LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Speedy Pete’s wasted little time in outgrowing its new constructing close to twenty seventh and Randolph streets.
The electrical bike retailer that opened two years in the past on Ideal Grocery’s previous spot is transferring out, and can double its house in a former financial institution at forty eighth and Van Dorn.
Owner Doug Long noticed it coming. “It’s always in the back of our minds. We don’t have enough shop space. We don’t have enough warehouse space. And the outdoor space there is something that drove us.”
The new retailer, which he hopes to open in mid-March, comes with a car parking zone longer than a soccer area — ample room for his clients to check journey their potential purchases and, Long hopes, to have the identical expertise he did in 2017.
He and his daughter had been biking to Memorial Stadium on a Saturday morning when she acquired a flat tire. They made it to a bike retailer, and, whereas they waited, he took an e-bike for a journey.
“It was almost an epiphany,” he advised the Lincoln Journal Star. “I thought, ‘People are going to love these.’”
E-bikes have battery-powered motors that help with pedaling or, in some instances, throttles that require no pedaling at all. Long wasn’t a hard-core bike owner, however he noticed promise in an e-bike’s skill to neutralize the hardships of driving — hills, wind, dangerous knees, fitter mates.
“I think it’s the freedom, and the ability to go so far. You can explore so much more distance than you can on a normal bike.”
They’re not new. One of Lincoln’s oldest bike outlets bought its first e-bike practically 15 years in the past, a Trek 900.
“And from the start, it had more grin factor to it than anything I’d ever seen,” mentioned Cycle Works proprietor Kris Sonderup. “It didn’t matter if you were 15 or 60.”
But most of his patrons are nearer to 60, cyclists who need to maintain driving however are discovering it harder.
“These allow you to go ride, and you’re not dog-tired after an hour. Whatever challenge you might have, they allow you to ride.”
For years, Sonderup’s e-bike gross sales remained regular however gradual — his retailer usually saved one to 2 on the gross sales ground — however they began surging a number of years in the past.
Last week, he had practically 20 e-bikes prepared on the market. “It’s been going up about 50% a year, jumping up and up. We’ve really increased year after year.”
Speedy Pete’s began small, too.
After Long’s first check journey, he visited different bike outlets, researched on-line and talked to e-bike homeowners. In 2018, he started promoting e-bikes at his 4 Lincoln QP Ace Hardware stores. And when he constructed a new retailer the subsequent yr, he devoted about 1,500 sq. ft of the constructing to a standalone e-bike retailer.
He’d began by promoting bikes from only one producer, however now his retailer shares fashions from practically a dozen makers — with about 70 bikes on the ground. Prices vary from about $1,300 to greater than $7,000.
That hasn’t deterred patrons, who these days appear to be gravitating towards extra aggressive fashions — mountain bikes and fats bikes.
“The last year selling bikes has been a really good year,” he mentioned.
After Doug and Lisa Long bought their QP stores to Westlake Ace Hardware in late 2020, he began excited about discovering a larger dwelling for Speedy Pete’s.
He discovered it at the previous Security First Bank. He likes its 3,000 sq. ft, the massive car parking zone, the entry to the Billy Wolff Trail (and the close by lengthy hill up the again facet of Holmes Lake Dam, which ought to persuade undecided patrons).
But he’s nonetheless shocked by how his probability check journey led to all of this. “I didn’t do this with any intention of going into the bike business. The bike business just kind of grew organically.”