoming videos and projects related to creating local bike camping routes.
Another thing that was clear from your responses was that we should get back to the basics of sharing our product expertise. So I’ll be getting up some product videos for our favorite products in the weeks to come.
To add to the mix we’re going to be launching some new promotions. Starting this week we’ll be running a Thursday Only Deal. We’ve also got some other promotions in the works that we’ll be emailing out as well.
Thank You!
Thank you for your continued support during these challenging times. And we hope that the adjustments that we’re making can aid to provide some inspiration, entertainment and hope for the good times to return once we make our way past this.
We are keeping you in our thoughts and we are grateful for your support. Don’t hesitate to reach out if there is anything we can do to help.
Stay safe and sane out there!
Thank you,
Josh Lipton
Founder – Campfire Cycling
