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As economy sours, local bike shops keep on peddling

Tribune photo by FRED BELLET

Suncoast Trailside Bicycles employee Brian Muttillo, left, works on a customer's bicycle as business owner Geoff Lanier finishes an order for customer Jacqueline Reyes of Lutz.

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By TED JACKOVICS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 10, 2009

TAMPA - Brad Diamond is happiest when he turns his commute between Lithia and the University of South Florida from a 45-minute trip into a 90-minute adventure.

Diamond, an assistant professor at USF's School of Music, alternates his commutes between driving his car and pedaling his $300, 18-speed bike he bought at a yard sale 20 years ago.

He's a role model for much that is popular about biking in Tampa Bay: Diamond gets plenty of exercise and spends little money doing it. "I even feel some sense of being a good citizen doing the green thing," he said.

While only a handful of people in Tampa Bay use their bikes to commute to work – it's not a bike-friendly place like Seattle, Portland, Or., or Madison, Wisc. – Diamond's enthusiasm for biking is shared by plenty of Tampa Bay residents.

The evidence might be found in the local bicycle shops. During a very poor economy, new retail stores are opening and others are expanding, the fledgling South West Florida Bicycle United Dealers group reports.

"The market is hungry for bicycling and new shops are opening to try and fulfill that need," said Alan Snel, director of local bicycle advocacy group SWFBUD, who bikes more than 12,000 miles a year on Tampa Bay-area roads. Tampa Bay appears to be bucking a national trend in bicycle specialty shops, which have declined from 6,195 storefronts in 2000 to 4,319 in January, according to the Gluskin Townley Group bicycle consulting firm in Lyndon Station, Wisc. That's an attrition of 31 percent.

Most shops have suffered from the recession to some degree, while some simply have not kept pace with changes in biking over the years. Technology advances have improved safety and performance of more costly bikes, and accessories and repair have become important business components, as big-box stores aggressively emphasize price rather than service on lower quality models.

Shops that fail to change with the times, such as stocking better safety equipment like LED lighting or reflective sidewall tires and offering superior maintenance, can fall behind, retail owners agree.

"At this point we are projecting a loss of around 10 percent of the store fronts that were in business the first of this year over the next five to six quarters, depending on when the recession hits bottom, and how high unemployment is over this time frame," said Jay Townley, a partner in the Wisconsin consulting group.

There is a corollary between unemployment above 7 percent and a drop off in bicycle sales, he said.

Bicycle sales nationwide average between 18 million and 19 million annually, more than cars in some years. No precise data is available on bike sales or shops that come and go in Tampa Bay.

But anecdotal accounts show positive signs compared with national trends for myriad reasons. The most significant for Tampa is the weather, which allows for year-round bicycling.

Among the local changes in recent months: Just Ride Bicycles is opening in Fish Hawk in May. Flying Fish Bikes in south Tampa opened a new store in Westchase.

Oliver's Cycle Sports in New Tampa moved three miles north on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard to a larger space near the Interstate 75 interchange. Trek Bicycle recently opened stores in south Tampa and Clearwater.

In St. Petersburg, Revolution Bicycles moved to a larger stand-alone building at Fourth Street and 30th Avenue. And Suncoast Trailside Bicycles opened in south Pasco County.

Bicycleshops.us lists nine specialty shops in Hillsborough County, three in Pasco and 24 in Pinellas.

"Surprisingly enough, so far in 2009 sales are up pretty significantly from last year this time," said Manny Mirabal, owner of University Bicycle Center in Tampa, which the Bicycle Retailer and Industry News ranks among the top 10 percent of shops nationwide in sales volume and customer satisfaction.

"The foot traffic is not the same. We are not getting as many people, but those we get are more committed to spending money on a bike or restoring one."

Mirabal said that includes patrons willing to spend from $1,500 to $2,000 for a good road bicycle. "We are getting a lot more of that," he said.

Why? Mirabal believes people are looking to get away from stress of the times through workouts, even if they worry about spending in this economy.

"I have noticed that because of the economy, people are not taking big vacations, like going to Hawaii for a week or to Europe for two weeks and instead are buying bicycles to go camping," said Geoff Lanier, who owns Suncoast Trailside Bicycles in Odessa.

David Luppino, who is opening Just Ride Bicycles in Riverview, said youngsters can get a good model Trek bike for $150, a brand that would start about $300 for an adult version. But he will stock bikes worth up to $8,000.

"It is a family-oriented market," Luppino said. "It's good for exercise, it's good for the family.

Diamond, the USF professor, likes to ride two hours a day, which would be tough to fit in given his job and the 90-minute round-trip commute by car.

So he alternates, going one way by car and the other direction by bike, then reversing his transportation mode each day. He takes a shower when he reaches campus, where he stores a change of clothes.

The ride can be nerve wracking because the routes are not particularly bicycle friendly, a key lament of the SWFBUD advocacy group. And a headwind can add a half-hour to the bike commute.

"But it cuts my fuel bill in half," Diamond said. "And the biggest thing is I love to ride a lot."

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817.

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