Afshin Kaighobady outside his new Mount Airy electric-assist bicycle shop on Oct. 8, 2009. Photo: Pam Rogow for Technically Philly
It was a yellow bicycle. That much Afshin Kaighobady remembers clearly.
On cool mornings in 1969, the 10-year-old would ride to the bakery near his home in Tehran to buy his mother fresh bread. Riding on the flat roads of Iran’s sprawling capital city at the foot of the Tochal mountains, Kaighobady can still remember his pride for riding his bike with just one hand, the other clutching a warm piece of naan fresh out of the bakery’s diesel-powered flames.
Philly Electric Wheels Opening Reception
- Thurs. Oct. 15
- 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.
- 550 Carpenter Lane
- Mt. Airy
- www.phillyew.com
- 215.821.9266
- Free test rides — Bring a major credit card, a helmet if possible and an ID (test drivers must be at least 16)
- Refreshments and live music
“The steam would pour off it, and so one bite and then another and soon I’d half finish the bread that was nearly as tall as I was, all the while steering this long, yellow treasure,” he says.
It is there, in Tehran in 1969, that Kaighobady first fell in love with bicycles. It is here, in the far hillier expanses of Mt. Airy in 2009, that Kaighobady, now 50, is hoping to create love for that transport’s next generation.
This Thursday, from 2 to 7 p.m., he’s hosting an opening reception for Philly Electric Wheels, his shop in this northwest Philadelphia neighborhood that he boasts is the first store in Pennsylvania, perhaps even the tri-state area, to exclusively sell and service electric-assist bicycles.
And he’s trying to convince the region that these bikes could be a large part of a greener, more comfortable, more practical way to commute.
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