Now what?
This is my local bike shop. Right now, it probably looks a lot like yours. It is littered with bikes and kit. In the back there’s an espresso machine. After rides (when there are rides) coffee and conversation is kindly doled out for free.
Like everything else in Europe, it is now closed. One thousand square feet of dormant, dark space. Before the spread of COVID 19 changed cycling and everything else, it and shops like it were already in peril, besieged by direct-to-consumer models that were pushing at the margins. What will happen when they eventually re-open? How many will pivot to a “shop-for-services” model, focusing on builds, tune-ups, fittings and aero measurements for athletes to augment sales and survive?
LBSs have been on the back foot for a while. We all know this. Part-sales like brakes, cassettes, chains, lubes, pedals, bar-tape, lights and batteries have already been lost to the Internet (partially because of how little shop floor space they occupy in physical stores). Bike sales aren’t far behind. Will COVID force their hand?
While the world watches COVID, the way cycling does business is forever changing. The impact stretches beyond LBSs. The 2020 race calendar looks to have started with Omloop and finished with Paris-Nice. This week, Le Col started selling kit for indoor rides; races (for the time being) have moved to Zwift. Companies are doubling-down on digital for some semblance of continuity.
Castelli - from one of the world’s worst COVID regions - connected with their mailing list Friday in very plain speak with a discount code and an acknowledgement of the current pandemic. “Right now feels like the worst headwind or the biggest climb we’ve ever faced. And the end isn’t just around the next bend,” the company said. Small shops, builders and behemoth brands the world over followed suit, discussing how closures will change how they operate.
Cycling faces some real risks in the current context. Small races will be cancelled and their long-term viability possibly jeopardized. Riders won’t be motivated to train (what for?); ride volume in general will decrease affecting kit designers. And on it goes.
In 2018, we interviewed Eric Min, the CEO of Zwift, on his platform as a vehicle for safer cycling. While few would have predicted it, even him, virtual rides are now a key lifeline; a reminder of how important cycling is for so many. It is a hobby, a passion and a vital part of our (social)lives.
Every climb has a descent, every sprint, a finish. I have a mountain of kit to write about for this blog, but in the current environment, staying healthy and staying inside are more important. COVID means changes for bike shops, businesses and cycling in general. This too shall pass. But for LBSs already facing headwinds, it just might be the domino that was needed to rethink their model entirely.