Cycle city

It’s hard to believe this marks the 10th installment of the CN&R’s popular Bike Issue. Over the years, we’ve chronicled many major improvements to our region’s pedestrian and cycling infrastructure—think the Annie’s Glen tunnel, the bike lanes on Second Street, and the better-connected Bikeway 99—and highlighted the areas that are desperately in need of work.

But for this, our 10th annual Bike Issue, we sought to capture the less-tangible aspect of bicycling. To do so, we reached out to bike shop owners and managers to get their take on just how Chico is able to sustain so many bicycle-related businesses. The answer: Each adds a little something different to the local bike culture, encourages new riders by making the activity accessible and, naturally, all are crazy about life on two wheels.