A customer hurried into Rocktown Bicycles in Harrisonburg. “That’s the right one,” he said. “I’ll take it!”
Without delay, he picked up the bike and bought it. It was a $3,500 full suspension mountain bike that the customer had gone to several shops to find, finally driving more than an hour to Rocktown Bicycles, known as the “bicycle capital of the Shenandoah valley.”
During the first few months of COVID-19, the demand for bicycles skyrocketed. In 2020, the global market for bicycles reached $29.2 billion, whereas in 2019 — before the pandemic — it was $20.28 billion.
But, despite this surge in value, it hasn’t been a smooth ride for the bicycle industry. Bike sellers struggled to meet the increased demand for bikes due to the supply chain shortages during the pandemic. Bike sellers are still struggling to find bicycles and their parts.
“Parents and kids at home during shutdowns suddenly had time to, and needed to, get out,'' Brad Donze, a sales associate at Shenandoah Bicycle Company, said. “There really wasn’t much else to do.”
Kevin Rogers, the store's general manager, said that even now there’s been an increase in business, despite the pandemic, because of the dramatic increase of bike ridership that COVID-19 has brought. In 2019 bike ridership was 48.8 million and in 2020 ridership increased by almost 4 million.
“There’s still an increase [because] there’s more people riding,” Rogers said.
Nationwide, another contributing factor could be the decrease in bikeshare systems — terminals that offer paid or free bikes for public use — with such sites closing due to COVID-19. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of bikeshare systems decreased from 103 to 66 from 2019-21.
While more and more people wanted bikes, there was less and less supply, and finding bicycles and their parts became an issue.
Pre-pandemic, Donze said that there wasn’t even a question as to where they’d get bikes and their components: “Availability was always there.” All the bike store had to do was order with no searching or waiting required.
Now, Donze said that management has to constantly watch for alerts about new products becoming available. Bike stores have minutes to order bikes and parts or else they’ll be gone, he said. At any time of the day, Donze said, managers have to drop what they’re doing and order parts as soon as they become available.
“When [bikes and bike parts] did start becoming available again, every bike shop in the United States had to sit like vultures through the mode of purchasing and get whatever you can,” Donze said.
The scramble for bike parts and the increased demand for bikes caused an increased workload for bike store employees, which is still in effect.
“2020 was exhausting because it was just non-stop bikesales,” Kelly Paduch, women’s ambassador of Rocktown Bicycles, said. “It just started getting busier and busier.”
Donze said that Shenandoah Bicycle Company had two to three times more work during their shifts than they had pre-pandemic.
Rocktown Bicycles has experienced a similar phenomenon, which has led to exhaustion for Paduch, she said. Paduch didn’t have to work more hours at the store, she said, but within the hours, she had more work on her plate. Although bike sales are becoming more regular, this is still occurring.
Both Donze and Paduch said that the pandemic’s effects are still being felt. Donze said that the Shenandoah Bicycle Company is now normalizing, but there are still things that have been on backorder for months and there’s no indication of when they’ll come in. Paduch said that some bikes won’t be available for customers who order now until the summer.
Contact Sarah Eccleston at ecclessk@dukes.jmu.edu. She is a media arts and design major.