Asheville, NC
Ritchie gets twitchy when he goes longer than a day without riding a bike. It’s his exercise, therapy, and entertainment. As a dad, riding his son to school or on errands, on his cargo bike, is a favorite part of parenting.
As a part-owner of The Flying Bike, an ebike tour company in Asheville, bikes are also his livelihood. When Ritchie was a kid, and through college, he saw bikes primarily as a toy that extended his range of play. It wasn’t until moving to Washington DC and committing to commuting by bike everyday for 4 years that he saw bikes as needed transportation.
When he moved to Asheville in 2012, he continued functional cycling despite the impediments of hills and lack of bike lanes. The hills can’t be changed, but the bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure can, and he committed to improving road safety through work with BikeWalk NC, Asheville on Bikes, serving as Blue Ridge Bicycle Club’s Board Vice President, and as Asheville’s Greenway Committee Secretary.
