{"id":25,"date":"2026-05-10T14:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T14:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cambridgemovinghub.com\/?p=25"},"modified":"2026-05-10T14:05:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T14:05:00","slug":"bell-tolls-for-bicycle-belle-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cambridgemovinghub.com\/?p=25","title":{"rendered":"Bell tolls for Bicycle Belle"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Bicycle Belle owner Carice Reddien said she\u2019s closing her pioneering bicycle store after accomplishing many of her goals. Reddien\u2019s store has been a fixture for 13 years at the junction of Beacon and Oxford streets on the Somerville\/Cambridge city line near Porter Square.<\/p>\n

Read more Lesley University faculty launch two-day strike<\/a><\/p>\n

Interviewed at the store on Wednesday, Reddien said running a small business was hard with three children in elementary and middle school, and that there were now plenty of local options for\u00a0 cargo and e-bikes. \u201cI feel like I need to be available for my family,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

From the start, Bicycle Belle was not your typical bike shop. Reddien didn\u2019t sell recreational or racing bicycles. No, she aimed for urban utility, offering practical e-bikes, cargo loaders and extended frame rides that could comfortably and safely seat kids for their trips to and from school. The store also encouraged women to bicycle.<\/p>\n

Reddien\u2019s championing of cargo and e-bikes made her early to the micromobility market, which now also includes hoverboards and e-scooters in addition to throngs of \u201cacoustic\u201d (not electric) cyclists. Her store became a go-to for Dutch-style \u201cbakfiets\u201d (family cargo bikes) and was one of the only local retailers importing them. Reddien also started a blog, \u201cBiking in Heels,\u201d about the challenges and rewards of year-round urban biking.<\/p>\n

Back then, \u201cit felt like I knew every cargo bike in the city by sight, and I couldn\u2019t go to a playground without someone telling me how much they loved their bike,\u201d Reddien wrote in an email to the Bicycle Belle community. \u201cI\u2019m so excited that there are so many families that have embraced cargo bikes that I don\u2019t know everyone now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reddien told Cambridge Day \u201cI feel like we accomplished a lot of things \u2014 especially with what this shop was trying to do in terms of normalizing city bikes, cargo bikes and e-bikes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more City council sees one way forward for Garden Street<\/a><\/p>\n

In particular, she aimed to make bicycles a viable replacement for a motor vehicle. Reddien acknowledges this was a higher bar for an \u201cacoustic\u201d bike, but the rise of e-bikes has closed the gap. \u201cWhen it\u2019s one of those days when it\u2019s 34 degrees and raining, and you also don\u2019t want to get a workout, it just removes that barrier that\u2019s it\u2019s a little too far to do \u2014 it\u2019s the difference between, \u2018Well, we could go there, but \u2026 \u2019 versus, \u2018Oh sure, we\u2019ll go.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

One Cambridge resident said Reddien had played a role in reducing car use in the city. \u201cBicycle Belle helped so many families make biking part of everyday life,\u201d said Christopher Cassa of Cambridge Bike Safety. \u201cBy specializing in larger bikes and cargo bikes, they helped people do everyday tasks like shopping, school drop-offs and family errands without owning a car or second car.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many in the local biking community were dismayed by the news that her store will close. At midday today, several patrons and cycling enthusiasts popped in to share their appreciation and gratitude. One brought her a bouquet and a gift bag.<\/p>\n

Reddien, previously a trained architect who lived in Europe, was a bicycle advocate who worked at the LiveableStreets Alliance before she opened Bicycle Belle, and says she may go back to it. The Belmont resident said \u201cI\u2019d like to do more activism. I just haven\u2019t had any bandwidth for that because I\u2019ve been doing a business.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shop will close August 1 and is offering deep deals on its inventory of electric bikes from Gazelle, Benno and Surly. All Urban Arrow Family Cargo bikes are $1,000 off and come with a free raincover or suncover. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more City of Cambridge proposes first billion-dollar budget<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bicycle Belle owner Carice Reddien said she\u2019s closing her pioneering bicycle store after accomplishing many of her goals. Reddien\u2019s store has been a fixture for 13 years at the junction of Beacon and Oxford streets on the Somerville\/Cambridge city line near Porter Square. Read more Lesley University faculty launch two-day strike Interviewed at the store […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,5],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bicycles","tag-business"],"yoast_head":"\nBell tolls for Bicycle Belle - Cambridge Moving Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cambridgemovinghub.com\/?p=25\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bell tolls for Bicycle Belle - Cambridge Moving Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bicycle Belle owner Carice Reddien said she\u2019s closing her pioneering bicycle store after accomplishing many of her goals. 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