the missing link

Portland’s latest biking surge seems real, local bike shops say

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

North Portland Bikeworks new location-11-10

Commuter-related sales are generally up across the city.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

After a few uneasy years for many local bike shops, the people whose businesses are built around Portland’s core of daily bike commuters say they’re feeling the boom.

One week after a new Census estimate that Portland added 5,000 net new bike commuters in 2014 to reach a total of 23,000 citywide, we called a few of the city’s biggest bike sellers to see if that seemed right.

Yep. And what’s more, they said the boom got bigger in 2015.

PLEASE NOTE: The Missing Link was bought by a new owner and the shop is open and going strong! Same location at 7215 NE Sandy. Check them out at MissingLinkPDX.com.

Final days at The Missing Link bike shop-22

The Missing Link bike shop on NE Sandy and 72nd will close at the end of this month. After nine years owning a shop (4 1/2 at this location), owner Joe Rettke is ready to move on.

Rettke had hoped to sell the business and keep a bike shop in the Roseway neighborhood, but he says potential buyers had a hard time lining up funding. “We tried to sell it,” Rettke shared with me during a visit to his shop on Friday, “It would have been great to keep it going… But the banks won’t loan anything.”

Portland’s latest biking surge seems real, local bike shops say

Final days in business for The Missing Link bike shop

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