browngw 

The local shops here in Southwestern Ontario have had a pretty tough time. One shop in our town of 7,000 recently closed, bought a new cargo van and outfitted it as a mobile shop. He seems to be happier and is getting lots of business from the "cyclists", those who ride but do not perform any maintenance or even cleaning themselves. Family folk don't call him to fix a flat. He still orders various brands of bikes including Kona and Felt.
In the neighbouring town of 15,000, the local shop is also an independent sporting goods retailer, think skates, hockey, baseball and Giant bikes. He is now carrying some ladies clothes and is a Purolator outlet. He exists on his ability to provide a full time experienced mechanic and his friendly demeanor. Everyone is welcome in the shop. He makes his stock purchases based on what he can sell, but will do his best to get what you want. My wife and I have bought 9 bikes in the last ten years, the last two being Ebikes from him and referred many more. He owns the property (was in the family) and has moved with the times as required. You can't argue with success.

J.Higgins 

You guys in the PNW got some great places to spend time (pubs and such).

noglider 

We're having a downward trend here in NYC, but what's shocking is how many we have left. If you google bike shops in NYC, the number and the dense proximity to each other is amazing. Sure, we have high population density, but we're also a cycling dense city now. I'm a little surprised because I grew up here but lived out of the state from 1987 through 2013. Coming back, there are more bikes, more cyclists, and more bike shops than when I lived here previously.

But the trend with shops is bad. For about 40 years, there was a NYC-only chain called Metro Bikes, owned by a guy named Bob something. He had about eight shops. Then a guy named Danny bought them (plus one or two independent shops) and called them Danny's Bikes. But only about two years later, Trek bought them, and they're Trek shops. But rumor has it that they'll be closing.

The shops tend to have varying styles. The one closest to me, Waterfront Bicycle Shop, owned by Christian, doesn't sell bikes. It's a tiny space. They do service, and they sell accessories and parts. It's on the Hudson River Greenway, so they do rentals, too. They're hanging in well, as far as I can tell.

Ballenxj

A little noglider rhyming poetry?

noglider 

I didn't even notice that.

Ballenxj

Subconsciously I'll bet you did.

rossiny

i think him having the property in his family is major. But from what you describe he makes everyone welcome and is experienced also..

crank_addict

The Tampa, FL Flying Fish bike store had been open since 1962, initially as Dud Thames bicycle shop.

In 2013, the owner filed a lawsuit against Giant Bicycle, Inc., a California company that had partnered with the store for years. The suit said a Giant Bicycle representative convinced the owner to order $120,000 worth of the company’s bikes and that Giant Bicycle would help market the bikes for sale, like similar arrangements in the past.

Soon after the bikes were bought, Giant Bicycle opened a store less than two miles away from Flying Fish Bikes, putting them in direct competition. Most of the bikes weren’t sold, and Flying Fish sued for fraud. The case went to federal court.

Flying Fish won the case and the owner awarded more than $3 million by a jury in 2015.


https://www-tampabay-com.cdn.ampproj...tore-closes%2F

Ballenxj

Sounds like his winning the suit is what needed to happen.

CycleNutz

Portland has exceptionally high property taxes. Is it any wonder, really, that shops all over are closing?

droppedandlost 

Henry James is gone now too

J.Higgins 

mstateglfr 

Wow, thats a hit to the modern US steel frame market.
They seemed to have put a lot of their energy into True Temper, so when that went to hell a few years ago, maybe its been an ongoing struggle to recover.
...but they really were all in on Columbus since.

The stock of small bits had heavily disappeared in recent years too, with no plans to re-stock. Cable guides, some lug options, brazeons, etc were all really reduced.

repechage

I think

BRINGHELI

is still around.

repechage

Truetemper pulled the rug out on short notice. Hank sold off a bit later, he had been doing it for a long time. I recall way way way back when he brought wax patterns in to drum up interest at the shop I worked for.

NatusEstInSuht

In the Vancouver area, shops that concentrate on servicing, repairReply s and maintenance seem to do well.

gugie 

Bike shops go out of business when they have a business model that doesn't work. The fact is that most bike shops don't have a decent business plan. As for Portland:

- Henry James was all in on True Temper. Their proprietary lugs were superior quality, but it's a small volume business to start with. No True Temper, no Henry James
- Rivelo was a hobby job for the owner. He cashed out his SF house to move to Portland and open the shop. I think he was ready to retire anyways.
- Why Norther decided that a relatively large brick and mortar store would support a framebuilding operation I'll never know, and the co-owner that did the buying bought what he liked, not necessarily what sold. Walk in repairs were supposed to be part of the revenue stream, but they never really liked or wanted to do them.
- UBI expanded to Portland when the Williams-Vancouver corridor was inexpensive. Rising rents made it untenable. I feel lucky to have attended the framebuilding class there when it was still going strong
- Velocult's business woes have been detailed at length here, jyl knows as much or more than anybody, but I do remember my first visit when I moved to Portland in 2014. All those museum type bikesup in the rafters seemed to me to be a lot of money tied up doing nothing except drawing people in to buy a beer and stare up at them. It didn't seem like a bike shop, it was a bike cult (whoa!) I loved going there, but outside of the après-ride beer, it was hard to find something to spend my money on (and I tried to give them some). They had some cool patches made, I bought a couple, then they were gone. I heard that early on it was a tourist destination. Where was the merch?
- Universal is moving (someday) to Beaverton at the site of a quasi-antique store that never got going. It's not going away, the new location is larger, and I'd bet rent is higher per square foot in Portland. The monied growth in Portlandia is in that direction, with Nike and Intel not too far away.
- Breadwinner's coffee shop closed, but they bought Sugar Wheel Works, and as far as I know they're doing well.

Most bike shops are owner operated. They're a personality business. How many bike shops have been around for 20 years? 30? Even about 40 years ago when I was starting out as a wrench in an LBS I heard people saying that buying a bike shop is buying a job. The old adage about how to have a million dollars from a bike shop has been around at least since then.

The barriers to entry are fairly low. The people that get into the business because they love bikes are usually the ones that don't make much money.

gugie 

Trying to figure out where you're getting this info. From what I can find, property tax rate is about the same as Oklahoma City.

SurferRosa

Yeah, but OKC has an exceptionally high tax rate.

Did you know, saying, "ok, boomer" to an Oklahoman is getting confusing? Am I supposed to respond, "ok, Sooner" or get upset? <rimshot>

repechage

Note that True Temper withdrew before Henry James was bought and moved to Oregon.
they went Columbus as an alternative.
reasonable but possibly more competitive.
columbus also offered carbon forks- that will tie up capital that is more trendy.

I looked at their Facebook posts- if one scrolls back it shows a trail of specials way back into early 2019. I think they had made the decision then.

vintagebicycle

There's a few bike shops around this area but no good bike shops. They're all just selling department grade junk. The days of the old school bike shop with people who knew bikes seems to be a thing of the past.
Some of the older shops got pushed out of business by the big box stores, others got old and retired with no one to take over.
The problem just the same is the economy these days, working on bikes isn't big money, I'm not sure anyone could survive these days just selling a few bikes here and there and fixing flat tires and such.
Of course, many of the current shops won't even do that these days.
There seems to be two types of shops, those with department store bikes for bike shop prices, and those selling only $3500 and up road bikes. There's no middle ground, likely because that middle ground isn't profitable.
There were a few BMX only shops but most of them closed up as well now. I guess kids just can't convince their parents to spend $3000 on a 20" bike anymore.

When I was growing up, we had a dozen good shops in town, and they all did well, and you could go buy a decent road bike for $200-400 or so and kids bikes were cheap. Kids today don't seem to ride bikes, I can't recall the last time I saw a kid riding a bike around here. To make that worse, they put in bike lanes and then put up signs all over town saying 'No Bikes' to keep the kids from grinding on sidewalks, railings and steps.
When I was a kid, I didn't much care what kind of bike I rode, just so I had a bike and it got me where I was going and back. I had everything from banana seat muscle bikes to prewar balloon tire bikes to cheap '10 speeds'.

The neighborhood I live in these days is mostly young couples, most are in their late 20's or so. I picked up a lot of bikes a few weeks ago and in the lot were a few cheaper but clean old three speed Huffy and Sears bikes and a few low end newer mountain bikes. I asked one couple if they would like two bikes to ride for free, both told me they don't know how to ride a bike, they never learned. I find that with most kids around here these days too. They either don't know how, don't want to learn, or would simply rather sit home and play games on their phone. I also see that kids are in no hurry to get a driver's license when they get older either. Some never do, and this is an area where you need a car to get around. They're content with relying on their parents or Uber to get around. They buy everything online, including groceries, they only leave the house to go to work, and for that they call for a ride or carpool because they're 30 now and still can't drive a car or ride a bike.

When I was a kid in the 70's, I couldn't wait to get my license, I was driving long before I was old enough as well. I bought my first car when I was 12, had it fixed up and running by the time I turned 15. I had 4 motorcycles, 10 bicycles, a car, two trucks, and a Husqvarna 500 dirtbike.
These days all these kids have is a cell phone and $250 sneakers. I guess its no wonder the bike shop situation is what it is these days around here.

gugie 

Not sure about that, I remember doing a will call at Henry James for some tubing and True Temper was still producing. A quick search shows that True Temper announced they were getting out of the bicycle business in 2016. Henry James moved up from California to Portland well before that, I believe.

Framebuilder Supply started selling Columbus a few years ago. They're the bright spot in Portland. When Kirk Pacenti wanted to get out of the lug business he sold to Framebuilder. Doesn't make sense to have two companies selling the same commodity in the same town.