Jason Hall on life after Slow Roll, and the e-bike takeover

Jason Hall is one of the most recognizable bicycle enthusiasts in America thanks to his role in founding the legendary Slow Roll Detroit, not to mention appearing in those Apple ads back in the day. And he’s moved onto e-bikes with his RiDetroit venture and is looking to the future.

Just checking in to see what’s going on what’s life been like for you with this pandemic and following slow roll, with your other bike-oriented projects?

So I left slow roll, probably going on three years now. I left it because, at the time, I had done it for eight years. And it was time for me to sort of stretch my legs and what I picked up along the route, the way of doing Slow Roll, you know. So doing Slow Roll, when we started that, we really just wanted, and it sounds not bad, but we were just riding in a circle. All we were concerned with was bringing people together. And that was our main goal. But over that period, I started traveling, I’ve done stuff with Apple. And I started to learn about what bicycle advocacy was amongst other things. At that time, I decided that after eight years of being with Slow Roll, and starting it, that it was kind of a self-moving machine. And I could step away and go into some other things. And so I left. And at that time, I didn’t know what I was going to do. But I had some feelers out with some ideas. And what I started to realize was I’d passed up on a lot of situations where I could have more personal experiences with people than when we were with Slow Roll when you have 1,000 people on a bike ride. Especially when you’re working and you’re running it you don’t get to talk to anybody, so it started to lose its luster for me. It wasn’t a community thing. I would show up and just work, work, work, work. So I decided to start RiDetroit, which is my personal tour company, where I only take up the 25 people out on tours of the city.

So me about your new project, RiDetroit?

This kind of serves a couple of different masters. It gave me an opportunity to have a revenue stream to start something because working for Slow Roll I was a non-profit, so I didn’t make any money. And then once again, it gave me an opportunity to evolve and have more personal experiences with people. And that’s what I missed, you know. So then I got lucky enough to get bitten by the electric bike bug. And a good friend of mine Michael Reuter owns seven bike shops, American Cycle & Fitness. So, I started talking to Michael about, you know what I might want to do. And he was thinking he wanted to open a store in Detroit. And so it was like, well, you want to open the store in Detroit, and I want to do tours in Detroit, maybe we can work together. And we decided to partner up. And I opened the tour and rental aspect of the shop which is RiDetroit. The shop is called Electric Avenue Bikes. And it helps us out because, you know, you can talk about e-bikes all day if you love them. But the experience is what’s going to get most people over the hump of spending the money on an e-bike. And so it was the perfect marriage.

And so that was ongoing during the pandemic, like, since you’re outside and people can wear masks?

Yeah. Because when the governor came out during the pandemic and said, you know, go outside and ride a bike and go outside and go for walks, we were in total lockdown. We weren’t doing a lot. We weren’t doing tours, like on a major level, but we were still able to connect with people and build our momentum. So during the pandemic, yes, and another thing is the pandemic happened over the winter. So really, that wasn’t our season, to begin with. So we were dealing with more so the global (bicycle) shortage during the pandemic. We were kind of coming out of it a little bit this spring, and people were feeling like they wanted to ride bikes. So I was booking smaller tours. Most definitely. And yes, you wear a mask on the tour at all times, you know, the whole nine.

What kinds of tours do you do, looks like you do a lot of different types of tours, such as murals and food?

That’s right, so another situation that I sort of fell into was I partnered up with Murals at the Market, which was voted by the Smithsonian as one of the best mural festivals in the world. And I was lucky enough to partner up with them. And I actually knew Jesse (Cory) and Roula (David) before they started Murals in the Market. So they came to me because people were doing tours, like giving bad information, and just were off. So they called me and said ‘hey, you’re thinking about doing these tours, what do you think about doing a mural tour?’ And that mural tour just really took off because it started the year that Murals in the Market was not doing anything because they had decided to take a year off. So I was really the only connection to Murals in the Market for two years. So that tour is one of our most popular. And then we do a pizza tour. I ate pizza every single day in 2017. And so I’ve sort of become the pizza king of Detroit, you know, these days people they come to me. So it made sense. Once again, why would I not do a tour where I get to showcase my favorite types of pizza.

And in Detroit, we’re kind of going through a little pizza war right now because Detroit-style pizza is the hottest style out there right now in the country, for sure. And so for everybody in Detroit, it’s even on a higher level, because we’re actually in the city. So, I started a tour where you taste three different styles of pizza on our tour. And then the other thing is, I just do a couple of like, I do a couple of neighborhood and other developmental tours. But where we also shine is we do custom tours where you can call me and you can say, ‘Hey, I just want to see the city.’ And we can talk about it and develop what type of tour you want. And riding e-bikes gives us the freedom to go further faster.

The birthplace of Slow Roll, the home of Detroit Bikes, what’s the cycling scene in Detroit like right now?

The bike scene is exploding. Because I work at the shop, I see that it’s growing. Detroit is a bona fide bike town, you know. Nothing has stopped this momentum, even the pandemic. And I’m not even trying, I don’t do big rides, or I haven’t done any, but there have been big rides that kept going during the pandemic. There’s non believers. And they’re doing that. Detroit is not slowing down by any means. I mean, Detroit Bikes just started making the e-bikes. So they’re trying to stretch out. We’re thinking about growth.

Earlier, you talked about bike advocacy? Has this city followed that up on the excitement for cycling with safe infrastructure and other bike-oriented investments?

Absolutely. I’m so proud of Detroit. You know, Slow Roll forced the city’s hand pretty quick. When we had the Apple commercial come out, you know, Detroit either had to sit on the pot or go. And they went and they said, all right y’all, we’ve established ourselves as a bona fide bike town. So we got to go. And so the bike lanes have increased, the types of bike lanes have changed. Now we have protected lanes, you see the entire avenues go from one way to two way. Because they’re looking at the structure and saying, okay, how do we do this? And I believe, I think it was either Google or Microsoft, one of the bigger companies, might have been Amazon at one time, was looking at Detroit, and we lost the bid on them coming here because of our lack of alternative transportation. So as soon as they mandated that, the city was just like, all right. We have enough space to do it. And that’s always been the fight. We don’t have to change a lot. All we have to do is, you know, maybe add a little bit. Detroit has stepped up and added a lot of bicycle infrastructure. And a lot of the businesses around here get it now. Get that if you’re bike-friendly, that’s a good thing for business. You know, if you have bike racks, that’s a good thing. If you have, you know, a bike station, that’s a great thing. So they’re getting it here.

Do you think bicycles are part of a renaissance in downtown Detroit?

Absolutely. Just the fact that Detroit found out that it had as many bikers as it did. And we are the people that hang out downtown. They have definitely played into a lot of the stuff that goes down. And we’ve got some city council people, too. Scott Benson is a heavy heavy bike advocate. And so you know, it helps when you have a city councilman who’s in the fight for you at all times. There’s never a question of somebody saying, should we have this, you know, you can call Scott, and if it makes sense, he’s gonna work for you.

Where does your appreciation for bikes come from?

You know, my original if you want to keep it real my original appreciation, I used to be a BMX kid way back in the day. I just turned 47, not to date myself. But like, so I was a rad kid. Do you know what I mean? Like, I grew up trying to jump off shit. That was my first introduction to bikes really like mag wheels, GT, Dynos, you know? I mean, I’ll even take it back a little further. Before that, it was actually the Schwinn Stingray. You know, like back then my the first bike that I ever looked at where a crew of kids had a bunch of bikes and you knew who they were, it was like, a Stingray. Right? The red and yellow Stingray was my first one. My second one was blue and silver. I was heavy into those until BMX caught my high man. So then I did BMX for a while after that. And then I started skateboarding. So I went away from bikes. And they just became transportation for me. It didn’t come until later that I got back into biking.

And what brought you back?

I got overweight. I actually weighed 240 pounds at one time. Okay, and like, I was just kind of living unhealthy. And some friends of mine owned a bike shop, they loaned me a bike. And, like, overnight, I just started feeling the benefits. Now I’m 180. But ya, if you asked where I got started the true love came from doing wheelies. Like if you could do we call catwalks, if you could catwalk your bike around the block? That was life right there, man.

That still catches eyes, doesn’t it? Someone did that in my neighborhood just cruising down the street front wheel straight up and everyone stopped and smiled…

Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Like, I mean, I go back to it. Like now I ride an e-bike and I’m older. But when the kids come down the block, you know, and they’re all wheelieing. I’m the first guy like yo, that’s the civil unrest I’m about, you know what I mean? I’m like, we are having fun, you know, taking the streets and nobody’s hurting anybody. And that’s what I grew up on right there man was riding your bike all day. And just like go on adventures. That was the first thing. One summer my parents both worked. So like, my rules were, you know, just be home by the time the streetlights come on. And man, we would go take our bikes. We thought we were probably going to the other side of the world. But we were just going a couple of miles. That was where I first started to recognize like stepping outside my comfort zone. Absolutely.

How has the e-bike changed things for you? Obviously, with regards to your business, but also do you see this as the future for getting around cities?

Listen, lately, I’ve been able to weirdly predict some weird stuff. And people are going to be mad at me. I’m going to give bikes another three years. I’m going to give standard bikes, another three years of being the predominant bike. Okay, like what, what I mean by that is, like, I say three years, the majority of people will be coming into a bike shop looking for some type of an e-bike. So what changed my world? Because I had to open up to when it was first off, you know, like, I okay, I’m the guy who started Slow Roll. So like, I was riding my bike 40 miles a day, I thought I was like, that’s the lazy man’s bike. But, once I allowed my mind to be open to that to the experiences that it creates for everybody. That’s a different one for everybody. It just changed my life, man. Like last year, I got 3,000 miles in last summer. Well, you know what I mean. In a summer? In the pandemic? That’s insane. And I’m not saying I would have never done that. But I definitely wouldn’t have done that the way I did it last summer, which was wake up in the morning and just decided to go ride 100 miles.

And do you think these subsidy proposals such as the E-Bike Act will make that happen even sooner?

Oh ya. People come into the shop right now and they’re saying, have you heard about this credit that they’re going to give you for having electric stuff? I hear about it all the time. People are aware of it. And it’s because we’re pushing it. Detroit, once again, is making that information available to everybody. And so definitely, I mean let’s keep it real. We have a bike that sells for $1,500. We call it the stimulus bike. Okay. Because do you know how many people I’ve heard come in and say, I got my stimulus check today, and I’m buying this bike? Those were the stories when I knew we were moving the needle. Opening up an e-bike store in an affluent neighborhood, and selling e-bikes. You can do that. Anybody can do that. You open an e-bike store in an inner-city neighborhood, where people will literally need that bike for transportation, and they’re choosing at that moment. That’s when you know you’re making your move. Once again, moving the needle, you’re making change, you know.

What makes you kind of excited about the future of bicycles in America?

What makes me excited about the future of bicycles is technology. I’m a nerd, you know. So I’m falling on the e-bike technology right now. They’re making batteries lighter, last longer, and go faster. So I’m all about alternative transportation and seeing where that technology goes. I’m living on Jetsons time right now. I’m trying to get on a conveyor belt and have it take me somewhere.