Hi friends,
We started Rook Cycles out of a love for getting outdoors, away from a desk and onto a machine that takes you places. A frame,fork, 2 wheels, and some well built components that enables the most efficient human transport we can think of: A bicycle. As you are well aware, South Africans sit at home in our battle against a danger to human lives, Covid-19 or the Corona virus. The risk to human lives of this virus is all too real as we have seen with the unfolding events in some hard hit European states and the lock down imposed is our best bet in keeping this virus at bay and perhaps even getting on the back-foot.
But this also means a huge knock to small businesses like ours. It starts with an ever devaluing rand. At the time of writing this letter, Google is reporting 17.57 to the dollar. Rook bicycles are designed in South Africa, but the majority of parts and manufacturing is dollar based and even if we survive this roller coaster financially, prices of our beloved fun machines might never be the same. The next uppercut is a 21 day (at least) ban from opening our bike shop and shipping orders to our customers around the world. This might be the crippling blow and without support from our friends and community, the bike shop we all know and love might not survive.
We can’t ask you to buy a bicycle when food and essentials are the most important things for you and your family right now. But if anyone has surplus or some extra funds to buy what will be their favourite 2 wheels on the planet, now is the best price you’d possibly ever get on a Rook Cycles build. Your support in purchasing something as small as a cap on the online store will help keep us open and hopefully we can weather the storm.
More than a punt to keep the bike shop open, we believe we are offering an essential service for the future of our planet. Commuting and transport by bicycle is beneficial not only to the planet but also to your health. In a changing world, we are enabling the solo, no-crowd commute in the most reliable and efficient way we know how.
My heart goes out to all the start-ups affected by this, as well as all the lives impacted around the globe. We really hope to see you on the other-side for a night ride and a much needed beer at the bike-shop.
Thank you to each and every one of you who has supported Rook Cycles, The team, shop and bicycles would be nothing without you.
Ride on,
Luke Co-Founder Rook Cycles
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