Thanks to the warm and relatively snow-free weather, winter riding has grown in leaps and bounds this year in Dorchester as well as all over Boston. Dotriderblog hasn’t missed a day in January riding to work. It took until the end of February to log 200 miles and at this writing 200 will be surpassed before the end of the day. Not a day goes by when I don’t see plenty of other riders out and about finding their way, no matter the conditions.
I haven’t always been a winter rider, but this is now the 5th year running that I’ve ridden to work at least once a week every week. With the right clothing plus making an old Dahon picked up at a local yard sale the foul weather bike (can ride the T if it is totally yucky), we’re committed to the point where it won’t just be a day each week streak. The ‘every day except when we drive for work or leave town from work on Friday’ streak is approaching a year and after last January we’d expect a few streaks ended and began again then.
Adding to the fun of being a winter rider has been the semi-regular stop off at Ashmont Cycles on the way home. I had long imagined being the one and only visitor but it seems to have developed into a neighborhood haunt for regular riders as well as curious ones. I’ve only been in there once this month when there wasn’t at least one other person in there doing business or just hanging out. Often there’s a crowd. The community building that is going on there is awesome to see and to be a part of each day.
Ashmont Cycles owner Jack Peletier doesn’t seem to have to fall back on his previous career choice as much as he thought he might this winter. It’s great to see another person making money by thinking the best of Dorchester consumers. No one I know has gone broke by overestimating the buying power and consumer demands in Dorchester.
Along that line over 600 folks showed up at the first Winter Farmer’s Market in January. The next few weeks has seen at least 300 folks still showing up. While there were some moans about the prices, anyone who goes far and wide for produce knows the prices are fine. While the effort is part of a community effort to set up a food coop, the wave of folks is a signal to high end food retailers that they’re missing a huge market by not setting up here. But hey, they’re corporate and much smarter than anyone daft enough to try in Dorchester…NOT!
So if you’re out riding in Dorchester folks, do stop in and say howdy to Jack and the rest of us hanging at Ashmont Cycles. There you’ll find the diverse range of folks who make up the Chile Pot (a more accurate term than melting pot?) that makes up Dorchester and those of us out riding every day. He’s got a lot more inventory in there and you’ll have a chance to perhaps influence what else will grace the ever-reorganizing and expanding store.
One final comment: THANK YOU PARKS FOR PLOWING GLEN ROAD IN FRANKLIN PARK!!! After blowing it off the first ‘storm,’ they got it on the second one. We’re hoping that will be the norm from here on out forever! Fingers crossed.
