In 2001, Josh begin his career as a bicycle entrepreneur with the development of the CELLO bicycle case, a system for converting a BOB Trailer into a bicycle shipping case. This project evolved into BikeTrailerShop.com in 2006 which was an instant hit and lead to BikeBagShop.com and BikeKidShop.com which were eventually all consolidated into BikeShopHub.com. In 2013 Josh moved this thriving business to Tucson.
In 2017 an outdated ecommerce platform had lead to an inability to adapt to the changing ecommerce and bicycle markets. Over the course of 2018 and 2019 Josh worked to correct this by pivoting the business into Campfire Cycling.
Josh grew up in Flagstaff, AZ getting into cycling at an early age, racing mountain bikes. Cycling has been a big part of his life ever since, driving ideas for business and bicycle advocacy. Now with two young kids, Josh doesn’t get out on as many bicycling adventures as he’d like. That said, Josh recently managed to get his whole family out on our first bicycle camping adventure.
Sad to See Summit Hut Go – August. 28, 2025
A few weeks ago we heard the news that Tucson’s local outdoor retailer, Summit Hut, was shutting down. After 55 years of playing a central role int the outdoor scene here, it was quite a shocker to learn that they were winding things down.
The owner explained in an Instagram post the challenges that lead to the decision:
“But the past few years brought a combination of pressures too great to overcome. Rising costs, brands selling direct, new big-box competition, the push for lower prices, shifts toward online shopping, and a changing customer base all played a part. Summit Hut ended up in a tough spot—too big to run super lean, but too small to compete with national chains. We looked at every possible option, but in the end it just wasn’t sustainable.”
Considering that we are in a similar space, this news of course lead to some reflection about our own opportunities and challenges. And one small opportunity was picking up some store fixtures (no mannequins for Campfire). We’re also looking into if anyone is working on plans to keep Tucson’s screening of the Banff film festival going.
Fun with 3-D Printers – August. 22, 2025
Pictured here are a couple of items that my son Jackson 3D printed. He bought a 3-D printer over a year ago and after some trials and tribulations with getting it running smoothly, he’s been starting to make some fun stuff with it.
The sword handle, that Jake mounted to the crescent wrench, came out really nicely, though it didn’t completely work as the blade that was supposed to extend out of it was fused together. Jake figured out this excellent way to repurpose it for bike mechanic knighthood.
Jackson also made a tool for the shop, a stopper for working on disc brake calipers. He’s got a few more tools to make for us as well. We’ve been brainstorming other things he might make for Campfire. Specialty brackets for mounting lights on racks could be a promising direction. Do you have any ideas for Jackson?
EV – August. 16, 2025
Last week I became the owner of an electric car. I’ve been interested in electric vehicles since watching the 2006 documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? I was convinced enough to buy myself a t-shirt with “Ask Me About Plug-In Hybrids” printed across it, hoping to spark conversations about the potential for an evolution to electric vehicle. Then I watched with intrigue as the electric vehicle market sprang to life.
It took awhile but cost and practicality finally converged for me to justify purchasing this 2019 Kia Niro EV. I made the decision in less then a week after realizing that a 30% tax credit on used electric cars would be expiring early, at the end of September, due to the Big, Beautiful Bill. So I did a rushed version of my usual research and grabbed this great little car from Brian over at Tucson Future Classics.
Here I am picking up my new ride, using the Bike Friday All-Packa that we have at the shop since I didn’t yet have a bike rack installed.
Breakfast & Hugs – August. 10, 2025
After our July hiatus, we’re back at it with breakfast by bike. Its always is so fun that our summer rides have some of our biggest turnouts. With not much going on in Tucson, those who are hunkered are ready for some socializing and adventure.
What is Jake Doing? – August. 04, 2025
In this week’s episode of What is Jake Doing, we watch as Jake closes in on the chair base with the bolt cutters. What exactly was he doing and how did it go? You’ll have to come down to the shop and ask Jake.
Cargo Bikes of Paris – July. 28, 2025
Surviving and thriving through Tucson summers is all about escapes to pools and mountains. But it can also be about finding things to entertain yourself indoors. We’ve gotten to know Tucson’s museums well through our many Tucson summers. So we were excited to learn about a new one that opened last October, Rolling Thru Time. We were very impressed by this massive collection of automobiles, tractors, fire trucks and all sorts of memorabilia including plenty of Schwinns, all with bits and pieces of Tucson’s past weaved in.
Rollin Through Time – A New Tucson Museum – July. 21, 2025
Wrapping up my Tidbits while on summer vacation series, I’m sharing the best of the cargo bikes I spotted while in Paris. We were lucky enough to conclude our vacation with 3 days of rambling around the city of love. It was grand to see how bicycle friendly a city Paris has become evidenced by all the great bicycle infrastructure and of course plenty of cool cargo bikes.
Visiting Alpkit’s Kingston Shop – July. 14, 2025
After our adventure in Scotland, we’ve been touring around London. We happened to book a spot right next to AlpKit a British brand with its roots in Bikepacking bags. Alpkit has grown into a comprehensive bikepacking brand with their own line of bikes, Sonder, that produces clothing, camping gear and bikepacking bags sold through their 10 UK shops and ecommerce site. Looking around their shop, I was impressed by their repair area, routes area and community projects. There was plenty to be inspired by. Thanks Ruben for showing me around!
The Isle of Muck – July. 07, 2025
I’m off on our big summer trip, this one a big one to Scotland, London and Paris. My wife Melanie’s mom Pippa, who is from England, is with us and the kids and I are meeting much of her family for the first time along the way. We began on the Isle of Muck a remote island in the west of Scotland.
It is a wonderful, rugged place persisting on wool, fishing and tourism among other thing. Pippa’s sister Jenny is married to the owner of the island Lawrence MacCewan (now deceased). It was wonderful to experience this tight knit community for a short bit while they worked through the days challenges, shared stories and made the most of the very long summer days. We are pictured here at the high point of the island.
9th and Euclid Crossing – June. 30, 2025
I was stoked to take my first passage across Euclid on the new crossing hawk earlier this week. Riding down ninth is one of my favorite ways to get downtown especially when I want to escape the hustle and bustle of University. I’m always appreciative of new cycling infrastructure emerging even more so as a glimmer of hope in these trying times.
We made it to camp and so did the flag! – June. 23, 2025
This year’s Swift Campout had a bit smaller of a group then we are used to for our intermediate bikepacking trips. Usually our intermediate trips hit the sweet spot of what folks are looking for and sell out well before the trip. But this one was more intimate with just 12 of us frolicking on our bikes atop Mt. Lemmon. And while big groups have a fun party feel, with a smaller group, we really get to feel like we get to know the whole group.
A small achievement of the trip was finally getting our Swift Campout flag to camp. On the first year, I misplaced it while getting ready, last year the flag made it to camp but we didn’t with our thunderstorm bailout. But the third year was the charm. Cayce propped his Tidbit famous bike right under it unprompted for this perfect photo opportunity and even was perfectly positioned in the background in the hammock lounge (I swear this wasn’t staged).
Overall we had another great trip, with many highlights. Andy showed us a great refinement to the Lemon-top route with some extra gravel and a perfect swoopy backroad decent into Sumer Haven. We had a posh Beyond Bread lunch at the fancy new lodge. With the relatively short route, we had plenty of chill time at camp complete with a few rounds of bocci ball and time to sip on the brews that Matt kindly donated from Dragoon Brewing. And when the sun set, Jake put together the above-documented, next-level, faux campfire. The only downside to the trip were the strong swirling winds that picked up in the night, keeping many of us up and ushering us quickly out of camp ahead of our normal leisurely pace. Ironically, the weather was calm and sunny when we arrived back at Windy Point for a pleasant wrap up to the adventure.
Mountain Escape Season – June. 16, 2025
Last weekend my family took our first escape into the mountains, driving up to Rustler Park in the Chiricaquas. This weekend Campfire is leading the Swift Campout up Mt. Lemmon. Its mountain escape season here in Tucson. If you wanna join us up on Mt. Lemmon, there is still room to join our Swift Campout!
Ecommerce and Bikepacking Worlds Colliding – June. 09, 2025
Last week I listened to my friend Andrew Youderian, the founder of the ecommerce community Ecommerce Fuel, interview Martina Brimmer, the founder of Swift Industries. We’ve been a Swift dealer for about 4 years now and have hosted the Swift Campouts for three years now. And I’ve been a part of the Ecommerce Fuel community for about 10 years now, so it was one of those worlds collide moments for me.
Have a listen to the interview if you’re interested in hearing about where ecommerce and bikepacking meet. Martina tells the story of some major evolutions within her business. And they talk quite a bit about the Swift Campout. And by the way, our Swift Campout is right around the corner and space is still available. Sign up now to join the fun.
And I’ll leave you with this photo of Jojo hiding out from the rain during last year’s early monsoon abbreviated Swift BailOut.
The Box is Right – June. 02, 2025
David and I don’t see many of our fine customers while working away in our ecommerce dungeon, but when we do, they’re usually coming down to pick out a bike box. Which means we get to ask them the always interesting question, “where are you headed?” This week’s contestants in “The Box is Right” have particularly interesting plans. Tommy and Laura are headed off for 10 weeks to ride the Peru Divide. Have a great time out there you two! And David and I are looking forward to meeting some of you all when its your turn to pick out a box for your big adventure.
And by the way, we do offer our extra bike boxes here as a free service as long as we have extras available which we generally do have. If we run out of extras, we do then charge for any bike boxes we purchase.
Nate & Cedar on Saturdays – May. 26, 2025
I caught this pic of Nate holding Cedar in his favorite snuggle hold the other day. Nate and Cedar have been helping out at the shop for a few months now on Saturdays which can get a bit hectic for just Ellie and Jake to manage. Come say hi some Saturday!
Home Office/Playroom Chaos – May. 19, 2025
I’m in the middle of setting up a new-to-me laptop and have to work stations setup in my home office. Looking around, made me chuckle as I realized the chaotic combination of our playroom and my home office complete with nail salon, 3-d printer, lego displays and much more. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and this picture looks like the inside of my brain sometimes…
Tout Terrain Singletrailer in the Shop! – May. 12, 2025
I was excited to see the first Tout Terrain Singletrailer come through the shop. This trailer, the one made famous by Danny Macaskill, is the ultimate bike child trailer. I imagined getting one when my kids were young but didn’t quite have the budget for it. We’ve been thinking that with their high price, that making them available for rental might be the way to go. Picking one up for a long weekend of bikepacking may be just the ticket for young families.
Swift Summer Campout 2025 Edition – May. 5, 2025
Its getting to be that time of year here in Tucson where the days are getting longer and hotter. Soon we’ll be in the thick of it, and looking for our summer escapes. Mt. Lemmon always beckon. Being up on Mt. Lemmon on a Saturday in June just feels like summer to me. And this year, we’ll be up there on a June Saturday again for another Swift Summer Campout.
Have a look at Henley’s writeup on the first Swift summer campout we did two years ago. Last year’s campout was renamed the bailout. But while we bailed before the camping part of the trip it was a wonderful, highly memorable day of getting soaked with our friends on Mt. Lemmon with the first thunderstorm of the season arriving around two weeks earlier than usual. Here is Toby cruising through the tall pines about an hour before the sky opened up on us.
Wandering through my old haunts – April. 28, 2025
Last weekend I was up in Flagstaff celebrating my sister’s birthday and had a chance to head out for a ride. While out in Ft. Tuthill I decide to take the Highland trail headed south. I soon realized this was a connector trail out to Kachina Village where I grew up. I would have loved if this trail had existed when I was a kid. Riding through my old haunts and seeing my old neighborhood was a blast. And the whole ride was very reminiscent of my youth wandering and discovering (No route planning or GPS were involved). Here’s a pic of the house I grew up in.
Trevor’s Closet Black – April. 21, 2025
Last Friday the team circled up with Trevor and got caught up on all things Otso. Having been an Otso dealer for about a year now, we’ve become quite intimate with their impressive lineup of adventure ready bikes. But if anyone could fill us in on all the nitty gritty details it is Trevor. Trevor formerly worked for another of our favorite brands Surly and we know him for having a Surly color named after him, Trevor’s Closet Black.
Desert Survivors – April. 14, 2025
As David explained, we had an unexpectedly hot bikepacking trip last weekend. The day before the trip, we sent out an email warning folks that with these conditions, we no longer considered this an intermediate bikepacking trip, we were moving into the advanced zone. Given that these intermediate trips are ofter a “leveling-up” trip we wanted to make sure everyone who decided to persevere was ready for the challenge.
The first day was certainly a draining one. But our rugged group made the most of the day and everyone seemed to have a great time. Sunday was much nicer with a bit lower temps and a tailwind blowing us back to the car. Here we all are smiling after a successful, hot, windy, advanced overnighter.
Safe Travels Burger! – April. 07, 2025
With their upcoming hiatus, Burger will be missed sorely around here. Burger did an amazing job at establishing our new Sales/Ecom Support role, helping David and I churn through the daily ecommerce shipments to start the day and then transitioning up onto the sales floor to educate and inform our customers about all of the amazing bikepacking products we offer. Not only that, but Burger also put together an excellent documentation of the role and all of the key processes and flows to get efficiently through the day to give the next person a head start. But more than anything Burger’s kindness and enthusiasm was a joy to be around.
Thank you for the great work at Campfire, Burger!
