OC TALK RADIO

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-7e3ye-12a6225

Hear the conclusion of Richard Davis’ years long, 24,000 mile ride.  Which started when Richard realized he’d turned over the odometer on his 2018 Pedego Electric Bike for the second time.  Meaning he’d already ridden about 12,000 miles (or roughly half way around the world). 

So being an engineer, he started tracking his mileage on a daily basis and turning that data into a spread sheet that plotted out exactly where he’d be if he really WERE riding all the way around the world.  Plotting his path “back home”. Learning about the exotic points on the map  and places he crossed in his mind. And turning his daily exercise into an around the world adventure.  A “fantasy ride” across the planet. All from the comfort of his home in Panama City, Florida.

Truly a flight of fancy. An armchair traveler’s dream. And an amazing story filled with lots of imagination, drive and determination, on this week’s PEDEGO PODCAST.

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-aj9wa-129ce90

Meet two early pioneers of the EBike Revolution, Sherry and Steve Pike, former sales execs for McKesson (one of the largest Medical Supply Companies in the world).  Who after 25 years rising up the corporate ladder had hit a wall and burned out of their corporate careers. Which began their search for something new. A small business to buy that they could call their own.  “So we went to a business broker,” says Steve, “who presented us with everything from pizza shops to tire recycling stores, none of which lit the passion or fire we were hoping to find.” 

“So I told Steve to go back to his passion,” adds Sherry, “which for both of us had always been biking. And start searching there”.  And lo and behold, they found Pedego Electric Bikes (long before most people).  Opening their Glendale/Peoria store in the outskirts of Phoenix in 2017.  And becoming (in the process) one of the first eBike stores in the area.

Cut to the chase, and they’re now onto their second store in Goodyear, AZ as they continue to “go west” and travel even further on their adventure. Blazing a trail that so many other entrepreneurs and escapees from corporate America have since followed from Wall Street to Main Street and the frontiers of this new eBike Revolution.  On this week’s PEDEGO PODCAST.

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-tw5k2-1293da0

Hear the amazing story of two high school sweethearts, Patrick and Wendy Reilly who not only seemed destined to be together, but somehow destined to be in business together as well.

Though you wouldn’t have thought so if you watched the first 30 years of their life unfold as they got married in 1992 and started raising a family. As Wendy began work as a Behavioral Therapist and got her Masters in Special Ed. While her husband Patrick started down a long path as an engineer for Comcast.

But all that changed in 2017 during a family trip to Bar Harbor, Maine. When Patrick (who’d developed a bad back from too many injuries on his job) stumbled into a Pedego EBike store and discovered that (for the first time) he could join Wendy on her long hikes with their boys.

Enthralled with the fun they had that day, they went back home and began imagining “what if WE opened a store back in New Jersey”?  Going so far as to actually contact Pedego and explore the idea. But careers and kids kept getting in the way. 

Then COVID came and changed everything. Stuck at home in 2020, they drove to the Pedego store in Spring Lake, NJ and bought two bikes to celebrate their 28th wedding anniversary  And then destiny stepped in and altered the course of their lives (or maybe corrected the course to where they were always meant to be). 

Because shortly after buying the bikes, Patrick had a question and decided to call the local store, but instead dialed the Pedego corporate HQ in CA by mistake.  Even more miraculously, they remembered him and said “hey, if you’re still interested in opening a store, we’re looking for someone in Haddenfield” (where they lived)”.

And thus began this new leg of their journey together that finds them not with just one store but two (with a second location in  Princeton, NJ as well).  Where they are working with that famed University to possibly purchase a whole pack of Pedegos for faculty and staff to pedal around campus. With all three of their sons now working with them as well.

Whatever you call this strange twist of fate, it sure seems like something that was somehow meant to be. As the family that first rode together is now blazing a new trail together. As accidental Electric Bike Entrepreneurs driving the EBike Revolution. On this week’s PEDEGO PODCAST.