I wander the Sea Otter Festival Expo area looking for interesting new products that fall outside of the mold of manly mountain biking bling with big gnurly tires that dominate at this outdoor event, so for Sea Otter 2022 this Bluejay electric cruiser step-through bicycle nicely appointed with racks and a sidecar caught my attention, and of course I had to learn more.

Besides the bikes of Sea Otter, I’m especially interested in the people of Sea Otter. In this photo, Bluejay CEO Jennifer Cohen Bogan stands behind the bike she designed from her office in Marin County, California, and her backstory fascinated me.M

Many bike industry people are bike nerds. People like me, and people like many of you who read Cyclelicious. Maybe they were athletes, or they love outdoor activities, or they have a proclivity for mechanical gizmos and googags.

Ms Bogan took a different path. She was a marketing executive in beauty , fashion, and cosmetic businesses. She took time off to spend time with her children when she saw families riding electric bicycles around town. She tried these bikes and loved their ease of use, but disliked their looks.

She started Bluejay to create functional yet on-trend electric bicycles. Their display at Sea Otter evokes picnic rides and family getaways.

If you’re at Sea Otter, I invite you to find their booth not far from Dippin Dots cart. Bluejay began in 2018 and, like many outdoor businesses, sold bikes like crazy during the first eighteen months of the pandemic. They’re building out their dealer network, or you can buy online and have a bike shipped to a shop for assembly.

For more from Sea Otter 2022, I invite you to follow me on Twitter.