‘Business for us is booming’
Local shops are servicing and selling more bicycles as residents return to the sport
GREENWICH — With the cancellation of many sporting events and closures and restrictions at health clubs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been a challenge for many people to keep in shape.
It turns out many residents headed to their garages and dusted off an item they may not have used for a while — their bikes.
Frank DeLio, owner of River Bicycles in Greenwich, said bike sales have surged this year. In May alone, his store showed its biggest growth, with “business was up 300 percent compared to normal,” he said.
“During the week, I would usually get 15 to 20 calls for bikes to be serviced. Then all of May, I was getting 40 to 50 calls a day,” said DeLio, a Port Chester, N.Y., resident who has owned River Bicycles since 2013.
According to a recent national survey commissioned by Trek Bicycles, 21 percent of adults who own a bike say they have been riding more since the COVID-19 crisis.
Though sales and service calls didn’t stay at that pace into summer, DeLio and his River Bicycles staff are still keeping busy.
“I have over 70 bikes that have to be repaired,” DeLio said. “A lot of the repairs I have are bikes that haven’t been touched in 10, 20, even 30 years.”
Indeed, cycling has helped many
people stay active during the coronavirus crisis.
“More people are coming out of bicycle riding retirement, because they want something to do and they want to stay active,” said Tom Lattarulo, River Bicycles assistant manager and head technician.
Demand for all types of bikes, including recreational and performance bikes, has increased the past several months. At River Bicycles, they sell Fuji, Raleigh, Norco, Diamondback and FELT brands.
Some bicycles are tough to come by these days, though, as companies are rushing to fill the increasing demands of consumers nationwide.
“A lot of brands don’t have the bikes,” DeLio said. “There’s not enough bikes out there to supply the demand. Fuji is the only company I know that is bringing products into the country every week. Of the six brands I deal with, Fuji is the only brand that is consistently supplying me. (In May), most of my business was sales. This month, it’s mostly repairs.”
There’s a line of bikes awaiting repairs at DeLio’s store. In addition, he rents the basement of a house across the street from his shop to store more bikes that need to be fixed.
“It’s been demanding, but we are here trying to serve our community and get everything rolling,” said DeLio, whose shop also offers a custom bike-fitting service. “We are trying to get everyone on their bikes as quickly as possible.
“It’s a lot, but we’re grateful and I’ll put my head down and keep on working,” he said. “Tom has been working so hard and I have been doing an average of 70 hours a week, almost seven days a week.”
Turning to cycling
According to the Trek national survey, 85 percent of people say cycling is a safer mode of transportation than public transportation, while focusing on social distancing. Ninety percent of the individuals surveyed listed biking among their top three forms of transportation when traveling five miles.
“People are falling in love with cycling again,” said Paul Levine, owner of Signature Cycles in Greenwich. “We are going to get a lot of cyclists that are new to cycling and old to cycling and it’s going to stick. You are not going to get 100 percent that will continue riding, but you are going to get a good percentage of people that will keep riding.”
Among other findings in the Trek national survey, 63 percent of the respondents believed bike riding helps to relieve stress anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Families are getting out there now,” Levine said. “Especially in this area, where it is so beautiful. There’s roads, gravel and trails. There’s also less cars on the road and so it’s safer. I always say cycling makes you feel like you are 9 years old again. It makes you feel free, you can social distance on a bike if you are riding by yourself. It is a freedom that we loved as a kid and we are revisiting it now as we get older.”
Levine’s Signature Cycles store follows a different model — the shop typically doesn’t stock bikes. It’s a custom bicycle fitting studio that designs custom bikes for recreational and high-level athletes.
“We work around the person’s body, putting them in space and athletic cycle posture and then we build the bike underneath them,” Levine said. “It’s a different way of looking at the bicycle. We match the bicycle to the person, not the person to the bicycle.”
During the COVID-19 crisis, “business for us is booming,” Levine said.
“We are getting new clients that typically wouldn’t come to us. Our service for our existing clients has been up, because people are spending more time riding,” he said.
More time for biking
With so many people working from home, “instead of riding on weekends, they are riding in mornings and nights, because they don’t do the commute to work anymore,” Levine said.
“We are seeing different types of bikes that need service and we are educating the clients. A lot of people want to do something athletic that gives them a sense of freedom. It’s also a great family activity.”
Pacific Cycling & Triathlon located on 984 High Ridge Road in Stamford sells bikes and accessories, while offering bike fitting and bike repair services.
“Business has been crazy, it’s like nothing that we’ve ever seen,” said Julie Gabay, co-owner and president of Pacific Cycling & Triathlon.
What’s made it especially challenging is the increased demand during the COVID-19 outbreak.
“We have completely run out of stock on things that we’d never, ever thought we’d run out of stock of,” Gabay said. “Things like tires, wheels. There’s not many 24-inch tubes or 20-inch kids bikes out there. Everything is in such great demand that it makes it difficult as a shop owner to forecast what you should buy and it’s frustrating for the customers.”
Most of the bicycles that were in stock at Pacific Cycling & Triathlon have been sold, and the store is waiting for new bikes that have been ordered to arrive.
“It’s a demand and supply issue, it’s more of a supply issue,” Gabay said. “In the beginning there was the coronavirus in China and they stopped production over there. Now there’s no gyms, there’s no camps, so everyone wants to get on a bike. I must get 10 or 15 calls a day asking for hybrid bikes.”
Inside the Pacific Cycling & Triathlon store is a Pacific Coffee Bar, which has been closed since the coronavirus surfaced. Among some of the brands of bikes that Pacific Cycling offers are Specialized, Cervelo, BMC Switzerland, FELT, Parlee and Scott.
“The bike companies are so overloaded with orders that they have back orders on back orders,” said Gabay, who noted the store’s repair service is also in high demand. “Luckily, we have the bikes we are known for. It’s a work in progress. This has been a learning experience.”
“People are falling in love with cycling again. We are going to get a lot of cyclists that are new to cycling and old to cycling and it’s going to stick”
Paul Levine, Signature Cycles owner