Dee Wanger is the owner of Ridekick – the makers of an electric bicycle trailer – and a founding member of the Fort Collins Bike Industry Alliance. A group of representatives from the alliance returned from Interbike, a bike trade show, in September, starry-eyed and set on forming a city-recognized bike industry cluster. The Business Report caught up with Wanger to find out how the city stands to gain from the growing bike industry and why we need an organization to cultivate it.


Question: What is the Fort Collins Bike Industry Alliance, and what exactly is its charge?

Answer: It came to be when we realized that there were 23 companies that contribute something into the bike industry here. And whether it’s a nutrition bar, an electric product, clothing, just one component like shocks or pedals or seats, or whether it’s a bicycle trailer, like in our case, or a custom-built bike, all of these companies contribute into the bicycle industry.

Once we realized there were 23 of us, we realized, ‘Wow, we are a contributing entity into the economic base of Fort Collins,’ in jobs, in product sales. …

We piloted the group at