Bicycle sales pumped up, but supply chain is broken
May is National Cycling Month. This spring the sport is getting even more attention, since exercise is one of the few reasons people are leaving their homes during the coronavirus pandemic.
“It is certainly busy,” said Lou Kozar, owner of New Canaan Bicycles at 24 Cherry St.
Kozar’s store has bikes suitable for “triathlons and kids with training wheels and everything in between,” he said.
“Electric bikes are also selling,” he added.
Future business is not as promising as it may seem, however, as there are problems with the supply chain because most of the bicycles he sells come from Asia, he explained.
“It is sort of the feast before it gets very bleak,” he said as he worries about if his suppliers will have any stock in August and September.
Spring is always active, but it is “double now,” because people want to “get out and ride,” Kozar said.
Biking “fits in really well with (the) coronavirus. It works well, because you can do it at any time,” he said.
It is a natural social distancing activity, he said. “Most people don’t ride within six feet of another bike,” he explained, while “you can still talk.”
During a time when families are staying home, “people see it as an opportunity to get out of the house,” he added.
Not only are people buying bicycles, they are also “pulling bikes out of the garage” and want to have them fixed, he said.
How much is business up? “I haven’t really had time to analyze this,” he said. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable guessing.”
“It’s tough,” Kozar said, since people say to him, “it’s great for you,” because they realize the demand is up, he said.
He would be happier if he was not concerned about the supply chain being disrupted.
The coronavirus has slowed the importation of bikes, since China’s travel restrictions and stay-at-home orders have brought business activity in that country, with more than a billion people, nearly to a standstill.
“All of our supplies come from Asia,” with “98 percent of all supply
comes from Asia before coronavirus,” he said.
Even before the coronavirus, changed people’s lives around the world, “there was a trade war with China,” Kozar said, referring to the country’s bitter trade war with the United States.
The dispute has resulted in the United States imposing tariffs on more than $360 billion of Chinese goods, and China has retaliated by putting tariffs on more than $110 billion of United States products, according to BBC’s website.
Kozar hopes to be able to get parts to fix bikes.
“There is an always lots of repair in May as well, when people get the bike out of the
garage,” only to find deflated tires and dried out brake pads, he explained.
People discovering bicycling “is great” and he hopes “it is not just something you are doing while a pandemic is going on,” he said.
“You may see more kids riding, adults are riding more too,” but often the adults don’t ride around Waveny Park as the younger set does. They are less visible and more likely to wheel over to Pound Ridge, or other towns in the area, he said.
To make it easy for people to have bikes repaired, “we pickup and deliver all while keeping social distancing,” he said.
“People can actually park the bike in the driveway and they will pick it up,” he added.
Also, customers can buy and pick up a new bike outside the store, he added.