Bike the friendly streets of Grand Rapids

The tandem of Tyler Doornbos and Josh Leffingwell have several qualities of entrepreneurs; they are young, impatient and creative.

Their new venture is Bike-Friendly GR, a lifestyle company selling a variety of products all with the goal of accelerating and supporting the emerging biking community in Grand Rapids.

According to Leffingwell, the inspiration for their new venture was, "Super simple. We got sick of waiting for the infrastructure, so we decided we would just change the social aspect of it and try to get people to ride more."

Leffingwell jokes that the pair "does not have any idea what they are doing," but their business model is taking shape and appears to be a perfect fit for the growing bike scene in Grand Rapids being nurtured by various organizations and enthusiasts.

Their monetization plan is two-fold. Initially they will focus on selling quality, affordable products such as t-shirts (made by Citizen Shirt) and custom made bicycle bags (created by another entrepreneur in Detroit).

"We want to be affordable and sell apparel that looks good, not ridiculous," Leffingwell explains, hoping to avoid image of lycra-clad bikers racing through the streets on expensive bikes.

Goal two is an innovative approach to selling bikes through repurposing.
 
"We will buy used, crappy bikes, strip them to core, repaint them and upcyle the bikes to make them cool and affordable," Leffingwell says.

Current marketing efforts include a strong social media presence, organizing informal rides and sponsorships of events such as the upcoming bicycle summit in Grand Rapids.

Leffingwell concludes that beyond building a viable business by promoting recreational riding, he is more concerned with promoting cycling as a form of transportation. "An easy way to get downtown is to ride a bike," he says.

For more information on Bike-Friendly GR, you can visit their website here.

Source: Josh Leffingwell, Bike-Friendly GR
Writer: John Rumery, Innovation and Jobs Editor