Troy Wolens who co-owns the Pioneer Cycle shop in Blaine says his store has never seen anything like it. Business was good, but with factories closed, deliveries of new bikes dropped. He says it’s hard to produce income, when there’s not a lot of product available to sell. “In the bicycle industry right now we have a serious amount of no bikes, we are literally out. if you look behind me there is literally nothing left,” Wolens said. “After 40 years in business this is the most empty we’ve ever been, we literally can’t order anything.”
As May ended, they had just a fraction of the bike inventory they usually have. Wolens calls it a perfect storm created by good spring weather and the pandemic.
“This year everything happened in March and we have the first nice March in 5 or 6 years, it was beautiful for March so it happened early.”
One thing they are not low on is bikes waiting for repairs. The store has seen a record number of repairs in the last two months. So many, they can’t keep up. They’re working on the backlog as fast as possible, but finding help is not easy.
“I can completely understand why my people who used to come in don’t want to. Everybody’s on a mask, everybody’s worried about it,” said Wolens. “I have so many repairs to do, its me and my son, a couple guys in the back, that’s all we got man. We’re trying to do the best we can.”
But now that factories here and overseas are ramping up again, this family-run store expects the bike supply to improve, even if the inventory will be spotty for a while.
“Like yesterday, I got 3 bikes: same model, all large bikes because they were on my back orders,” says co-owner Denise Wolens. “Today I got a double extra small of a different model. I don’t have a 20-inch girls bike or a boys bike.”
For some models, Denise says you may have to wait until later in the summer.
