“Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of riding a bike.”
— John F. Kennedy
The Bicycle Rack, an 880-square-foot shop on North Front Street in downtown New Paltz owned by Mike Kilmer, is one small local business that has been a hive of activity in the past two months. Kilmer, who purchased the shop from longtime owner Alan Stout in 2003, said that shock waves of fear throughout the state in early March caused the state government to shut down everything except for businesses it deemed “essential.”
Kilmer had to make a tough decision. Bike-repair shops were deemed essential by the governor. “I had to question myself as to whether or not I wanted to be open,” he said. “What’s the best thing to do?”
His business has a lot of customers who depend on their bikes to get to work, to get to school, to get from Point A to Point B. “That’s why I stayed open,” he said. “Honestly, that’s why we stay open all winter. There are people who rely on their bikes for transportation, and others because they’ll go stir-crazy if they can’t get out.”
At first, Kilmer and his repair assistant didn’t see much traffic in the shop. The people who came in were the ones who “still had to commute to work on their bikes, ride the rail-trail from Rosendale to Highland to the Walkway and get on Metro North down towards the City. If they had a crank fall off or their tire rim was all bent, we were there to fix it to make sure they could get to work.”
Mid-March through mid-April remained fairly quiet. Then things began to get busy – real busy.
“Biking is one of the few things that people can do right now,” said Kilmer. The phone kept ringing from people outside who were in need of service. During the pandemic, store policy is not to allow more than one person into the shop at a time. Almost all bike-repair estimates are done outside the shop. “We’re seeing tons of people, in particular families, come in to get their old bikes tuned up, repaired, or having to upgrade.”
People are looking to utilize this “New York on Pause” time to enjoy the outdoors and the hundreds of miles of trails in Ulster County. “The woman who was just here said she hadn’t been on her bike in ten years, but she’s dying to get outside,” Kilmer said. “So, we’re here to help. With so many New Yorkers having been laid off, furloughed, asked to work from home, combined with schools being shut down, colleges being closed. and all other forms of entertainment or activity outside the home being canceled, biking is having an enormous renaissance.”
Unsurprisingly, Kilmer thinks it’s great to see a resurgence of an entire generation getting back on their bikes and outside and enjoying the weather rather than staying inside and playing their X-Box or on their iPads. “It makes you feel good to see people getting out and doing something healthy.”
The bike repair operation has gone from three to four bike repairs a day to trying to juggle 16 to 18 a day. “We had so many repairs to do last week that we had to shut our doors for two days to get them all done,” he said, “which has always been our promise: Give us 48 hours and we’ll get your bike repaired. This time, we literally had to lock the door to do it.”
Accessories haven’t gone up in sales. “Yes, people are making sure that they buy helmets for themselves and their kids,” he said, “but besides that, we’re not selling much that isn’t essential.”
What used to be a one-step process where someone came in and left their bike is now a three- or four-step process. Mike or his helper have to go outside, look at the bike, then bring it inside and ring up the estimate. “Everything takes longer, but that’s just how it is right now.”
As for customer response, there are always the one-percenters. “To them, it doesn’t matter that we’re in a pandemic situation,” he said. “They believe that their bike should come first, above all others. My feeling is, ‘Go somewhere else.’ We’re here to put out real fires. People who can’t get to their jobs and might get canned, or can’t get to where they need to go to because they don’t have access to a car.”
The shop services tried-and-true bike aficionados who love to cycle year-round, pandemic or no pandemic, and are still out hitting the roads and trails logging their workouts on Strava, even without competitions coming up. “There are a ton of avid cyclists in this area, and although their races have been canceled and they can’t train in groups like they’re used to, they’re still out there training away,” he said. “It’s kind of interesting, because you’ll see some of them actually stop and post some pictures on their Strava. These are people who would never stop before. They’re too busy trying to log in as many miles as fast as they can. And now, they’re actually stopping and taking the scenery in a bit more, which I think is great.”
All of the sweat put into repairing people’s bikes has been worth it. “We love biking, obviously, and it’s great to see so many others return to doing something they enjoyed, or to begin doing something that they’ll enjoy and keep them fit outside. We can’t do a lot, but we can ride this out!”
Kilmer has purchased the entire lot on which the Bicycle Rack sits at 13 North Front Street, including The Bakery. According to Kilmer, Alan Stout always retained ownership of the property, and David Santner, owner of The Bakery, a longstanding New Paltz institution, has always rented. “David is not going anywhere,” said Kilmer when he mentioned purchasing the property. “He will be back. He has to make all of us food.” Like many other local cafés and eateries, Santner attempted to stay open as long as he could before restaurants were forced to close, except for takeout or delivery.
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