With Bumblebee Bicycle, Portland gets its 56th bike shop
Posted by Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor) on June 8th, 2010 at 9:35 am
newest bike shop!
I came across another new bike shop in Portland yesterday, Bumblebee Bicycle (2331 SW 6th Ave.), just a hop and skip over I-405 from Portland State University. With the opening of Splendid Cycles (1407 SE Belmont) at the end of last month, and Abraham Fixes Bikes a few weeks before that, Bumblebee continues the impressive proliferation of Portland's bike shops.
In fact, if our list is complete (see it below), I count 55 56 shops in the Portland metro area alone. I don't know how that compares to other cities, but it seems to me like that's a lot of bike shops.
What I love about all our shops is that each one seems to have its own distinct flavor. There are just as many bike shops as there are types of people who ride bikes -- which is how it should be.
I'll share more about Bumblebee Bike as soon as I can get over there and check it out. For now, see our full list of Portland bike shops below (separated by quadrant), and please let me know if we've left any out:
Bike Shops (N)
- Abraham Fixes Bikes
- Cascade Cycling
- Metropolis Cycle Repair
- NoPo Mobile Bike Shop
- North Portland BikeWorks
- Revolver Bikes
- The eBike Store
- The Recyclery
- Weir's Cyclery
Bike Shops (NE)
- Bike Gallery - Hollywood
- BikeTiresDirect.com
- Community Cycling Center
- Cyclepath
- Goods BMX
- Hollywood Cycling
- Missing Link, LLC, The
- Outer Rim
- Serious Juggling
Bike Shops (NW)
- 21st Ave Bicycles
- Athlete's Lounge
- Kalkhoff Electric Bicycles
- Portland Bicycle Tours
- Sunset Cycles
- The Fat Tire Farm
- Universal Cycles
Bike Shops (SE)
- A Better Cycle
- A Convenient Cycle
- Back Pedal Cycle Works
- Bicycle Repair Collective
- Bike Commuter
- Bike Gallery - 2 SE locations
- Bike N' Hike
- Citybikes
- Clever Cycles
- Coventry Cycle Works
- Free Wheel Bikes
- Joe Bike
- Lucky 13 Bikes
- Meticon Bikes
- Oregon Bike Shop
- River City Bicycles
- Sellwood Cycle Repair
- Seven Corners
- Splendid Cycles
- The Bike Exchange
- The Recyclery
- Veloce Bicycles
- WTF Bikes
WTF bikes, near Ladds.
Thanks Noah. Added it! - Jonathan
RecommendedIs that really their logo? Seriously? They should have really spent a few bucks for a graphic designer to come up with something that wasn't so...bad.
RecommendedJonathan:
You forgot Athlete's Lounge up on NW Vaughn and 26th (or so). Tisk Tisk, they even have a banner on your site. ;)
oh dang... thanks A.K. added them! -- Jonathan
RecommendedI get this horrible sense of foreboding when yet another bike shop opens up in Portland that the market will over saturate and collapse like the real estate collapse in 2008 or the video game industry collapse in 1983.
RecommendedOf course, compared to the number of car dealerships in Portland it is insignificant.
A useful number to look at would be the ratio of unsold car inventory per capita to unsold bike inventory per capita compared to the proportion of the population that was polled as “The Strong and the Fearless” “The Enthused and the Confident” from the PBOT report "4 Types of Transportation Cyclists". Those two groups add up to 8% and from a conservative business standpoint I think would be the only consistent bike consumers you can count on.
When the amount of bike shops, or glut of product, exceeds that ... well bad things can happen.
I hope this is not the case and that some how these new shops are tapping in to the 60% share labeled "Interested but Concerned" in a way more thoroughly than selling bike shaped dust collectors.
And another bike shop is opening soon downtown on 3rd & Alder, I noticed today.
RecommendedOf all the bike shops from the mid-1970's bike boom, only two remain.
RecommendedWhat's the name of the guy who fixes and sells kids bikes for dirt cheap in SE? Is he on the list? I suppose he isn't officially a bike shop but he serves a great need in the city and goes mostly unnoticed.
RecommendedI realize we have a strong and (hopefully) growing cycling community here but it seems to be getting to the point of too many shops competing for only so many consumers. Of course, a return to +$4 a gallon gas could change that picture. Will be interesting to see who remains from the list a decade from now. I'll be doing my part by buying local, but still, all I gotta say is Good Luck.
RecommendedYes you guys have a lot of bike shops. I only know of 9 in the entire DFW metromess, population 7 million. Garland has one for the entire city of almost 300,000.
RecommendedAnother question is, at what shops are there mechanics who can be trusted with the machines we play in traffic on? Bike work isn't brain surgery but it's a lot less simple and more exacting than many cyclists think.
RecommendedWill this madness ever stop!!!
56 IBD shops in Portland...versus
~2.2 in Vancouver (not counting mobile repair), and
4(?) in Clark County
There should be a law...or perhaps USAID will help set up bike shops in underserved communities north of the Columbia...
RecommendedBike Gallery and the Bicycle Repair Collective are the only shops I can think of that existed in the (late) 1970's. What others are there--Kissler's became a porno store a couple of years ago!
RecommendedAnd to think in some locales, the only place to physically see a bike is the local WalMart ): In my day, it was the hardware store. You could pick out whatever Schwinn they had on the floor.
RecommendedMy go to shop is missing
RecommendedEn Selle in Johns Landing
#10 Dave:
Another question is, at what shops are there mechanics who can be trusted with the machines we play in traffic on?
Yeah! We need someone to rate the local wrenches for skill, pricing and snobbery/social skills.
RecommendedThere's nothing like a bike snob, lower case, to alienate the "Interested but Concerned" once they finally convince themselves to venture in to a real bike shop.
I like the logo, it's kinda dorky...
RecommendedI agree the logo sorta has a coolness about it! I know I get a buzz riding my bicycle! The single most common denominator I see from people riding bicycles is a smiling face. Buzzzzzzzzz
RecommendedGiven some time (and I wish them a long time in business) that logo will transform, or "coolify". It's already tending toward the funky..
RecommendedUpcycles just opened in Woodlawn.
NE Dekum (between the Firehouse and Woodlawn Park on the north side of the street- in the 900 block?)
RecommendedI was stumbling around St John's the other day and right up the street from the place with 1 dollar tacos and mexican bakery was a storefront bike shop with no name -looks newish maybe it has a name and i couldn't find it. - is that one on the list?
Recommendedgeeze everyone in this snooty little town is a art critic. It's a cute little logo.
RecommendedWhat about The Brooklyn Bike Shop in SE?
Also, should REI count?
RecommendedAt least one of those old bike shop locations has even been recycled back into a one-wheeled shop. We recently moved into the former location of BridgeTown Bicycles on NE Broadway at 27th. When I was 16 I bought my first real bike (a Peugeot) in this building.
RecommendedAnd the one shop remaining from the Bicycling boom of the 1890's, Weir's Cyclery in St. Johns. Okay, okay, they started business repairing bikes in 1925, but with direct historical and skill-transmission connection to that period.
Recommended@ #7: Just some additional info to clarify.
The differences between a fellow who fixes up bikes at home and a bonfide shop are huge, not the lest of which is that an established bike has:
--a business license (aka a "dba")
--accounts with established wholesale distributors (from whom they source their goods)
--at least SOME capital, even if it's a small amount at first; because you need that to establish a line of credit
--ideally, a business plan that spells out 1-, 3- and 5-year fiscal challenges and goals (a small business administration program at your local community college can be of help here).
--if the shop offers repairs they should have some kind of mechanical standard in place by which applicants can be judged. Some shops accept graduates of the two professional bike mechanic schools (UBI and barnett's), while others have established a formal apprenticeship training program in-house. Either way, the establishment of a clear -- and industry-accepted -- mechanical standard assures the customer that their bikes are being worked on by trained professionals.
So while it's absolutely great that someone is fixing up bikes in his garage for the kids in his neighborhood, I probably would not consider his venture a bonafide business, even if he's working at it full-time.
RecommendedFrom at marketing standpoint the logo does two things very well:
It is easily to visually distinguish from other more bland logos,
It also, through its hand drawn look, let's the consumer know that this is a local business and not some slick chain store.
I'm happy that bike stores are still quirky and individualistic and not loud and obnoxious like auto advertisers.
Recommendedat least the bee is wearing a helmet.
RecommendedGreat to see this story. I just made my first stop at Bumblebee on my commute home last night. My rear tire pressure was low and I needed air. There was Quentin, tending shop and eager to offer me the use of a floor pump and ready with water should my bottle have been low too.
This is a fun little shop with great personal service. Quentin Davis is humble and helpful almost to a fault. He's a super nice, genuine guy.
Thanks again for the air and the introduction to your shop, Quentin. Best of success!!
RecommendedSplendid Cycles, specializing in cargo bikes and metrofiets.. hmm... wonder where they could have gotten that idea? surely there's no other shop in town with a similar name who carries cargo bikes, right? yeah, surely not... what a "clever" idea they have!
Recommended