merziac

Confirmed by several at Bob's today.

They are closing next week for good.

Glad I made a pilgrimage there on the way back from Eroica, got the shirt, water bottles, patch kits and showed off the Merz to Vance and his sales guy.

Kabuki12

Oh no! I never made it there but they had quite the following. My Raleigh Compettition came from a shop just down the road from them and one of the guys that worked at Cupertino told me his brother was at the shop that sold my bike. Nice folks !

cinelliguy 

That is really too bad...sad, really.

SwimmerMike 

I was in there 2 weeks ago, there wasn't any signage saying "going out of business"and it wasn't like when they were moving sites and they had a lot of items on deep discount to make the move easier. I just texted Greg (The Vintage Mechanic) to confirm.

obrentharris 

Their instagram account says they will be closed from July 25 to August 5 for their move to DeAnza Blvd. in San Jose.
Brent

merziac

Maybe there's confusion then, I had my Cupertino shirt that I got on my post Eroica pilgrimage on at the show and heard it from 3-4 people so.....

SwimmerMike 

I received confirmation from Greg. They will be closing at the end of August. A sad day indeed.


From Greg: Yes after 69 years. Final day end of August. We will be selling as much as possible though the month of August then a warehouse for on line only till it’s all gone.

merziac

Yeah, one of the guys said Vance called him trying to sell a couple of bikes for, well $$$$$$$$.

squirtdad

Ouch another local classic and class act closes.

there is still Slough's but that is not everyone cup of tea

Fairlane63

That sucks!

I drive past there almost everyday on my way home from work. No signs, nothing at the moment saying anything about it?

merziac

Yep, you might want to stop in there sooner rather than later.

Fairlane63

I will for sure! Wonder if anyone will continue the swap meet?

merziac

You should ask them, seems like the/a "swap meet" of some sort will need to go on for quite some time to come after so many years and so much history.

dweenk 

Someone should take a photo of the shop. My brother-in-law and I rode past that place many times years ago.

madpogue 

Their web site indicates their new location, nothing about either a move or a closure.

gugie 

Unfortunately all of the great owner operated bike shops we knew and remember eventually go out of business. The only ones that will last are the corporate owned ones (Trek, Specialized) that are run by hired managers, who are replaceable.

Like most of us old timers, I was lucky to have "grown up" during a real golden age of cycling. When I was a sales rep in the SF Bay Area I drove from shop to shop, took orders on a piece of paper, and got to know a lot of great shop owners. The old joke was a bike shop owner bought a job. If they were lucky they had a good manager so they could take time off. Retail means working weekends. You're at the mercy of the economy. You've gotta love it, otherwise you might as well work for someone else and get health care, paid vacations, and a 401(k).

Maybe someone should start a thread called All Bike Shops Must Die.

Kabuki12

Spot on!! I am in the same boat but different situation , non retail. I bought machines and started making custom cutting tools after 10 years in a HUGE factory during the aerospace boom . I learned a skill, got fully vested for 12 years of service, and for two years I worked the factory and my little shop during my "off" hours. I tried for over 35 years to get a younger person to learn the skill and carry on after I leave but no avail. My customers are concerned that I will not be replaced but I got tired of being a revolving door for employees looking for a bigger paycheck rather than a career that they could feel passionate about( the money is very good if you get good at it). Some day my little shop will close and I will pedal off on my way and the planet will survive . I totally understand that nothing stays the same......EVERYTHING changes. I now have my retirement income and at full retirement age but I don't want to stop grinding tools so I continue on with less hours and more time with my wife and my bikes. My local bike shop that I have been going to for a very long time just changed hands not that long ago so it is still open but certainly not the same as it was when John owned it . Everything changes , that's life!

repechage

Attempting to sell multiple top quality collectable bikes in a short time just does not work well.

Sad for Vance, the SF Bay commercial real estate market is absurd.

repechage

Has moved like twice in the last 5-8 years?
Short term lease and or month to month is very risky.

repechage

Bike Shops are almost always a making wage business, shops that have done better have had multiple locations, but that does not really leverage that too much.
multiple locations can raise volume, better pricing. Distributors used to have a "rubber program" an agreement to buy X amount of tires and tubes to get a much better price.
Shops that imported directly had an edge in the 50's-70's.
In SoCal, Helen's has continued and has multiple locations, bought another shop in one case.
Alan Goldsmith did well with Bikeology, an interesting migration in name then sold out at a good price.
His main shop manager in the 80's noted with pride that the shop turned the inventory value 5x during the year.
That for a bike shop was astounding. if one did 3x you were making bank. Many were doing 2x, too much stranded inventory. Many a shop owner just could not stomach that they would have to sell stuff near cost.
freeing up that $ could buy faster moving inventory, it was as if an admission that a buying mistake was made.

bamboobike4

Any time a locally owned shop closes, it's not a great thing. Plenty of variables at play, most of them not small-business favorable.

Case 1: Project One, at least 5 years old.
1-Fork fails. Shop inspects: "not a warranty issue."
He calls "corporate," they send a fork. Shop quotes labor, he calls "corporate," gets free labor.
2-Bottle cages corrode due to hydration mixes. I get one out, 2nd is stuck immaculate.
Shop inspects, quotes $400, "not a warranty issue." (to which I agree).
We actually find a Porsche mechanic who performed some kind of miracle, free.
3-TT cracks from hanging on car racks. Shop says "nope, not warranty." (to which I agree).
He calls "corporate," they put a frame in the pipeline, give him a loaner. Free labor.

Case 2: Domane SL 5, at least 6 years old.
1-He keeps dropping chains, the BB gets chewed up like a beaver ate it.
He takes it to the shop, orders a new one. They demand his old one to send to corporate "for testing."
The new one comes in, he pays to have it rebuilt, asks about his old one, is told "they keep it."
2-He hits a bollard, snaps frame in half, shop offers to order one, but "not warranty." No one disagrees.
He calls corporate and offers to send the snapped frame "for testing," and outlines the first frame being taken "for testing."
He innocently asks about all this "for testing" stuff. Corporate sends a new frame free, and the shop rebuilt it free.

First, were I a shop owner, I completely understand making the early decision re: warranties, and these were not defective frames.
Second, I completely understand "corporate" good will, and their ability to absorb same. Not sure how that helps these shops.

Perhaps it's a sea change in entrepreneurship on scale, across the board, I don't know.
I'm not a businessman, but these two guys will continue to buy that brand, and I can't blame them.
Perhaps the whole "warranty" and "customer service" arena is transitioning.
I'm simply not cognizant of all that goes on, and why, but I hate to see small shops go out.
Already, many sell Boy Scout gear, kayaks, outdoor things, etc, just to get by.
I know of two completely unrelated shops that are both locksmiths, as well as bike shops.

Luckily, I will die by the time the dust settles, and I will likely not ever get a new bike, anyway.
But it's food for thought, as 99% of the people I ride with do buy new bikes, repeatedly.

dweenk 

And costly. I don't know how anyone could start a small bike shop anywhere, let alone in Silicon Valley. I was riding a Nishiki Competition, my BiL was riding an upgraded Peugeot UO-8. We looked and drooled, but did'nt have the cash to walk in the door.

gugie 

I got out of the bike business when I realized I'd never meet my financial goals. Now that I'm almost retired I've saved up enough that I can afford to make $12/hr doing torchwork and take as much or as little business in as I want mostly for the joy it brings me and my customers.

SwimmerMike 

I'm not sure of the dynamic of why they moved in 2014/2015, my guess at the time was that it was for cheaper rent and/or more space. I talked to Vance and Greg after the move last year. They had lost their lease on Foothill Blvd because the land was going to be redeveloped into housing/mixed use. They also told me that they were only able to get a one-year lease on the new site. The store is on a section of De Anza Blvd where there is a lot of redevelopment so I assumed the lease timing was to keep some revenue come in to the building owner until plans and permitting was complete on a teardown and rebuild of something else.

merziac

We covered this in post #7.

Mike talked to Greg, done deal.