Specialty bike shops hope to sell you on quality, service

Friday, March 31, 2023, Vol. 47, No. 14
By Lucas Hendrickson

You’ve compiled your list of reasons why you want to get back in the saddle of bicycle ridership. Could be for fitness, for recreation, or can you see the indentations of your death grip on your steering wheel as you “manage” your daily commute.

What’s next? Where do you go to educate yourself on the perfect rides for you and your family members, be they traditional bikes or e-bikes that are gaining functionality while coming down in price.

For years, consumer choice in the Midstate came down to big-box retail or departments within outdoor retailers such as Cumberland Transit, which has been serving the West End/Vanderbilt area for more than five decades.

These days, more specialty bike shops, featuring both sales and repairs under one roof, can tap into community knowledge and rider trends to best serve neighborhood customers.

Nashville native Austin Yates has been on the staff of Jefferson Street bike shop Green Fleet Bikes for more than five years and has seen the ups and downs of ridership firsthand, especially when the pandemic-driven rush on both bicycles and parts stretched inventories perilously thin.

“There was a jump during the pandemic, a clear, significant jump of people saying ‘I don’t want to be inside of my house and I want to be out on a bike’,” Yates says. “And that was hell time for us because there were no bikes to be sold, even though everyone wanted one.

“Three years after that, it’s mellowed out, but it’s still definitely on the uptake. People are still definitely wanting to be outside more and get away from their cars.”

Green Fleet opened its brick-and-mortar location in 2015, morphing out of owner Austin Bauman’s original Green Fleet Messengers courier company, and together with East Nashville sister store Shelby Ave. Bicycle Co., offers not only bikes, parts and safety gear for sale, but also a fleet of seven-speed city cruiser bikes for rent for $45 per day.

The company also serves as a hub for community groups organizing their own group rides, plus offers its own Music City Bike Tour guided route March through November.

Yates recognizes Green Fleet’s customer base as being on the experienced end of the casual ride scope rather than hard core athletes looking for the latest and greatest advances in bike tech.

“It’s usually commuting, greenway and fitness and leisure riding,” he says. “We don’t do a lot of, you know, sport and off-road or even cross-country endurance, stuff like that. We usually cater to the people who are gonna be in the shop once or twice a week.”

Yates says there’s one crucial component for riders who are choosing a bike they’re going to enjoy as opposed to letting it sit unused in their garage.

“Sizing is the first thing. But when it comes to sizing it’s hard to do that online. So if you don’t know what bike you’re supposed to be riding, you should probably definitely come into a shop, ride the bike, talk to the mechanics on hand, because they’ll help you size up your seat post and look at you and make sure you’re on the right bike that you want.”

Cumberland Transit bike sales specialist Charles DuPont echoes Yates’ advice when it comes to bike sizing, along with spending a little more upfront when it comes to buying a bike you’re going to use for the long haul.

“I tell people, either buy a bike here or buy a bike at another local bike shop … just get a bike from a reputable store from a reputable brand. Because those [big box retail] bikes, all the componentry is like made in China and it can’t really be replaced when it breaks,” DuPont says.

“‘Buy once, cry once’ is something that I tell everybody. Spend $650 on your bike once, spend that extra $300 and over a two-year period, you’re going to end up spending less money on your bike than you would if you were just spending $350 up front.”

Both Yates and DuPont extolled the virtues of their own bicycle use for commuting, rather simply for recreation.

“Just being in the city, like I can rip and run around the city without having to worry about parking or worrying about cars even sometimes,” Yates says. “I can move a lot more easily than a four-wheel vehicle. But it does help to have a four-wheel vehicle if you wanna not bike 30 miles and be sweaty.”

DuPont goes even farther in tips he’d give people looking to make bike commuting a bigger part of their transportation mix. “Tip No. 1, wear bright colors and get a bunch of flashing lights,” DuPont laughs. “Tip No. 2, act like a car. I always tell people that are riding on the road for the first time, just act like a car and then cars will know what to do with you.

“If you’re like weaving and whipping through things and running stop lights and things, cars are all freaked out, and then everyone gets angry, and then you could get yourself in some sticky situations. So I just say act like a car.

“Third, be ready for weather, but then again, I enjoy riding in the rain, it’s kinda fun.”

The promise of e-bikes becoming more prevalent in Nashville might be aided by a resolution in front of Metro Council that would direct $1 million in federal COVID funds toward rebates for e-bike purchases. (The bill will next be up for review at the April 4 council meeting.)

The subsidy, if approved, would be available for people earning below 80% of the area median income for Nashville/Davidson County, and have a base level rebate of up to $300 for an e-bike or $500 for an e-cargo bike.

Those potential financial incentives, along with the availability of docked electric pedal-assist bikes (currently supplied by BCycle) for public use, could explode the popularity of e-bikes throughout the city, DuPont says. “I love e-bikes because it just opens biking up to people that otherwise wouldn’t have had those doors open to them.”

However, Yates cautions those riders who already own bikes and are looking at various new e-bike conversion kits to really do their research before adding things onto their current rides.

“What a lot of people are usually looking to do whenever they think about an e-bike is turning their existing bike right into an electric bicycle,” he says. “That’s not usually recommended because if it’s a new bike, you’ll void your warranty, and most of the bikes aren’t set up to support the weight and like the torque that the e-bike modifications allow.”