Another north Portland bike shop is closing

When Kenton Cycle Repair closes its doors for good on October 26th there will be no bike shops in north Portland east of Interstate Avenue. The closure, announced by the shop’s owner Rich Walker in an email to customers on Saturday, leaves an 18 square mile swath of our city without a bike shop.

Kenton Cycle Repair opened on N McClellan Street right off the Kenton neighborhood’s main drag, Denver Avenue, in 2012. It was started by Walker and a co-owner Starmichael Bowman, two friends who shared experience working at local nonprofit bike organizations (Community Cycling Center and Bike Farm, respectively). The shop outgrew that space and moved into a much larger one on N Kilpatrick in 2017.

The shop’s official email didn’t share any reason for the closure. There was no farewell message, just the words “We are closing forever” in large red font. I emailed Walker to confirm rumors I started hearing last week and he confirmed the news. “I still love working on bikes but the business has become personally and financially unsustainable in the last few years,” he shared.

For folks who live, work and play on the north Portland peninsula, it’s just the latest in a string of bad bike shop news. Five bike shops along the Interstate corridor and east to St. Johns, have closed since 2020.

Walker’s former co-owner Starmichael Bowman left Kenton Cycle Repair to open Norther Cycles in 2015, only to throw in the towel in 2020. Revolver Bikes on N Rosa Parks Way and Interstate closed just one month later. Block Bikes, the only bike shop in St. Johns for a few years, closed in 2022. And back in February of this year, Golden Pliers bike shop on N Interstate and Skidmore moved to NE Alberta Street into the space formerly occupied by Gladys Bikes — a shop that closed in 2024 after 10 years in business.

Besides the big box retail offerings of Fred Meyer or Dick’s Sporting Goods in Janzten Beach, the closure of Kenton Cycle Repair leads to a vast bike shop desert. Of the three bike shops that remain in the area, only one of them services and sells a wide range of bikes. PxCycle on N Interstate in Kenton is a single brand, e-bike-only store and The E-Bike Store also only sells electric bikes. That leaves North Portland Bike Works on N Killingsworth and Albina as the only traditional neighborhood bike shop in the area.

The bike business has always been a tough one, but these past few years have been absolutely brutal. After riding a wave of cycling interest during the pandemic, shops bet big on inventory to meet demand. If they could even get the products they wanted due to supply chain issues, some shops soon felt softening enthusiasm once things opened back up. Add to that a loss of business from people who opt for “direct-to-consumer” purchases where brands cut shops out of the equation and ship directly to customers. Another factor is the reduction in cycling overall thanks to a number of factors including the shift toward working from home. Daily commuters were in constant need of gear and service when they biked into the office, but that chunk of sales has dropped precipitously in recent years.

At our peak in 2014 or so, Portland had well over 70 bike shops. A list maintained by the City of Portland shows just 49 currently open bike shops citywide.

Kenton Cycle Repair’s last day is October 26th. Roll over to 1926 N Kilpatrick to thank Rich for his years of solid service and to help him liquidate remaining inventory.

— KentonCyclePDX.com