I recently bought my first bicycle in more than a decade.
Like most people, I started my search online, comparing models, reading reviews, and trying to figure out what kind of rider I actually wanted to be. Eventually I visited several local bike shops before settling on a Fairdale, which seemed like the right balance of city riding and exercise for someone easing back into cycling.
The experience got me thinking.
What I found wasn’t simply a collection of stores selling bikes. Each shop had its own personality, its own community, and its own vision of what cycling in Richmond is. It reminded me that bike culture didn’t arrive with any one generation. It was already part of Richmond when I got here, and it has continued evolving alongside the city.
A few weeks after buying my bike, I received an email from Joel Alford announcing the opening of his new venture, Field Trip Bikes in Church Hill. Joel and I had never met. He had no idea I had recently become a customer at Richmond ReCycles, the shop he has owned since 2017. But his email felt like an opportunity to revisit a story I had been watching unfold from the sidelines for more than twenty years.
In the early 2000s, Richmond’s bike culture felt like a world unto itself.
The part of it I encountered was only one piece of a much larger scene, but it seemed to intersect with everything happening around me. There were BMX riders building dirt jumps, messengers weaving through downtown traffic, mountain bikers disappearing into the woods along the James, and road cyclists logging miles through the surrounding counties. Shops like Agee’s, Bunnyhop, Powers BMX Shop, ReCycles and others anchored different parts of the cycling community, each with its own traditions, personalities, and loyal following.
I can’t speak to what was happening in the broader cycling world at the time. My view of Richmond’s bike culture came from the ground level, and what I remember most is Slaughterama.
Slaughterama 2010, photos by Nick Ghobashi for RVA #1 2010
Taking its name from the classic GWAR track, the annual gathering organized by the Cutthroats Bicycle Club brought riders from around the country to Richmond throughout much of the 2000s. Equal parts competition, festival, and organized chaos, it became one of the city’s defining underground traditions. If you spent time around Richmond’s DIY scenes, chances are you knew someone involved.
Richmond had a bike culture, and from where I stood it was deeply connected to the same people starting bands, organizing shows, making art, building skate ramps, and documenting the city. The communities often overlapped.
Long before tourism officials began pitching Richmond as a cycling destination, people were already coming here because of bikes. The rest of the city just hadn’t fully realized it yet.
That began to change in September 2011 when Richmond was selected to host the 2015 UCI Road World Championships.
At the time, the announcement was met with a mixture of excitement, confusion, and skepticism. Plenty of Richmonders looked at the news and wondered why an international cycling championship was coming here in the first place. Others focused on the road closures and logistical headaches that would soon follow.
But a core group of cyclists, advocates, and business owners saw something different.
For the first time, bicycles were being discussed not simply as recreation or transportation, but as economic development. Organizers projected more than 500,000 visitors over the ten-day event and estimated more than $150 million in statewide economic impact. Suddenly cycling wasn’t just a niche interest. It was something the city could invest in, support, and build around.
The race itself lasted a week but the shift in perception lasted much longer.
Over the following decade Richmond expanded bike infrastructure, completed the Virginia Capital Trail, supported advocacy efforts, and gradually embraced cycling as part of the city’s identity. What had once felt like different pockets of subculture increasingly became part of everyday life.
Photo by R. Anthony Harris
Few people have watched that evolution more closely than Joel Alford.
Alford joined ReCycles Bike Shop in 2008 and purchased the business in 2017. Over nearly two decades in Richmond’s bicycle industry, he has witnessed firsthand how the city’s relationship with cycling has changed.
“I think the bicycle as a legitimate form of transportation has gotten more accepted in Richmond,” Alford says. “There’s a lot more people riding bikes for fun, commuting to work, riding with their kids, and using bikes as a primary choice for getting around.”
He points to improvements in infrastructure, growing advocacy efforts, and a broader acceptance of cycling across all walks of life as some of the biggest changes he’s witnessed.
Photo by R. Anthony Harris
The pandemic accelerated many of those trends. “When COVID hit, the demand for bikes went crazy through the roof,” Alford says. “A lot of people wanted a bike as a way of getting out of their house.”
Like shops across the country, ReCycles struggled to keep inventory in stock. At the same time, Alford watched a new generation discover cycling as recreation, transportation, and a way to remain connected during a period of isolation. Now he is bringing that experience to Church Hill.
Photo by R. Anthony Harris
Field Trip Bikes, located in Church Hill, offers bicycle sales, repairs, accessories, apparel, and gear. More importantly, Alford hopes it becomes another neighborhood gathering place. The shop plans to host community rides and create an environment that welcomes both experienced cyclists and people who may not have ridden a bike since childhood.
“Sometimes a bike shop can have the same feeling as a tattoo shop or a record store,” Alford says. “You’re a little nervous to go in if you’re not an expert.”
His goal is to remove that barrier. “Everybody that walks in, we’re stoked that you’re here.”
Photo by R. Anthony Harris
The story of Richmond’s cycling culture has been unfolding for decades, written by countless Richmonders who chose two wheels over four. Field Trip Bikes, along with the other great shops that serve Richmond riders, exists because that culture endured.
A generation ago, Richmond’s cycling community might have been fighting to be noticed. Today, it is strong enough to support yet another neighborhood bike shop, one built around the idea that bicycles can bring people together.
For a city that once viewed cycling as something on the margins, that feels like progress.
Main photo by R. Anthony Harris
Support RVA Magazine. Support Independent Media in Richmond.
At a time when media ownership is increasingly concentrated among corporations and the wealthy, RVA Magazine has remained one of Richmond’s few independent voices. Since 2005, the magazine has provided grassroots coverage of the city’s artists, musicians, and communities, documenting the culture that defines Richmond beyond the headlines.
But we can’t do this without you. A small contribution, even as little as $2, one-time or recurring, helps us continue to produce honest, local coverage free from outside interference. Every dollar makes a difference. Your support keeps us going and keeps RVA’s creative spirit alive. Thank you for standing with independent media. SUPPORT HERE.
We’ve got merch HERE
Subscribe to the Substack HERE
And Reddit HERE
And YouTube HERE