Longtime S.F. bike company struggling
Firm finding its way amid tour, rental slowdown
A familyowned institution in San Francisco for nearly 20 years, Bay City Bike Rentals and Tours is back in business. Well, sort of.
Established in 2001, Bay City Bike expanded to five locations amid the city’s tourism boom, mostly in and around Fisherman’s Wharf. In 2011, it added five more locations through sister company, Parkwide Bike Rentals and Tours, including Golden Gate Park, the Marina and Union Square. Its tours ranged from short sightseeing trips to groups of 300 people pedaling 20 miles.
All of that came to a halt when San Francisco ordered residents to shelter in place in midMarch because of the coronavirus pandemic. Bay City Bike and Parkwide closed all 10 stores and laid off about 45 employees.
The mayor’s office gave permission for Bay City Bike to open one location on Bay Street under strict regulations on March 26. After weeks cobbling together a strategy that could comply with those rules, it started operating via online reservations last week.
Bay City Bike is no longer offering tours, concentrating instead on renting bikes to locals for essential exercise and errands. Customers sign a waiver online and provide height information, so the company can sanitize the proper bike and have it waiting outside the store.
Customers aren’t allowed indoors, but Andrew Foy, the general manager, goes outside, his face covered, to go over brakes, gears and safety rules before sending renters on their rides.
“We’ve found that people want to get out and do some
thing,” he said. “Sometimes when you’re running, there are a lot of people on the path or sidewalk. When you’re riding a bike in the street, it’s a little more isolated. It also allows you to see more, go farther and see new scenery.”
Foy said Bay City Bike is trying to secure a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan and other disaster help in hopes of reopening more of its rental shops and hiring back employees. But that program’s initial funding ran out, and Bay City, like many other small businesses, is waiting to see if Congress will pour more money into the forgivable loans that can be used to pay wages and other expenses.
Bay City Bike typically makes most of its annual income, enough to be a profitable business, between June and September, according to Foy. He said wouldbe tourists are already canceling reservations for those months. A fleet that includes scores of bikes at each location could be emptied by customers during the peak months, but the Bay Street location is lucky to have five renters a day now.
“No matter what, we know our business will not go back to normal, and we won’t rebound for at least a year, if that,” Foy said.
The bust for Bay City and other tourism businesses comes after a long boom. San Francisco tourism set a record in 2019 for the 10th straight year, with business and leisure visitors rising 1.4% to 26.2 million and spending jumping 2.7% to $10.2 billion, according to the city’s tourism bureau. Though its tech companies are worth billions, tourism is San Francisco’s biggest source of employment at 86,111 jobs. Joe D’Alessandro, CEO of San Francisco Travel, which publishes the local tourism figures, said in February that the “evolving coronavirus situation and other market conditions make 2020 a difficult year to project.”
“California is not going anywhere, and we’d like travelers to come here when they are good and ready,” Visit California CEO Caroline Beteta said. “We should keep this long view in mind in all outreach.”
Bay City Bike is trying to follow that advice. In the meantime, it’s providing neighbors a way to get outside and stretch their legs.
The company is offering rentals of its full fleet of city bikes, electric bikes, tandem bikes and bikes for children at a 50% discount through May 3. They have 20% discounts on gift certificates, and have even started a sale to unload some used bikes.
“We’re definitely not doing this to profit,” Foy said. “Until people are allowed to be traveling again, we won’t see the same volume that we did before. Whenever restrictions ease, I think people will want to get out. They probably won’t have the budget to get very far, but that doesn’t mean they can’t come into the city from San Jose or the East Bay and do something fun with their family.
“We’ll see a shift toward more local business. It’s actually kind of cool that this awful thing is forcing a shift to focusing on your backyard.”
Scarlette Tidy, a 28yearold freelance marketing consultant, hadn’t used Bay City Bike since her aunt was visiting several months ago. Wanting to get out of her studio apartment in the Tenderloin, Tidy turned back to the bike rental company Tuesday.
“I had a big week for work and needed to reset,” said Tidy, who rode along the waterfront by the wharf and up through the Marina and stopped at the Palace of Fine Arts for a few minutes before continuing past the Golden Gate Bridge and Legion of Honor. “I think it’s a smart way to offer services to people like me who are looking to get outside, but still want to keep the environment safe for myself and those around me. I love bike riding, and it really helped me turn my week around.
“Exercise is so important for our sanity, and with most gyms closed and all of my cycling studios closed, getting outside and on a bike was the best thing I could do for myself.”