Hi,

My wife and I were dramatically changed when we saw the documentary The Age of Stupid. We are selling our car, bought a vespa. That didn't seem enough, so we decided to purchase 200 used-commuter bicycles from Japan to sell here in Wellington and to some friends in Hamilton. My wife Sarah lived in Japan and Taiwan and had lovely bicycles (notably the mama-chari
model) which are designed for commuting and running errands. We could not find any of these bicycles here, except for very expensives models from USA or Europe and so we found some we could sell for less than $200 each and still cover our costs to keep importing. We plan to buy new and sturdier models from India if this first shipment is sucessful.

I am writing to you because we would like to sell some of these bikes to returning students at Victoria and Massey Universities in Wellington during their orientation weeks. I was hoping to promote some of the excellent goals which your group is working towards at these events.

I am tired of seeing people sweating and hunched over the bars of road and mountain bikes, neither of which seems suitable for getting to work or taking groceries home. I also hear much annecdotal evidence that these bikes can cause back injury, especially to people like my parents who choose cycling as a low impact exercise. I would love to see us hark back to the golden age of bicycles, pre-lycra, when getting from point A to point B didn't require speed or necessitate in-built suspension.

As a keen cyclist myself I know that cyclings woes will not be solved by more comfortable upright bicycles alone, but I am convinced that drivers will take more notice when elegant women float past them wearing skirts and dresses, with groceries in their baskets. I hope that our little business will in the future solve another piece of the puzzle.

If there is any resources or imformation you can give me to help promote commuter cycling I would be very grateful and encouraged.

Kind regards,
Jason Penny
jasonhpenny@gmail.com