Quite some time ago Darius Salkunas, Emi Ubaldi and Wade Thorpe of The Freedom Machine bought Richmond Cyclery, which was founded and

previously owned by Grant Rice. They kept the store in its original Richmond Cyclery colours and fit out until this winter, when they took advantage of the slow season to close the store, gut it and reopen in The Freedom Machine’s corporate style.

During this process Bicycling Trade visited on three separate occasions, taking photos from the same positions so that you can see exactly what changed and how.

This was the view from the street in February 2014, two months before renovations began.Here’s the view that greeted customers as the walked in through the front door.This is looking back from the counter towards the street. The store has a more than double height front section with huge north facing windows that let in plenty of natural light.Blocking the shop window with plywood or paper during renovation is always a good idea to add the theatre and suspense of a grand unveiling.The store was completely stripped back to a bare shell.The walls were way too high to be painted via a ladder, so a hydraulic scissor lift was used.These signs made sure that no-one mistakenly thought that the store had closed for good and gave customers other options.Here’s how the store now presents to the street.Here’s the view from the front door. The ceiling tiles in the lower section were retained, but painted black.Just one sample of each helmet colour and style. No mountains of helmet boxes in sight.Clothing is displayed front on, with an ordered size range of each style from smallest to largest.Both of the high side walls have been used as billboards to convey TFM’s key messaging.If you read our March/April/May print edition story about TFM’s new Prahran store, you’ll recognise the green light that hang above the counter, which were salvaged from the old Pentridge Prison.More salvaged material, this time timber bike shelves, to which are bolted custom made stands.

Jonathan Cantwell is a man in a hurry. He talks fast, thinks fast and races bikes fast.

Jonathan is a full time pro road racer. When Bicycling Trade met him in late July He had just returned from the gruelling 2,205 km Tour of Qinghai Lake international cycling race in China which is raced over two weeks at altitudes ranging from 1,084 meters to a lung busting 3,858 metres.

He was only home in Australia for a few days before heading off to the USA to race in the USA Pro Cycling Challenge in Colorado.

But he’s also invested heavily into setting up a new company, Swift Carbon Australia, which consumes many of his remaining waking hours.

“Swift Carbon Australia got registered January 1,” Jonathan said. “The concept store opened on 15^th March 2014. We’re only about four months into trading.”

Swift is a new brand to Australia. Jonathan explained how he became involved with them.

“Throughout last year the brand kept popping up. I saw they were doing a lot of marketing and spending a lot of money globally. We’ve actually got a mutual friend in the bike industry when I used to work back in the day with Peter Teschner in 2006.

“I contacted Swift Carbon just to see what they were about because I was thinking long term about when my cycling career finishes. As everyone in the cycling world knows you’re on a one by one year contract and you never know what your direction is. Having a couple of kids and all the rest of it, for me I like to keep my options open.

“I wasn’t really sure what was happening with Saxo Bank, I knew they wanted to keep me, but I didn’t know if the team was going to fold or what was happening with that and I was talking to various teams.

“It was just coincidence that Mark Blewett (Swift Carbon founder and co-owner) and I got along like a house on fire. I saw some of his products and said, ‘You’re doing some really nice things.’ We spoke for a quite a few months about the brand and he was really committed for me to look after the brand inside of Australia, but I couldn’t really give him a solid answer until I knew what I was doing with my cycling career.

“Realistically I’m still a 100% cyclist. I still want to race in the pro division, I’ve still got quite a few years left in me I feel and you’re retired for a long time. Then one day Henk Vogels called me up. He’s my old director with Fly V Australia. He asked me what I was doing next year and I told him I was talking heavily with Saxo Bank still and a couple of other teams as well.

“He said Drapac was going pro Continental, this is the race program they’re going to do with the hope of 2016 going to the Tour de France. I thought this was good, to see that another Australian team is progressing through the ranks, because it gives the younger generation more hope to succeed in Europe. So as conversations rolled on with Henk and Jonathan Breekveldt (General Manager at Drapac Professional Cycling) I always had in the back of my mind about Swift Carbon because I knew they wanted to sponsor a European pro team, but just weren’t quite ready to commit to the massive budgets that the big Euro teams are asking for.”

Fortunately for Jonathan, he was able to roll his ‘retirement’ business and his next pro cycling contract into a single deal.

As Jonathan explained, “Swift Carbon said, ‘If you go to the Drapac team and you look after the bike distribution for us in Australia, we will sponsor the team for a three year period’

“I also signed a three year deal with Drapac, so for me at 32 years old it was a reassuring position to be in because there are not too many cyclists out there with a three year contract. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, having that job security is fantastic.”

That’s how Jonathan found himself simultaneously with a full time professional racing contract and a full time business. So far he seems to be managing to do both, plus raising a family.

“I’ve been married now eight years to Alana. Her full time job is to look after the kids when we’re away racing all around the world still just like every other pro cyclist, but she also loves being involved in the shop and has a big say with what’s going on here. I’ve got a young boy named Jayce. He’s just over three and I’ve got a young daughter called Ellysia. She’s 11 months old.

“It’s all about having good business sense, but also having the right people under you,” he said. “I’ve got three guys that work for me full time, I’ve got a full accounting department. We have a concept store here in a Melbourne. I’m originally from the Gold Coast but everyone knows how large the cycling fraternity here is and it’s just growing rapidly.

“We have three concept stores in South Africa already. So we had the basis, the principals of how we wanted the shop to look.

“Finding the location was probably the hardest thing for us. We knew which area we wanted to be in so for us it was a no brainer to be in the St Kilda Sea Baths. If we had a premium brand and we went and tucked ourselves around the corner in a back street it just wouldn’t have created any hype and it wouldn’t do our brand justice.”

Jonathan’s Drapac team connection has influenced the other products that he stocks.

“I try to stock most things that Drapac are sponsored by or aligned with. That’s what the sponsorship should be about.”

Jonathan is not in the store for standard opening hours.

“I am busy,” he said. “I’m flat out.

“I’ll get up. I’ll do my gym program. I’ll do all my training on the bike. It might vary from one hour to five hours. I guess my lifestyle is a lot more structured now than what it was when I was racing in Europe because time is the essence. My weekly and fortnightly rosters are all structured around training. My working in the shop will be structured around my training and racing.

“When I’m back in the country I’ll probably come in every second afternoon to make sure the shop is operating correctly. I like to do a lot of appointments only for me in particular. Obviously we’re open normal trading hours in the shop for day to day stuff but when people want to come in and buy a premium brand, such as buying a Ferrari you don’t want to just walk in and talk to someone on the floor, you want to have appointments. You want to have a coffee. You want to talk about absolutely everything inside the bike that goes into the manufacturing side of things, what happens behind closed doors. We do a lot of custom builds as well.

“Once we’ve built their bike and we’ve gone through the fitting process, I actually take them out on a one to one ride. We talk about their pedalling technique. We talk about their diet. We talk about training methods. So we don’t classify ourselves as a normal bike shop. We go beyond what everyone else is doing.”

Jonathan credits some of the reason for his success to a relatively hard upbrining.

“I grew up with just a mum and a brother,” he explained. “I was in the workforce when I was 15 years old. Mum always owned a few restaurants and cafes so I guess I got a few business principles off her at a young age.

“I think I grew up fast. I was living by myself when I was 16 ½ . I was in Europe when I was 17 ½ and always working because at the end of the day I didn’t have the luxury of two parents supporting my sporting career. If I didn’t make a dollar, I wouldn’t have survived.

“I was working at Lifecycle, Blair Stockwell’s shop, who is a very close friend of mine, back in 2000 up in Brisbane. Commuting from the Gold Coast to Brisbane five days a week was something that toughened me up a little bit as well. Then as I ventured back over to Europe, I decided to get my real estate licence. I obtained my real estate licence in 2007.

“Through 2006 and 2007 I was the General Manager for Teschner, when Teschner and Leggera merged. So that would gave me background in distribution and sales as well as business infrastructure and principals.

“I did that full time for about two years, but I realised that my career is being a cyclist. That’s when I went over to America self-funded and started riding for a little Californian team before I signed my first real pro contract with Jittery Joe’s in 2008 and then it just went onwards and upwards from there. I was with Fly-V in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

“I did sign with the Pegasus team that came to a close. That was one big hurdle for all the athletes that were involved in that fiasco. So there were tough times at the end of 2010. I continued to ride with Fly-V in 2011 and I again just took the opportunity when the door opened for Saxo Bank in 2012. It was a big thanks to Nick Gates the Australian who knew my ability as a cyclist.”

It was with Saxo Bank that Jonathan got the opportunity to ride both one day Classics and the 2012 Tour de France.

“I did two seasons with Saxo Bank and I probably was going to see myself staying there again for another year. They were going to offer me another year contract and I was just at that point where…and I do miss it, don’t get me wrong, I do miss not being there, watching things on TV.”

Swift Carbon’s concept store is located inside the historic St Kilda Sea BathsThe Sea Baths, which fell derelict after society gradually accepted public bathing on the beach, have been fully restored, and interestingly the 1920’s design includes Islamic architectural influences.Swift Carbon’s Team Drapac sponsorship features prominently in the store.The store has a minimalist design throughout.Swift Carbon mainly sell road and tri bikes, but are also looking to grow their MTB sales.This Australian designed Bio Bike is used for sizing customers for new bikes and for doing bike fits to optimise existing customers’ bikes.Jonathan Cantwell is juggling two full time careers simultaneously.

Jonathan Cantwell is a man in a hurry. He talks fast, thinks fast and races bikes fast.

Jonathan is a full time pro road racer. When Bicycling Trade met him in late July He had just returned from the gruelling 2,205 km Tour of Qinghai Lake international cycling race in China which is raced over two weeks at altitudes ranging from 1,084 meters to a lung busting 3,858 metres.

He was only home in Australia for a few days before heading off to the USA to race in the USA Pro Cycling Challenge in Colorado.

But he’s also invested heavily into setting up a new company, Swift Carbon Australia, which consumes many of his remaining waking hours.

“Swift Carbon Australia got registered January 1,” Jonathan said. “The concept store opened on 15^th March 2014. We’re only about four months into trading.”

Swift is a new brand to Australia. Jonathan explained how he became involved with them.

“Throughout last year the brand kept popping up. I saw they were doing a lot of marketing and spending a lot of money globally. We’ve actually got a mutual friend in the bike industry when I used to work back in the day with Peter Teschner in 2006.

“I contacted Swift Carbon just to see what they were about because I was thinking long term about when my cycling career finishes. As everyone in the cycling world knows you’re on a one by one year contract and you never know what your direction is. Having a couple of kids and all the rest of it, for me I like to keep my options open.

“I wasn’t really sure what was happening with Saxo Bank, I knew they wanted to keep me, but I didn’t know if the team was going to fold or what was happening with that and I was talking to various teams.

“It was just coincidence that Mark Blewett (Swift Carbon founder and co-owner) and I got along like a house on fire. I saw some of his products and said, ‘You’re doing some really nice things.’ We spoke for a quite a few months about the brand and he was really committed for me to look after the brand inside of Australia, but I couldn’t really give him a solid answer until I knew what I was doing with my cycling career.

“Realistically I’m still a 100% cyclist. I still want to race in the pro division, I’ve still got quite a few years left in me I feel and you’re retired for a long time. Then one day Henk Vogels called me up. He’s my old director with Fly V Australia. He asked me what I was doing next year and I told him I was talking heavily with Saxo Bank still and a couple of other teams as well.

“He said Drapac was going pro Continental, this is the race program they’re going to do with the hope of 2016 going to the Tour de France. I thought this was good, to see that another Australian team is progressing through the ranks, because it gives the younger generation more hope to succeed in Europe. So as conversations rolled on with Henk and Jonathan Breekveldt (General Manager at Drapac Professional Cycling) I always had in the back of my mind about Swift Carbon because I knew they wanted to sponsor a European pro team, but just weren’t quite ready to commit to the massive budgets that the big Euro teams are asking for.”

Fortunately for Jonathan, he was able to roll his ‘retirement’ business and his next pro cycling contract into a single deal.

As Jonathan explained, “Swift Carbon said, ‘If you go to the Drapac team and you look after the bike distribution for us in Australia, we will sponsor the team for a three year period’

“I also signed a three year deal with Drapac, so for me at 32 years old it was a reassuring position to be in because there are not too many cyclists out there with a three year contract. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, having that job security is fantastic.”

That’s how Jonathan found himself simultaneously with a full time professional racing contract and a full time business. So far he seems to be managing to do both, plus raising a family.

“I’ve been married now eight years to Alana. Her full time job is to look after the kids when we’re away racing all around the world still just like every other pro cyclist, but she also loves being involved in the shop and has a big say with what’s going on here. I’ve got a young boy named Jayce. He’s just over three and I’ve got a young daughter called Ellysia. She’s 11 months old.

“It’s all about having good business sense, but also having the right people under you,” he said. “I’ve got three guys that work for me full time, I’ve got a full accounting department. We have a concept store here in a Melbourne. I’m originally from the Gold Coast but everyone knows how large the cycling fraternity here is and it’s just growing rapidly.

“We have three concept stores in South Africa already. So we had the basis, the principals of how we wanted the shop to look.

“Finding the location was probably the hardest thing for us. We knew which area we wanted to be in so for us it was a no brainer to be in the St Kilda Sea Baths. If we had a premium brand and we went and tucked ourselves around the corner in a back street it just wouldn’t have created any hype and it wouldn’t do our brand justice.”

Jonathan’s Drapac team connection has influenced the other products that he stocks.

“I try to stock most things that Drapac are sponsored by or aligned with. That’s what the sponsorship should be about.”

Jonathan is not in the store for standard opening hours.

“I am busy,” he said. “I’m flat out.

“I’ll get up. I’ll do my gym program. I’ll do all my training on the bike. It might vary from one hour to five hours. I guess my lifestyle is a lot more structured now than what it was when I was racing in Europe because time is the essence. My weekly and fortnightly rosters are all structured around training. My working in the shop will be structured around my training and racing.

“When I’m back in the country I’ll probably come in every second afternoon to make sure the shop is operating correctly. I like to do a lot of appointments only for me in particular. Obviously we’re open normal trading hours in the shop for day to day stuff but when people want to come in and buy a premium brand, such as buying a Ferrari you don’t want to just walk in and talk to someone on the floor, you want to have appointments. You want to have a coffee. You want to talk about absolutely everything inside the bike that goes into the manufacturing side of things, what happens behind closed doors. We do a lot of custom builds as well.

“Once we’ve built their bike and we’ve gone through the fitting process, I actually take them out on a one to one ride. We talk about their pedalling technique. We talk about their diet. We talk about training methods. So we don’t classify ourselves as a normal bike shop. We go beyond what everyone else is doing.”

Jonathan credits some of the reason for his success to a relatively hard upbrining.

“I grew up with just a mum and a brother,” he explained. “I was in the workforce when I was 15 years old. Mum always owned a few restaurants and cafes so I guess I got a few business principles off her at a young age.

“I think I grew up fast. I was living by myself when I was 16 ½ . I was in Europe when I was 17 ½ and always working because at the end of the day I didn’t have the luxury of two parents supporting my sporting career. If I didn’t make a dollar, I wouldn’t have survived.

“I was working at Lifecycle, Blair Stockwell’s shop, who is a very close friend of mine, back in 2000 up in Brisbane. Commuting from the Gold Coast to Brisbane five days a week was something that toughened me up a little bit as well. Then as I ventured back over to Europe, I decided to get my real estate licence. I obtained my real estate licence in 2007.

“Through 2006 and 2007 I was the General Manager for Teschner, when Teschner and Leggera merged. So that would gave me background in distribution and sales as well as business infrastructure and principals.

“I did that full time for about two years, but I realised that my career is being a cyclist. That’s when I went over to America self-funded and started riding for a little Californian team before I signed my first real pro contract with Jittery Joe’s in 2008 and then it just went onwards and upwards from there. I was with Fly-V in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

“I did sign with the Pegasus team that came to a close. That was one big hurdle for all the athletes that were involved in that fiasco. So there were tough times at the end of 2010. I continued to ride with Fly-V in 2011 and I again just took the opportunity when the door opened for Saxo Bank in 2012. It was a big thanks to Nick Gates the Australian who knew my ability as a cyclist.”

It was with Saxo Bank that Jonathan got the opportunity to ride both one day Classics and the 2012 Tour de France.

“I did two seasons with Saxo Bank and I probably was going to see myself staying there again for another year. They were going to offer me another year contract and I was just at that point where…and I do miss it, don’t get me wrong, I do miss not being there, watching things on TV.”

Swift Carbon’s concept store is located inside the historic St Kilda Sea BathsThe Sea Baths, which fell derelict after society gradually accepted public bathing on the beach, have been fully restored, and interestingly the 1920’s design includes Islamic architectural influences.Swift Carbon’s Team Drapac sponsorship features prominently in the store.The store has a minimalist design throughout.Swift Carbon mainly sell road and tri bikes, but are also looking to grow their MTB sales.This Australian designed Bio Bike is used for sizing customers for new bikes and for doing bike fits to optimise existing customers’ bikes.Jonathan Cantwell is juggling two full time careers simultaneously.

Last May re ran a story and photos of Clarence Street Cyclery’s major renovation to the ground floor of their three level store, which is in the centre of Sydney.

The store consists of retail space on the ground floor, retail and office space in the basement level and workshop and storage space in the lower basement.

They experienced delays and extra expense because their building is heritage listed, so at the time David Cook said they’d be taking a breather before tackling the next level down.

However a combination of factors meant that they have quickly pushed on and completed the next level renovation in much less time than the ground floor took.

In particular, they closed their women’s store, which was previously in a separate shopfront, one door to the south. This meant that they not only needed to relocate the women’s department to the downstairs but had a shop full of high quality, like new fittings that they could reuse.

As these photos show, the results have been just as dramatic as the renovation upstairs.

Downlights highlight the bikes on display, while bright, semi recessed lights flood the mural with light. Like upstairs, they stripped the columns back to their original, century old finish to highlight the heritage nature of the building.

More bold artwork and a large full length mirror invite customers to use the change rooms that are conveniently located within the clothing section. The concealed stripping wall system is just as versatile as the more commonly seen slat wall, but has a cleaner appearance.

These stunning murals brighten the downstairs retail area, which has no windows or natural light. As you can see from the slightly ajar panel, the rear wall mural covers a large row of storage cupboards.

Budget bike retailer Reid Cycles is opening its fifth store on Sept 27^th in Adelaide.

Reid Cycles already has stores in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth.

Reid’s Adelaide store will be at 176a Pulteney Street and will be open seven days per week.

This is a relatively high rent, city centre location. It’s also in the most densely packed precinct for bike shops anywhere in South Australia.

Giant Adelaide is about 200 metres away across Hindmarsh Square. Super Elliotts which is over 100 years old and Megabike which is directly opposite, are just around the corner in Rundle Street. JT Cycles Adelaide is on the same side of Pulteney Street as the new Reid Cycles about 200 metres further south and a few blocks on from them around the corner is Adelaide’s largest bicycle store, Bicycle Express.

Bikes on Brunswick is the largest of several Melbourne bicycle stores to have recently closed. This store occupied one half of the building previously occupied by Brunswick Street Cycles. We wrote about the original store’s dramatic bankruptcy in our July 2012 edition. We then wrote about the new Bikes on Brunswick opening in our August 2012 edition.

By reducing the space and halving the rent, the new owners, who also owned St Kilda Cycles, were hoping they could succeed where the previous owners failed.

However they found that the area, which has about 12 bike shops within a one kilometre radius, was less profitable than St Kilda, so decided to close Bikes on Brunswick and focus on St Kilda Cycles.

Meanwhile Cecil Walker Cycles have also closed the doors of their Brunswick Street store for the last time on Wednesday 24^th September.

“Business is lousy for many retailers in Brunswick Street,” said owner Anthony Cramer, who will be consolidating the business back into their Elizabeth Street Melbourne city store.

“There have been restaurants in Brunswick Street closing and moving to Smith St where the rents are cheaper.”

Inside the Bikes on Brunswick Premises

If you read last month’s ‘How’s Business?’ you might remember reading Brad Prescott’s comments about how refitting their store had improved both business in general and customer traffic flow and functionality in particular.

With our curiosity level raised, Bicycling Trade visited Turramurra Cyclery a few weeks later to share with our readers the store is set up.

Turramurra Cyclery has gradually grown over the years, taking over the shops next door to now have a triple shop frontage.

Their tag line ‘The serious stuff’ lets customers know that they specialise in high end road and mountain bikes, although they still stock kids and family bikes.

Road and mountain bikes are now side by side.

Turramurra Cyclery is a Trek dealer offering Project One custom bikes and Trek’s Precision Fit service, but they don’t believe in the one brand concept store philosophy and also stock Giant, Pinarello, Willier and Yeti.

Perth Electric Bike Centre is Perth’s newest and largest ebike store. It’s the second store for Melbourne Electric Bicycles founders Baron Katranski and Nathan Reizer.

“We’ve just opened last week,” said Nathan, who has moved to Perth to set up and initially manage the store, which opened on Wednesday 8^th October.

“I’ll now be doing some hiring to staff it,” he continued. “Then we’ll come backwards and forwards (from Melbourne) on a regular basis.”

The store is on King Edward Road in Osborne Park which is in the north western suburbs, about half way between Perth’s city centre and Scarborough Beach.

Why start a second bike shop over 3,000 kilometres from your first?

“There doesn’t seem to be a big range of electric bikes in Perth. Most other states have half decent coverage now, but Perth is one that doesn’t. I think it ties into the fact that they haven’t changed the law yet to the 250 watt European standard that most other states have already done.” (This should be done by early 2015.)

“The new shop is a similar look to our Melbourne store, but it’s larger and can carry more bikes. It’s a double frontage rather than a single frontage (in Melbourne). Everyone that’s walked in so far has been very positive. They’ve seen nothing like this in Perth.”

The new shop will have about 40 models across 8-10 brands on display. It’s in a ‘bulky goods’ retail area that’s home to Office Works, Harvey Norman and all the other majors.

“We’re on the corner of Scarborough Beach Road, which is as close as you can get to St Kilda Road (a major arterial road and shopping strip, where their Melbourne store is located). We’re a destination store. We just need to be accessible. Parking, test riding and easy access to the city are important.”

Nathan is not ruling out further Australia-wide expansion.

“We’ll look at each city as they come about. We need to bed down each store as we do it, so it’s not something that’s going to happen in the next couple of months.

“At the moment the retail side is the part that we’re focusing on. That doesn’t mean that we won’t look at something (importing and wholesaling) at some point, but we’ve got our hands full at the moment.”

Omafiets, which means ‘Grandma Bike’ is a unique bike shop in the inner south western Sydney suburb of Marrickville that sells a mixture of new and used Dutch style bicycles.

The used bikes are imported from Holland specifically for sale through the shop and are generally higher priced than many new entry level bikes from the major Australian wholesalers.

They opened in November 2011 and share ownership and premises with Glow Worm Bikes

Clearly they’ve found a viable new market category because after several years of trading in a small, basic shop, they’re about to move to a premises in Redfern, which is much closer to the city centre. The new space is approximately 300 – 400 square metres. They’re starting to move on the weekend of 18^th October and should be fully operational in the new store by the end of November.

They’ll also be selling cargo bikes in the new store.

Meanwhile Glow Worm Bikes will be taking over the old Omafiets space to expand their electric bike retail wholesale and servicing business.

In our Sep/Oct/Nov 2013 print edition of Bicycling Trade we ran a story and photos from the opening night of the brand new Rapha Cycle Club Sydney.

This is an up market premises in Crown Street, Surry Hills which is just one kilometre to the south east of Sydney’s CBD.

The Cycle Club sells only Rapha clothing and accessories, plus coffee and other café food and drinks.

They launched with 10 staff but according to Cycle Club Manager, Danny Barnes, that number has since grown to 15. Clearly this new concept for Australia has worked as it has globally for Rapha, which has grown from zero to 26.5 million pounds (approx. Aus $48.5 million) in 2013 according to road.cc.

Most of these sales are via the internet, which sells the same products at the same premium prices as the Cycle Clubs which are scattered through fashionable cities around the world.

There are plans for another Cycle Club in Melbourne, but in the meantime, here’s a look inside Rapha Cycle Club Sydney.

Immediately inside the store entrance is a café area complete with inverted umbrellas which are used as creative light shades.

From the café area, customers mentally climb these famous mountains as they make their way up to the main clothing showroom area.

This small area of wall, immediately at the top of the stairs has been used for this creative display. The four small objects above the pants are hard cover cycling guidebooks Rapha have had published covering Barcelona, Copenhagen, London and Berlin respectively.

Framed photographs like these set the mood throughout the store. They’re also for sale for around $400 each.

This simple, elegant square section metal cube is perfect for selling gloves at around $80 per pair.

Rapha is not a bicycle shop, but there are about half a dozen classic bikes and frames on display throughout the store, adding atmosphere, not unlike many ‘surf shops’ that have perhaps one surf board for each 100 fashion garments on display.

At the rear of the upper level is the kitchen, which is just as tidy and carefully designed as the rest of the ‘Cycle Club’.

All the signage, right down to ‘Changing Room’ and ‘WC’ is strictly in accordance with Rapha’s house style of colours, design and fonts. The small script writing on the mirror reads, ‘Never concern yourself with what others are doing, think only of yourself and your preparation.’ – Gino Bartali.

A large proportion of the clothing on display is not technical cycling wear, but casual clothing, including this range under an immaculate early 1980’s Guerciotti.

Artistic attention to detail is everywhere to be seen from the Marco Pantani frosted window, through to four pieces of rough cut eucalypt wood and socks displayed in rustic crates.

If you don’t want pay $225 for a typical jersey or $395 for a typical cycling jacket at Rapha, then you can still buy a gift of $30 shaving cream or $15 soap. The tiny pricing signs are just like you see at jewellery stores.

This display looks more like a museum exhibit of rare artefacts. One example of each style of base layer garment is carefully displayed under glass, with a couple of information sheets entitled ‘Fine merino for all-day cycling comfort’ followed by a detailed explanation of the product and its uses, all written in ‘Raphaesque’ cultured English prose.

Major wholesaler SOLA Sport, whose brands include Bianchi, Peugeot, Netti and Fox racing shocks have now acquired two prominent Sydney bicycle stores.

As mentioned in a previous edition of Bicycling Trade, they have already acquired Atelier De Velo, which is on Clarence Street in the CBD and was founded in 2012 by two former Clarence St Cyclery employees, Chris Herron and Mike Shaw.

It’s located in the middle of a three block stretch with four bike shops in a row, all on the same side of the street, being Giant Sydney, Atelier De Velo, Clarence Street Cyclery and Jet Cycles.

More recently SOLA has acquired Le Spit Cyclery which was previously owned by Rodney Watts, who in turn took over from long-time owner Sabina Vetisch in April 2008.

It’s located on the main arterial road to the northern beaches of Sydney, Spit Road, in the up-market suburb of Mosman. Mosman itself has a population of 27,452 and a median house price of $2,400,000, so there’s no lack of people or money, but the area is very hilly and the streets are packed with vehicle traffic, making cycling challenging.

SOLA Sport CEO George Nisbet explained his strategy behind purchasing the store.

“Rodney’s lease was up for renewal and decided a year ago (calendar 2013) that he wanted to exit the IBD business after five years of working seven days per week and try something new,” George said.

“Rodney was unable to sell the business in the year that he had pending the end of his three year lease and so SOLA stepped up to acquire the store in July 2014 to secure our sales of Netti, Fox and Bianchi in that area.”

SOLA immediately undertook an extensive refurbishment of the shop, the results of which can be seen in the photos below. The store is now far brighter, contemporary and more open in its look and feel.

George continued, “The new store opened in August and we added Focus, BYK and Cervelo as great complimentary brands for the suburb. Whilst it is not SOLA’s direct strategy to acquire retail stores, when opportunities arise they are considered in terms of protecting the distribution of our brands and maintaining support for our customers.

“SOLA’s strategy is really simple, we believe in multi-brand stores to offer the consumer choice, in good locations like Mosman with the right brands, with good staff and customer service. We also want to maintain the identity of being known as ‘your local bicycle store’. That is why we kept the name, Le Spit Cyclery.

“The major bike brands now are Bianchi, Focus, Cervelo and BYK. The Store manager is Blake Nelson who is an outstanding retail manager with years of experience at Clarence Street Cycles and Atelier de Velo who is well supported by Matthew Brown who was previously the mechanic at Bike Addiction.”

Melbourne based Cycles Galleria have just opened a new store inside the headquarters of global cycling brand Knog’s design studio, located at 453 Church Street, Richmond.

According to a press release from Cycles Galleria, “This unique set-up gives Knog the opportunity to have best-practice merchandising, then test and iterate with customers engaging the brand right where the products are conceived.”

“The store offers exclusive brands such as Chrome (and more high profile names to come)

who do not usually sell in to other retailers.”

Bicycling Trade was unable to attend the launch, but would like to thank Sean Wilkinson for providing these photos from the night: 

One of Australia’s most enduring and successful professional cyclists is now looking forward to the next era in his business life.

After retiring well over a year ago, Stuart has settled back into his home town of Adelaide and enjoyed some non-pressured time with his wife and three children.

“I haven’t been doing much cycling these days,” Stuart said when Bicycling Trade spoke to him on 7^th October. “But I went out last week and did a couple of rides. I hadn’t touched the bike at all since last week, just a couple of rides with my son but apart from that it’s just been nice to have a good break from cycling and wake up and not have sore legs and not being out there hammering myself. I’ve been doing lots of other activities with the kids, chasing them around and playing footy and all the rest of it has kept me in shape enough. The kids are 11, seven and five now.

“It’s definitely been different. To be honest I’ve really enjoyed having a break from it. It was like being in a military training regime for 20 odd years. It’s been really hard. So I’ve absolutely loved the last 14 months just doing whatever. I don’t know what you classify ‘normal’ as but a normal father and being there for your kids and wife and not spending close to 200 days a year in a hotel, it’s just nice to be home.

“Adelaide is home and where our family and friends are and at the end of the day that’s what counts.”

But in the background, it hasn’t been all rest and relaxation for the O’Grady’s. They’ve been working on plans for several new businesses that all intertwine. 

Stuart O’Grady Cycling

The first business is perhaps the most obvious for a recently retired pro cyclist.

Stuart O’Grady Cycling is the name of Stuart’s new guided cycle tour business.

“It’s something we’ve been wanting to do for years. We contemplated taking groups to the classics like the Tour de France, but while I was still riding it would have been too distracting,” he said.

“Of course there’s lots of tour groups out there and you can pretty much find and do plenty of things but we thought we’d just keep the groups small and exclusive so you get quality time to meet everyone on the tour and ride with them. I guess it’s more about the experience.”

“Just staying in very nice accommodation with private dining so that night we can sit around after the ride and talk about how their day went and talk about anything the guests want to touch on. I can fill them in on some of my stories from the past 20 odd years. These tours are also inclusive so from the moment the guests arrive at the airport or where ever we are meeting, they don’t have to put their hand in their wallet again for the rest of the trip. That’s something I really wanted to push because I want people to come away and forget everything for that weekend and enjoy the ride and the experience and not have a care in the world.

“We’re doing one at the end of the November which will be our inaugural tour and that will just be a three day getaway tour. Then the Tour Down Under will be our first major racing event and again we’re going to keep it quite small with a maximum of 10 people.

“This is the maximum number we could get on a table for Legend’s Night dinner. We wanted each guest to be on the same table as myself so you could interact with them the entire time and they’re not just sitting at another table.” 

The Vélo Precinct

The next string to Stuart’s new business bow is unique. Adelaide’s city centre is famously surrounded by a ring of parklands, and perhaps the most picturesque section of this huge ring of parks is the East Parklands, which have been home to racing of all varieties.

For more than a century there was a horse racing course here, then the Formula One Grand Prix circuit, part of which now hosts the annual Clipsal 500 Supercars racing and for the rest of the year is used as a popular cycling criterium racing circuit.

In the middle of this precinct is an historic stone and timber grandstand dating back to the early horse racing days which will become The Vélo Precinct.

“When we arrived back in Australia, someone mentioned it was up for lease,” Stuart recalled. “We went and had a look at it and it ticked all the right boxes. We’ve leased the 500 square metres below the grandstand which we’re going to turn into three different ventures all rolled into one.

“There’s going to be a cycling centre that will have spin classes, along turbo trainers to do more specific training for the guys who are a little bit more serious.

“We’ll have a Biobike in there where we can do bike fitting to get people comfortable on their bikes, so they’re not complaining of sore backs and necks.

“In the middle will be a café function centre. We’ll have some memorabilia hanging around. Not too much, but some special items maybe a Paris-Roubaix bike hanging up one month and maybe an Olympic gold medal bike another.

“The third section will be a kids’ play centre. Just something for the younger kids and then the bigger kids can run around in the parkland and ride their bikes. If the mums want to come along and do a spin class they can put the kids in the play zone and relax for a bit.

“It’s all exciting. We’re going in partnership with a friend of mine who has a lot of experience in child care and kids play centres and I’ll be able to concentrate more on the cycling section.

“I’m really looking forward to it. It’s an incredible location in the city. It’s bike rider friendly, it’s people friendly and we are hoping to make a hub for a good healthy lifestyle and get the area energised again.

“We hope to open early next year. The aim will be for January, but that will depend a lot of a few building approvals because it is heritage and not just a run of the mill building.

“Adelaide City Council are in charge of it. They have been absolutely fantastic and have helped out in every way. The parklands people have been extremely supportive. At the end of the day, it’s about creating a healthy lifestyle and getting people moving.”

Stuart is quick to emphasise that whilst he’ll be selling some parts and accessories, he’s not planning to open a full bike shop.

“I’m really interested in the bike fitting, so of course we’ll have a few items there that people can get to make their position better, but we won’t be tackling the bike shops,” he said. “I will be doing the cycle fits myself. I’ve been doing quite a bit of research and had some instructions from guys who I’ve worked with at Biobike before and we’ve been working pretty hard at it already actually.

“I’ve been around the bike game for a long time and I’m pretty sure I’ve had a fairly good position my entire career so hopefully I can help people to get the best position for them and optimise their performance.

“My wife Anne-Marie is involved in the business. She’s been working really hard on the tours as well and on Victoria Park. She’s done the majority of work with the administration and the Council approvals. She’s been a very busy girl.”

Stuart O’Grady’s new cycling business headquarters has a long history. Horse racing started at Victoria Park in 1840, just four years after European settlement of South Australia and the heritage listed Victoria Park Grandstand dates back to the 1880’s.

Stuart O’Grady, photographed here the last time he rode the Herald Sun Tour in Victoria, is ready to start the next chapter of his life, after 20 years of top level bike racing.

There are so many new bike shops, shop upgrades, moves and closures going on in Brisbane and the Gold Coast at the moment that it’s hard to keep track of them all.

Those featured below are by no means an exhaustive list. You can also read about two more Brisbane businesses that have recently moved and upgraded their facilities in our soon to be published Dec/Jan/Feb print edition of Bicycling Trade. 

With so many new shops and upgrades in particular, you would think that business is booming in Queensland. But feedback from bicycle retailers during my recent week-long visit told another story.

The current Queensland state government has made significant public service redundancies since coming into power. Meanwhile the mining boom that powers a big part of Queensland’s economy is also slowing as commodity prices continue to fall.

These factors have combined to give Queensland Australia’s highest unemployment rate, at well above 6%, its highest level for 11 years.

So what is driving so much new investment in bicycle retailing? It may in part be a coincidental combination of individual circumstances, as particular retailers make independent decisions to move or expand in light of their own circumstances.

Bike Force Bundall Has Moved

Bike Force Bundall has now moved to Southport. Owner Bryce Flowers, who ran the business for four years at the previous location, has moved to a newly revamped retail centre about four months ago. He’s displaying the new Bike Force black yellow and white corporate logo, which is replacing their previous one that was on a green background.

New Owner, Big Expansion at Hola Cycles

Ben Hola took over what was previously Cycle Now Indooroopilly about six months ago and renamed it Hola Cycles. He’s also in the process of doubling the shop’s size having recently taken over the shop next door which is the right hand section in this photo. The new section was not yet open when we visited in early November.

If your motoring days go back to the 1970’s and 1980’s you’ll know that this attention grabbing promotional vehicle is a Mini Moke. These used to be made in Australia, based upon the same mechanicals as a Mini Minor.

Not All Good News

At least two stores have closed in recent months. John’s Cycles on the Gold Coast and Bike Sales on Albert, which was a Trek dealer in the centre of Brisbane’s CBD, have both closed.

At one stage there were four stores in Brisbane’s CBD. Now only one remains, Bike Obsession, which recently moved from Albert Street to Mary Street after its previous location was cleared for redevelopment.

John’s Cycles now empty premises on the Gold Coast Highway at Broadbeach.

Fusion Cycles Moves to Unique Inner City Space

Fusion Cycles is an upmarket store that has operated from several locations in the inner city suburb of Newstead, which is on the Brisbane River, just east of the CBD.

Owner Matt Easton found that as well as being a little cramped, his old premises suffered through a total lack of off street parking in an area where street parking is often fully occupied.

He thought it was important to stay on the same street and has managed to secure one of the few premises in the area that has off street customer parking. He says that he’s noticed an increase in ‘drop in’ customers and smaller impulse P&A sales since making the move.

Fusion Cycles is in the heart of an urban renewal area where old warehouses are being turned into residential apartments.

Customers are greeted by this dramatic view as they enter Fusion Cycles. The high vaulted ceiling and skylights add to its spacious feel. Owner Matt Easton is planning to add some wall murals in future.

This is one leg of the large ‘L’ shaped open workshop that is an integral part of the main shop space. Matt sees his workshop as a critical part of his business in the era of internet retailing.

Matt Easton is happy to have made the move to new premises, despite a tough retail environment.

Crankstar Does it Differently

Crankstar Bespoke Cyclery is owned and run by Steve George. It’s in a spacious premises on Annerley Road, Woolloongabba, which is an inner southern suburb of Brisbane, just across the river from the city centre and home of the famous Gabba cricket and football stadium.

Steve previously ran his business from a much smaller premises on a quieter street further out in the southern suburbs. There are three other large bike shops the same short stretch of this road and Stanley Street, from where much of the traffic flows into Annerley Road.

But Steve is not concerned because his business caters to its own niche.

He’s the only Rapha clothing retailer in Brisbane and also imports and sells an eclectic range of high end road frames which he custom builds into complete bikes. Their brands include Argonaut Cycles, Mosaic Cycles, Parlee, Independent Fabrication, Alchemy Bicycles (from the USA, no relation to the former Australian brand) and only one ‘mainstream’ brand, Focus.

They also hand build custom wheels, once again using components from high end, niche brands as well as the more mainstream.

This was not the best moment to photograph the exterior perhaps, but notice the three black panels with vertical slots beneath each window. This is very discreet bike parking which is filled on weekends with riders having a coffee before or after training rides.

Forget about the stuff for sale at floor level… any bike enthusiast over 40 will have their eye drawn to the iconic collection of bikes from past decades that looks down on them from above.

Rapha sells most of their clothing online, but supplies to a very limited selection of ‘Retail Partners’, just one in each of Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane along with their company owned ‘Cycle Club’ in Sydney.

Crankstar’s front shop area is as much a café as a bike store, with most of the space devoted to this well set up commercial kitchen plus dining tables and chairs. The venue is also used for private functions.

Here’s a great way of displaying valuable items, without risk of damaging them.

Everything about this display is saying, ‘These bicycle frames are works of art.’ So the customer will expect to be paying accordingly.

Step through to the rear and you find the workshop which has more of a ‘man cave’ feel.

There was no special clean-up of the shop or workshop prior to these photos being taken. Steve George likes to keep things tidy.

Bicycles and Motorcycles Side By Side

Pro Honda is one of Brisbane’s top motorcycle dealerships. It’s also the oldest Honda dealer, established around 30 years ago. The same family owned company also owns Pro Motorcycles on the Sunshine Coast about an hour north of Brisbane, which sells Honda and KTM.

In what appears to be an emerging trend amongst motorcycle companies, they recently decided to branch out into bicycles and established ProLife.

Jamie ‘Jay’ Cox is managing the brand new store, but already has had 20 years bicycle industry experience across both Australia and the UK.

He’s previously worked at Australia’s largest Giant dealer, Ivanhoe Cycles so it’s not surprising that ProLife has gone 100% Giant, to start with at least, for their bicycle supplier. 

Pro Honda and Giant ProLife have an imposing frontage onto Ipswich Road, which is one of the main arterial roads radiating out from the Brisbane CBD.

Both stores share the same main entrance. Turn right for bicycles, straight ahead for motorcycles. There’s a much wider opening between the two stores out of shot to the left of this picture.

ProLife has invested heavily in stock, carrying a full range of family, road and mountain bikes.

Jay Cox is enjoying the challenge of creating a new bike shop from scratch.

Yellow Jersey One Year On

Last year we attended the opening of the second Yellow Jersey store. Just click on this link to see photos of the store from that occasion: http://bicyclingaustralia.com.au/2013/10/troy-opens-second-yellow-jersey

Yellow Jersey is a very large store and Trek dealer in a prime location, just a few doors down from Brisbane’s busiest bike shop, Planet Cycles, whose biggest brand is Specialized.

Revisiting one year after the opening, the store is looking just as neat and well presented, with perhaps 25% more stock on the floor.

One of the main recent additions has been an Assos point of sale wall display.

Yellow Jersey’s owner Troy Dobinson says that this is the first Assos designed and supplied ‘Standard Dealer Wall’ to be installed in Australia.

Mikes Bikes is Gutted…

The Gold Coast’s longest running bike store, Mikes Bikes has been completely gutted and re-fitted, with technical guidance and fittings supplied by Specialized. The new look store is reopening for business on 20^th November.

Founder Mike Stout ran the store for over 35 years until his untimely death. Now his son Mark Stout is in charge and decided to initiate the refit. He says that although Mikes Bikes is being fitted out using fittings and technical expertise from Specialized, the store will continue to also sell other bike brands and keep the Mikes Bikes name. 

What do you do when your entire retail trading area is being ripped out and rebuilt? Mikes Bikes set up shop on the footpath. Then customers could be directed down the laneway to their downstairs workshop and warehouse, where they were still able to trade, albeit on a restricted basis, throughout the store rebuild.

Mikes Bikes owner Mark Stout was looking remarkably relaxed considering the disruption going on behind him.

New Trek Store Headed for Brisbane

Mike Shaw, previously of Sydney’s Atelier de Velo and Clarence St Cyclery, has migrated north of the border to Brisbane. He’s currently working long hours fitting out this large double shop in the southern Brisbane suburb of Mt Gravatt.

It will soon become Brisbane’s newest Trek dealer. Mt Gravatt is about nine kilometres south west of the city centre.

Mike has been removing walls and stripping back pillars to transform this former restaurant into an open plan retail space.

New Shops Move in Next to Existing Bike Stores.

Here’s two Gold Coast cases of stores setting up right next to existing stores. 

Bicycle Centre on Bermuda is moving from the Q Super Centre, Mermaid Waters to Price Street Nerang, just two doors down from the large Just Ride store which you can see in the background. The new Bicycle Centre store was still being fitted out and yet to have its signage installed when this photo was taken. It’s the building being painted in the light orange Bicycle Centre colours.

This is Gold Coast Supercycle’s brand new store, which has set up shop across the road from Ferry Rode Cycles, one of Australia’s largest Giant dealers.

In late October 99 Bikes opened their 18^th store Australia wide and their second for Queensland’s Gold Coast. Their newest store is 99 Bikes Burleigh Heads, which is being managed by Marcus Rutter.

During my recent trip to Eurobike I took the opportunity to go for a couple of rides along the shores of Lake Constance.

If you don’t take any ferry ride shortcuts, a bike ride around Lake Constance is over 200 kilometres in length. There’s a designated cycling route all the way around. It’s a mixture of paved and unpaved cycle paths, country lanes and town streets. Countless thousands of cyclists take this ride every year, or at least sections of it. There are plenty of bike shops that in part make their living from this endless stream of passing cyclists as well as sales and service to their local populations.

During my travels I visited a couple of these shops and took photos, some of which you can see below.

By Australian standards, one of these two shops would be considered ‘average to good’ and the other, ‘old school’ or ‘below average’.

Two shops is hardly a fair sample by which to judge a nations’ bike retail industry. But having seen many other bike shops across Europe, UK, USA, Africa and Asia over the years I think it would not be at all parochial to say that Australian bike shops are second to none, in terms of their physical presentation.

Zweirad Deush Bikes & More kept their interior reasonable uncluttered by putting their summer overflow stock under this marquee out front.

A little bit of ‘north shore’ trail to display higher end mountain bikes.

Upstairs of this shop had a low, relatively flat steel roof that certainly made things hot and stuffy in this non-air-conditioned shop on a late summer’s day.

This dealer appeared to source almost all their generic P&A from a single supplier.

Sponsored customer bike parking.

This is not a bike shop, but a lake front café where just about everyone arrives by bike. This scene is typical of hundreds of café’s, towns and villages that sit upon the lake shore.

Unger Faharrad and Verleih is an older style shop in a more traditional premises. ‘Faharrad’ means bicycle and ‘Verleih’ means rental.

Free air for passing cyclists. It may generate goodwill and stop the shop keeper from being ‘interrupted’ but leaves cyclists with no compelling reason to venture inside.

The main shop area was small and cluttered…

…but the smaller area to the right of the entrance door was even worse!

That’s a lot of bikes to have to take out and put back inside at the start and finish of every trading day. They were all exposed to the weather in a region where it rains a lot.

Cycle Logic until recently, was an AvantiPlus shop in the central business district of Wollongong, NSW. It has recently closed, although as you can see from the attached photograph a notice on the door suggests that they may be continuing to trade, but without a shopfront.

Meanwhile a store that started two years ago, just around the corner from Cycle Logic has recently opened a second location.

Simple Cycles was started by Peter McGuinn and his father David McGuinn who has had a long association with Trek.

“Our new shop opened mid October,” said Peter. “It’s being run by my sister Kate McGuinn and her partner Tom Lenton, so it’s still family owned.”

Shellharbour is located south of Wollongong. It’s a mixture of new suburbs and a couple of older townships including Albion Park and the original Shellharbour village.

 “It’s going really well,” Peter continued. “I think just having a second option in Shellharbour is good. A lot of our Shellharbour customers now go there instead of here.

“Compared to when we first opened in Wollongong, we’ve been around two years now and I think having the name has helped get the new one off to a quicker start.

“I guess it’s always scary opening a second location but we’re not nervous any more.

“We always wanted to open a second shop. After we opened this one, how it went for the first year, we started looking. Then, talking with Trek, we said, ‘How about Shellharbour?’

My sister and her partner said they’d work in it. If we didn’t have them, we wouldn’t have opened a second shop.”

This is Simple Cycles’ Wollongong store, which has recently benefitted from increased foot traffic thanks to a large new shopping centre opening directly across the road.

The second Simple Cycles is in the commercial centre of Shellharbour, which is about 20 kilometres south of Wollongong. It’s only the second bicycle shop for a local government area of 67,797.

Simple Cycles Shellharbour is also a Trek dealer.

Simple Cycles is the only bike store in the Shellharbour commercial precinct with Wilsons being the other store, several kilometres away in Albion Park Rail.

A new bike shop opened late August in Penrith, which is at the base of the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, NSW.

It’s owned by Justin Buck who was previously at Cyclery Northside for 14 years.

“I started in the bike industry in the warehouse of Hanley Trading,” he recalled. “I worked my way up to managing that place until Apollo took over. Then I went over with Apollo to do Internal Sales there, so that was my first 10 years of industry experience.”

“I came into Cyclery Northside as a salesman and worked my way up under the previous owner, Tony Whiteside. With his experience and knowledge, he was essentially tuning us up to take over the business one day.”

“When Peter Clayton took over, I was in the mindset of going to open my own store out west at that stage.”

But Justin stayed on at Cyclery Northside, which is a Specialized Concept Store, for a few more years, before finally making the move to his own store.

It has been quite a journey to get established.

“It’s been about a year trying to deal with Council and Harvey Norman, because I’m in the Harvey Norman Centre out here,” Justin explained.

“Just trying to go through their red tape. Dealing with their manager on site, then everything has to be assessed by the board of Harvey Norman.”

“My first destination was High Street, Penrith. It was directly across from Panther Cycles’ new place. I actually saw that site before I knew that Panthers would be moving in across the road. I made an application and was just about to sign a lease but the owner of the place decided to go with a fishing store, which in the end fell through.

“Two weeks later I was asked if I was still interested, but by that time I’d seen this new site at Harvey Norman and already committed to that.”

“This store is just under 200 square metres. I’m not a concept store but I am a Specialized dealer. It’s what I know. I am looking to do other brands as well, but no other brands have formally approached me yet.”

There nearest Specialized stores are in Parramatta to the east, Campbelltown to the south and Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains to the west, so Justin has a large territory to himself.

He continued, “I am looking to employ staff, but I’ve got to get the turn over correct first so that I can retain those guys as well. So at the moment it’s only myself doing everything. It’s ticking over ok.

“Once we get more exposure and more people knowing that I’m here… for the advertising I’ve done it’s not that bad.

“The Penrith Homemaker Centre is quite a busy place and quite easy access, whereas High Street is a problem with parking, especially if you’ve got a bike on the roof. That was one of the reasons I chose this place over others, purely because of accessibility for the customer.”

Hobart city centre retailer Bike Ride has moved a grand total of five metres from 74a Liverpool Street to 74 Liverpool Street Hobart.

The new premises is larger, but most importantly is all on one level, unlike their previous premises, which traded on two levels, joined by a relatively narrow flight of stairs.

Bike Ride have used Specialized’s shop design team, so the fittings used, look and feel are similar to other stores around Australia. Most Hobart consumers would be unaware of this as Bike Ride is the exclusive Specialized dealer for Hobart with the next closest being about 200 kilometres to the north in Launceston.

You can read more about the Bike Ride store in this month’s ‘How’s Business?’

This photo montage was posted by Bike Ride to celebrate the opening of their new, larger store. (Published with permission.)

City Bike Depot is a Sydney city centre store, started from scratch in late 2005 by long time bicycle industry member Hugh Flower.

Hugh had previously worked at Bike Addiction in Sydney’s northern beaches and for wholesalers past and present including Sports Plus and Bianchi Australia. He’s also raced for many years, mainly mountain bikes, and authored a mountain bike trail guide for the Sydney region.

City Bike Depot was located in an old industrial style building in Kent Street, surrounded by office towers and well paid city commuters. When City Bike Depot started, it was only the second shop in the area, being one block away from Clarence Street Cyclery.

But over the intervening years, three other stores opened along the same stretch of Clarence Street, making this probably the geographically tightest cluster of five bike shops anywhere in Australia.

FTI Consulting (Australia) P/L were appointed as liquidators on 28^th November at 4pm. In a circular to creditors they announced a creditors meeting to be held on 9^th December.

In their initial report, published on 2^nd December, they listed secured creditors of $92,888, preferential creditors of $72,754 and unsecured creditors of $1,070,543, making a total of $1,236,185. Against this they listed assets, mainly stock, totalling $749,689 against which they gave an estimated realisable value of $621,000.

Based upon these numbers, unsecured creditors look likely to get back something significantly less than 100 cents in the dollar.

Bicycling Trade’s editorial policy is not to publish individual details of creditors’ lists, but in summary about 75% of unsecured creditors by value were non bike industry members, including the Australian Taxation Office and private investors in the business. Well over $200,000 in total was owed to about 50 different bicycle industry suppliers

The store continued to trade the following week with a clearance sale which saw queues of customers lined up along Kent Street having to wait to access the packed store.

City Bike Depot’s major bike brand was Cannondale. With the other four stores in this precinct closely tied up with Giant, Bianchi, Trek and Specialized respectively, it remains to be seen if any steps will be taken to ensure continued representation of Cannondale and its related bike brands in the Sydney city centre marketplace.

However, Darren Munro, Financial Director of Monza Imports, the distributor of Cannondale

Made it clear that they would not be moving in.

“Monza is not taking over the lease or entering retail,” he said. “Monza has been working with CBD for a couple of months now trying to help them solve their financial difficulties. While we are disappointed when any retailer shuts its doors in these circumstances, our brands are extremely strong in market and we have already had several expressions of interest from retailers.  We expect to have new appointments in place in January which will also be able to service the needs of CBD customers.”

Any creditors who have not yet been contacted by the liquidators should contact Nathan Landrey at FTI Consulting on (02) 8247 8000.

Liquidation sale signs in the window signal the end of the road for City Bike Depot, in its current format at least.

This photos was taken on Wednesday 3rd December, with customers picking over what was left of the stock after a massive sale day the previous day.