Broken chain

The sales floor at Bike King, typically filled with Trek bicycles and parts galore, is nearly empty. A single bicycle sits in a rack. Wall shelving has a few bike tube options, and some shirts and riding gloves hang on a clothing rack. A few customers wheel their own machines in for owner Ron Asteak to service, when he notes that “the same scene is playing out all over the country.” Bike demand during the COVID-19 pandemic shot up so much that the supply is way down.

Bike King shut down with the rest of the non-box retail world on March 21. Though bike shops were deemed essential for repairs and services by Gov. Phil Murphy three days later, Asteak kept the shop closed through April. Once he opened, the first couple weeks in May, he said, “were like a giant vacuum cleaner.”

Two-hundred and fifty bikes were sucked up in 10 days by customers, many of whom had traveled to Clinton to see him because, by that time, their local shops were either still closed or out of inventory.

“That’s like a six-month supply. It’s unusual for someone to come from New York City, Philadelphia, Connecticut, from faraway places to buy bikes, and we weren’t thinking at the time when we were selling these that new product wouldn’t be coming in in May or June like they do every year,” Asteak said.

Up until last Monday, Asteak’s distributors were telling him to expect product in October. But as bicycle sales have gone up 400 percent during the pandemic, and manufacturing is lagging behind, they’re now telling him to expect new product in January.

“If it was just no bikes, it’s not a big deal, but now there’s no parts,” he explained. “Everyone who wanted to buy a new bike is looking to fix up something that’s been in the barn for the last 20 years,” he said.

Tenafly Bicycle Workshop owner Shephard Grinker riding trails with Noah Grinker in Alpine. – CLARK ADAMS PHOTOGRAPHY

To give the current boom some context, Kent Bicycles Chief Executive Officer Arnold Kamler told NJBIZ that the last year and a half has been the perfect storm for the already struggling bike business, which until recently had held steady at approximately 17 million sales per year for the past two decades. That number sounds big, but the population grew by nearly 50 million in that time, Kamler said.

The problems started with the announcement of tariffs on Chinese-made goods in September 2018, which applied to the more than 90 percent of U.S.-bound bicycles made in China and any U.S. made bike with Chinese parts. In September, it was 10 percent; and June 2019, it was 15 more. Factor in the longstanding 11 percent fee on buying bikes internationally and purchasers are stuck with a whopping 36 percent in fees before they can do anything with the bike, including selling it.

Then came COVID-19, which deeply affected China in the months before the widespread shutdowns in the U.S. It’s coincidence with Chinese New Year – which has expanded from a three-day holiday to often a nearly monthlong celebration in recent years – and Chinese manufacturing workers moving hundreds of miles inland from their coastal manufacturing facilities, with the addition of mandatory two-week quarantine measures for traveling workers, all caused an eight-week pause on manufacturing.

Meanwhile, vendors and bike shops expecting a slower year due to stay-at-home orders cut back on inventory, but were soon confronted with the biggest rush on bikes the industry had ever seen.

“When COVID came, we pulled back some of the orders, and our vendors did as well. But there was a rush on bikes, and with that in mind we brought in more than we ever had. And we crushed everything we could get,” said Jason Fenton, who owns Halter’s Cycles in Skillman and said he works largely with brands manufactured outside of China. “I called my vendors and I’d say, ‘whatever you have, I’ll take it.’ We had a line of people in front of the store a lot of days 20 people deep. We’re not letting people in the store [because] we can’t control the flow of people. [The next customer in line] would say ‘I’m interested in a mountain bike that’s $900’ and I’d take it outside, and he wouldn’t be interested but the guy behind him would say he wanted it and leave with it.”

Halter’s Cycles in Montgomergy. – MIKE HENASEY

Although Halter’s Cycles still has a healthy stock of performance bikes priced $1,000 and up, anything recreational is long gone, Fenton said.

“Kids stuff, cruisers, hybrids, entry level mountain bikes. They’re sold out everywhere, and people who would ordinarily only buy a $200 bike from a department store are coming in and buying a $1,000 bike because they’ve given up all their other options locally,” Fenton said, noting that although performance mountain bikes are available, their sales are also increasing due to the growth in mountain bike trails and infrastructure across New Jersey. Fenton’s turning inventory this year at a far greater rate than he’s seen in 20-plus years in business.

Kamler said Kent’s big box retail customers were selling 15,000 bicycles a day across the country before the supply was wiped out. Pre-COVID-19, the daily average was 6,000.

“People were going into Target and Walmart waiting for the employees to assemble the bikes they’d gotten in that day from the local distribution center. As soon as it hit the floor, they were queuing up to buy it,” according to Kamler.

For Pure Energy Cycling in Lambertville, the boom has opened the shop up to a whole new clientele. The high-end shop typically sees enthusiasts, but during the pandemic, weekend warrior types have been coming through the doors looking to level up.

Halter’s Cycles in Montgomergy. – MIKE HENASEY

“There are people who come saying ‘I usually only bike on the weekend but now I have more time because I work from home, so let’s talk about the next best thing.’ It’s been kind of a nice uptick for us. I think many shops have seen that, it’s not just been ‘let me buy this expensive bike because it’s what left’ but there’s also the person that through this pandemic it’s been a catalyst to upgrade sooner than later,” owner Arounkone Sananikone said.

Folks looking to combine fitness, fun, and social distancing are coming in from as far as three hours away; and when they can’t buy a new bike, they’re purchasing parts to upgrade old bikes, as Asteak pointed out.

Much of the shops’ business now is repairs. Fenton’s team did almost 100 repair jobs over a recent weekend, when they’d normally do around 30. Sananikone noted that 70 percent of the service his shop is doing today is no longer frequent riders doing preventative maintenance, it’s customers digging old bikes out of the basement and trying to resurrect them.

“It’s a challenging sourcing and logistics issue. Buying things from our vendors is tough because shops all over the country are panic buying their basic needs for repairs, and just getting it here is a challenge. FedEX, UPS, they’re juggling so many different deliveries, it’s like Christmas week for everybody,” Sananikone said.

“In the bike shop world, what used to take one or two days is now taking longer because logistically they’re overloaded themselves. That cascades to adding more timeline to repairs in addition to the difficulty to getting spare parts for conducting them,” Sananikone added, also noting that many shops are working with lean staffs.

Fenton highlighted a silver lining. Since the products have sold out from the bottom up—the cheapest bikes have gone the quickest; and in parts, first went the $20 tires, then the $25, then the $30, and so on—the average retail selling point at Halter’s Cycles has doubled with people desperate to access what’s available, and whether they initially wanted it or not leaves them with a better product than they originally asked for.

Jason Fenton riding at Six Mile Run in Somerset. – ADAM NAWROT

“Every bike that’s sold at a department store has a 90-day warranty. They’re designed to last 91 days, just past the point of warranty coverage. The majority of bikes you’ll find at bike shops will very comfortably last a decade or longer.

“Hopefully [spending more] will make people stick with the sport a little more because they’ve invested in it,” Fenton said.

Advances in bicycle technology in the last year alone in terms of shifting, braking, comfort and performance make riding a more enjoyable experience than some folks might remember, he noted; and advances in bicycle infrastructure in places like Jersey City and in parks, like the flow trails at Commons on the Whye Park in High Bridge, have made it more accessible and exciting.

Pure Energy Cycling founder Arounkone Sananikone, right, and colleague at their shop in Lambertville. – PURE ENERGY CYCLING

On the supply front, Kamler has some good news: At the Kent factory in China, production has been at normal levels for a couple of months now. But there’s a lag time between when the parts get produced and they show up to distributors, so Kamler estimates that big box stores should have bikes again when the season turns. Specialty bike shops will remain in a lengthy limbo, though, because they just don’t have as much buying power, and the lead time on popular parts brands like Shimano is longer.

For those who have managed to get a bike during the pandemic or those who’ve gotten back in the saddle of their old steed, life’s been a little sweeter, Trek found. Nearly two-thirds of the 1,004 Americans who responded to its April survey found that bike riding helps to relieve stress and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic, and one-third of bike owners turn to riding for mental health. Forty-one percent feel exercise is their most important motivation for getting on their bike these days; and 85 percent perceive cycling as a safer mode of transportation than public transportation while social distancing.

Trek’s findings also reveal that cycling’s popularity will likely abound, with 50 percent of respondents planning to ride their bike more post-pandemic.

“It’s been really nice to see that people are looking to bikes and nature and trails and cycling as a way to cope mentally and physically with arguably one of the scariest things that has happened to humankind and that’s refreshing,” Sananikone said. “And we’re definitely happy to see old faces and new faces take to biking, to renew their love for something that I love so much, which is riding a bike – it’s a sense of freedom and solidarity. If I could harness a silver lining, it’s that.”