I am sitting here watching ice fall from the sky and I just got done riding my bike indoors on rollers for the gazillionith time this winter. Ugh.
One of our sales reps was in the shop the other day, and he was like, “You guys have survived one of the worst winters we’ve had in 25 years”, and I am really glad it’s almost over. The bike shop industry is pretty lame when it’s cold out. That being said, it was a great winter for fat biking. If you’re into that. I rode frozen trails this week and while it was awesome to get outside and ride, I am really looking forward to hot summer days when I can just ride my bike in cut offs and a tank top.
So, we got through December, and our new store front signage was completed, the holiday season was just not that great except for a few good days.
January came and with it, tons of snow and ice. We were lucky to have some custom wheel builds going on, a custom BMX build, and aside from that, we focused on re-doing some of the displays in the shop, as well as getting a gigantic graffiti piece up. Dominic worked on construction inside the shop every Monday, and finished 3 weeks early, despite a nagging back injury.
February was really good to us. It was like, we had this little break in the bad weather for a few days and people were coming out of the woodwork to get their bikes fixed or buy a new bike. We hit our record sales day in a snowstorm in Valentine’s Day! This last week Dominic sold 5 bikes in 2 days and we are really happy to be back in the flow of ordering, stocking up the shop, and keeping up with repair bikes.
Kona Bicycles are in the house! We’ll be ordering more of their entry level mountain bikes for the shop this month. We special ordered this bike for a customer who likes to travel to amazing downhill spots like Snow Shoe PA to shred.
We have some upcoming events we are really stoked about.
March 8th is our one year anniversary party! The shop is open at 10am – ? and we’re having a movie night. More info here on the Facebook event page. Join us!
April 3rd we are participating in the Cincinnati Bike Show at with UC BIke Kitchen. This is going to be really cool. We’ll have a booth and Dominic and our friend Mica are entering their bikes in, we’re also donating prizes. Once the flyer is done I’ll post the info on Facebook. For now, we know it will be at 6pm, Tangeman Hall at UC.
MAY IS BIKE MONTH AND IS ONLY TWO MONTHS AWAY!
– We’re hosting a kid’s day at the shop on May 6th. Owen, our awesome intern, will be assisting Dominic with this class that will include some basic maintenance tips, along with how to ride safely in the streets. The class is free and all kids are welcome!
– We’ll be hosting a Happy Hour during Bike to Work week but we aren’t sure about that date just yet. More info to come.
– Ride for Reading is happening again. I met with core volunteers from Mobo Bicycle Co-op, Wordplay, and Queen City Bike to get the ball rolling. Once the date is set, I will post it here. We want it to be bigger and better this year! Hoping to have TONS of riders and volunteers to make this event amazing.
Dominic and I officially opened the doors for business a year ago on 2/23. We want to thank everyone for supporting our little shop this past year and look forward to an even better year in 2014. You guys are awesome.
Let’s hope March goes out like a lamb….