There’s good news and bad news for the Sault’s cycling community.
First, the bad news.
There’s a worldwide shortage of new bikes and bike parts.
The cause of that?
You guessed it.
COVID-19.
“Basically, last year COVID hit and everything got shut down and outdoor recreation just boomed with everybody looking for something to do. That’s not just bikes, it’s camping, hiking, the whole gamut,” said Jan Roubal, Velorution owner/operator, speaking to SooToday.
Consumers are buying up more bikes than usual in order to get outside and escape COVID cabin fever.
With the 2020 bike purchasing boom, however, Roubal said “availability of bikes and parts started getting sparse in May and continued through the year.”
“This year, I think, is going to be tougher to find gear. This year, with the demand on manufacturers and component manufacturers, wait times have gone up.”
Not wanting people to think there's no hope for 2021, Roubal said "people should get their names in (place orders). We have about 500 bikes coming between now and December."
“This year, everybody’s starting (bicycling as a new hobby) with stores that have a fraction of the inventory in stock that we had last year. Warehouses are pretty empty. Orders are being fulfilled as soon as they get there, and repeat orders are kind of nonexistent for bikes this year,” Roubal said.
“If we were to order a bike right now (repeat orders), we would get it in 2022.”
“The same thing goes for repairs. For people looking to get bikes tuned up, they should start digging them out of their sheds sooner than later, if they want their bikes back (from bike shops) quicker. There’s a component shortage. Companies can get bike frames but having parts to put on them or hang on them is the struggle right now...some of their stuff, like a suspension fork (for example), they’re projecting 550 days, a year and a half wait,” Roubal said.
Agreed, said Heather Carter, Algoma Bicycle sales and service technician.
“My reaction is a mixture of joy that people are getting outside and riding bikes, and dismay, that when people come in I have to tell them ‘sorry, I don’t have that for you.’”
“About 95 per cent of our bikes (for 2021) are spoken for as soon as they come in, through people who have come in during the winter and said ‘when you get X type of bike, can you let me know?’ Basically when it gets here it’s already sold. Out of the 200 or so bikes we’ve ordered for the shop, I’ve only got half a dozen that are actually going to get here and sit on the sales floor,” Carter said.
“People are coming in looking for bikes for this summer and I’m basically already sold out until next year. We’re needing to place our orders for both bikes and equipment, accessories and all the peripherals. Our suppliers want our orders now, for 2022.”
“We’re starting to take pre-orders for next year, so if there's a certain bike people want we can put them on our list for next year,” Carter said.
Bicycles, for the most part, are shipped from East Asia, Carter said, stating bikes and parts from a multitude of popular bike manufacturers, such as Giant, Kona, Trek, Specialized and Norco are hard to get.
Like Roubal at Velorution, Carter said “the bike frames are being made but there’s no parts to put on them. And then, once the bikes are complete, there’s also a shortage of shipping containers. A lot of them (manufacturers) are sitting on the far side of the Pacific waiting for something to put them in to bring them to this side of the ocean.”
Carter said customers have been disappointed but understand the problem is caused by COVID worldwide, not the local bike shops.
But, here’s the good news.
With the shortages, annoying as they are to both merchants and consumers, there is a bright side.
“The upswing is that people want to go outside, gyms being closed and people not wanting to work out at home, so there’s very much a trend of people buying bicycles, and in the winter, skis and snow shoes, maintaining a healthy lifestyle...which is amazing,” Carter said.
“The alternative is we all sit around and watch Netflix all day, right?” she chuckled.
“COVID’s a pretty crummy thing but some good has come out of it, people are starting to explore our local area and ultimately, getting outside and spending more time with family (and getting exercise, whether through biking, walking, running or other physical activities),” Roubal said.
Velorution, Roubal added, experienced quicker sales, and far more sales than usual, of cross country skis over the winter of 2020-21.
“The last time, I would think, there was a boom the way there is now (for bikes) would've been the late 1980s or early 90s.”
“The cool thing is that we’re seeing a huge influx of new riders, people who are new to the sport...I think that’s just absolutely positive.”
“It’s gotten a lot of people out who weren’t getting out before. Getting outside, physical activity, is great for mental health,” Roubal said, adding many of those new riders (and skiers) are noticing, for the first time, the quality of the Sault and area’s trails.
“I think people are really hungry to get outside. It’s spring and not everybody spends their winters outdoors like a lot of us do. They feel cooped up, so a bicycle is a good anti-COVID tool,” said Mark Santana, Sault Cycling Club president.
“From the perspective of the cycling club, like last year, it’s difficult for us to know what to plan for in terms of activities. There were a lot of activities we normally do that we couldn’t do last year because of the lockdown and the concern over group gatherings, so this year we’re planning for it to be very much like last year. If we can open up a little bit more and do group rides, even if we have to modify them slightly, we’ll do what we can.”
Sault Cycling Club activities include road, mountain, gravel and fat biking.
“Last year was a challenge,” Santana said.
Undaunted and determined to do what it could for fun competition, 2020 marked a ‘COVID-13’ road event for the club, wherein participants, on their own, could ride the 13 toughest hills in the Sault and area and post their finish times virtually.
Looking forward, Santana said the club, with the City of Sault Ste. Marie’s blessing, plans to use the land between Finn Hill and Northern Avenue to develop a mountain bike trail, the club currently fundraising to hire a professional, Quebec-based trail building company to build that trail for bicyclists to enjoy mountain biking in town.
In addition, Santana said, with the help of entities such as the Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corporation (SSMEDC) and FedNor, the club wants to develop trails extending to Farmer Lake.
“We’re trying to identify ourselves as a bike town, a cycling town, a tourist destination for cycling. We’re always looking to improve bike lanes in the community and we’ve got a number of ideas in the pipeline, trying to see areas that don’t have bike lanes to get bike lanes. Advocacy is a big part of what we do. COVID doesn’t stop us on that. We plan for the future.”
“Cycling is great for the community. It’s health-oriented and therefore helps out (physical, mental and emotional) wellbeing.”
Santana, who spoke to us in a telephone interview just as he was preparing for his first road ride of the year, said the urge to get out the house is indeed leading to more locals getting involved in bicycling.
“Very much so, very much so.”
“People are reaching out and asking ‘any ideas where I can get a bike?’ There’s no question there’s an unprecedented amount of interest in buying bikes, with a big interest in fat biking because it’s year round.”