01/23/2025
Here is another believe it or not. After 26 years of doing Longbikes plus the wheelchair side of the business (which pays the bills), it's time to stop. There are lots of ways to make or loose money in the bike business. The first few years I was devoted to the bike business, spending lots of money and not generating enough revenue to justify continuing, but I persisted. 2003 came along and I was able to get out of my wheelchair non-compete and did so thinking I could jump back in where I left off. In the six years I was out a lot changed in the industry and the plan of former hero returning with customers breaking the door down didn't quite happen. However after a couple of years of floundering and beating a dead horse, an opportunity to solve some problems in the industry jumped in front of me, to which I responded yes, I can fix that. That evolved into Seating Dynamics, twenty years later we are the only company in the world solely focused on providing movement within the wheelchair seating system to kids with Cerebral Palsy. I love the field, making a positive difference in a persons life is very rewarding, something most people don't get to do. It's a growing business with sufficient opportunity to innovate products and manufacturing processes. I have developed manufacturing processes and equipment that I am working on turning into a tooling business for CNC machining centers. Additionally we have had difficulty getting our machined aluminum parts consistently anodized to my satisfactions, so with nothing else to do we have been working for about a year now starting another business, Colorado Metal Finishing, to be an automated anodizing job shop which should be operational by the end of February, 2025. I have finally admitted to myself that at my age, 77, that if it is not fun or profitable I'm not going to do it! At this point I would rather ride a bike than build them. We will continue to support our products, but we have welded our last frames! We have a small hand full of Slipstreams welded and unpainted that are not spoken for, but will not be building any more. I'm glad to have had it be a part of my life, but it's time to move on...Thank you to our many happy customers and owners.
