firenbones

That post from Mike ("The way we were", about Eugene Sloane's Complete Book of Bicycling) made me think about the old days (the 1970s, when I was in grade school). Why were there so many bicycle/lawnmower shops back then? It seemed every metro area had one. I know bikes and lawnmowers were both chain-driven, but ... ?

ricohman

We still have a chainsaw/bike shop in town!

grayloon

Back in the late 70's, I researched bike shops, considered opening one. I found that many bike shops were also lawnmower shops because of a need to be profitable. In smaller towns, bike shops don't survive long unless there's a secondary line of goods or services. As many got into the bike business because they were good with tools and loved to work on bikes, it wasn't difficult to turn that ability to lawnmowers. Lawnmowers also don't take up a lot of space and don't compete with bikes as motorcycles for instance. It made sense to have both.

Big box stores killed off many lawnmower shops, except for repairs. Its cheaper to go to Sears, Home Depot, or the then equivalent of Wal Mart in my area, Woolco. Just don't take your mower to a big box for repairs. The same happened to bikes. BTW, I will buy a lawnmower at a big box, but not a bike...except I did get my grandson a Huffy to learn on, but only after checking it out as to how well it was put together.

CACycling

We had one when I was in grade school and it was awesome! Housed in an old Quonset hut with plywood floor and smelled of grease and gasoline. Lots of wooden bins with bike parts you could dig through looking for what you needed and an old guy (at least he seemed old at the time) there to help you figure out what you needed. It was only 2 blocks from the Schwinn store, where everything was bright and clean and shiny, but worlds apart.

norskagent

don't forget keymaking also!

Yogurt

Baynesville Bike Shop outside of Towson, MD. Still there, originally a Raleigh dealer in the early '60s and still run by the same guys.

grayloon

When I looked at what it took to open a bike shop only place, the recommendation then was a population of 50,000 minimum. The place I was considering was 27,000 people, though it has a much larger market area...mostly rural and not likely mid or high end bike customers. The town had a bike shop for a while, but Schwinns couldn't compete with department store bikes at the other end of the strip center. All in all, the only thing that made sense was to have a mixed business.

dobber

I bought my Peugeot from the local Bike/Safe/Vacuum emporium.

ZeRinger

Interesting. The old Panasonic dealer in these parts (now selling Raleigh and Diamond Back) started up in the 60's as a bike only place and remains that way today. Oddly enough, it is in Clear Lake, Iowa which has a population of around 8,200. Granted, Mason City is 8 miles away with 29,000 or so and there are more than 50,000 within a 30 mile radius.

Back in the 80's they sold the shinola out of Panasonics and it isn't uncommon to see them various places around town even today. (Higher end models too... not just Sport 500 gas pipe bikes)

The best part is that the shop is very much and old school shop housed in old farm buildings and such. Has a great patina and aroma. While I like some of the newer shops too, there is something nice about an old fashioned bike shop with two employees with three decades of experience. I often drop in just to say hello since the guys are so nice.

I love old hole-in-the-wall type shops...

Kommisar89

He was probably 35

cb400bill

In 1974, my first road bike came from a small town (pop. 850) bike/hardware/gun shop. It is still in the hardware/gun business but no longer sells bikes. They also have sold Toro lawnmowers forever.

jemoryl

Besides the reasons mentioned above, Huffy and Murray also made lawnmowers as well as bikes. And they were both pretty crappy.

wahoonc

Many smaller retail shops in smaller towns have to have multiple modes to be able to survive, we did. FWIW in the town where our shop was, the biggest bike retailer in town is Walmart, the biggest repair shop is a combo mower and bike shop. The bikes carry them over in the winter when mower sales are down. They do their biggest bike sales at Christmas and in the spring. Also the small town hardware sells bikes and parts but no longer do repairs.

Aaron

MKahrl

My town had such a place; machine shop, welding, lawn equipment and they had the Schwinn franchise. My grandmother ordered a bike for me there. They called when it arrived and told her it would be ready on Saturday. On Saturday morning I went to the shop and waited there all day long. At 4:00 they gave it to me. Pretty d*mn funny. I was pissed.

At dinner I explained what happened and my grandmother said that I should have called her, she would have straightened that out. I was young and didn't know that sort of thing was possible. I also wasn't aware of my grandmother's standing in the community. Apparently things got straightened out with the owner on Monday but I wasn't party to that conversation.

grayloon

At one time, BFWM (before wal-mart) grocery stores in Texas often sold bicycles.

UprightJoe

I grew up in a small town. At that time, our local Schwinn dealer was also a full-service locksmith.

The surrounding area has built up quite a bit since then though. As a result, the town has managed to support a regular bike shop for 27 years now.

CACycling

My second bike came from Safeway. It was an off-brand Stingray type bike. Medium blue metalic paint, white banana seat with 2 red racing stripes running the full length. Can't tell you how many times I walked past that bike before I was able to scrape up enough money to buy it.

txvintage

My first three bikes came from a combo hardware/appliance/mower/bike shop.

The first was a Western Flyer with training wheels, the second was a Western Flyer Sting Ray clone, and the third was a Free Spirit 10 sp.

In high school I saved up and bought a Nishiki. All my friends thought I was nuts spending money on a bicycle that could have been used on a car.

SoonerBent

What memories this brought back. The Schwinn dealer that I bought my first multi-speed bike, a Varsity, was a bike/lawnmower shop. The Raleigh dealer was too. The only bike-only dealer was a shop that sold Peugeot, Gitane and Jeunet.

grayloon

Scratch most 40+ cyclists and you'll find they have owned at least one bike that came from a toy store, grocery store, or department store. And, most of them were pretty decent bikes back then. My first bike, 24" Roadmaster came from a second hand shop. I bought my second at 9 with paper route money from a toy store...Belgian made middle weight. That must have begun my love affair with foreign made bikes. Though a used Schwinn with springer fork was a favorite. Then I found the LBS...

The Figment

I bought my first REAL bike (a 1979 Schwinn Traveler) From a Tru-Value Hardware Store! Hastings Mich. Pop 5800

dscheidt

Accountants call this "incremental income". If you've got a small shop, the costs of running it (paying the rent, lights, heat, and so on) are basically fixed. So the costs of adding bikes to your lawnmower shop are the capital cost of special equipment and tools and the cost of carrying the stock of bikes, parts, and accessories. That can be pretty small, if you've got good turnover or you can do lots of your sales out of the supplier's catalog ("Sure, we can get you that. Be here tuesday.") If you make more money selling than the costs, then it's worth doing. In small towns, you still find odd combinations like this. (I was in a sewing machine and gun shop, once. They fixed typewriters, too.) The sidelines don't have to make enough money to make sense as a standalone business; it's the same reason that you see people running businesses out of their house.

bab2000

Growing up in Kalamazoo, I recall Kalamazoo Bike Shop, and the little guys than ran it. The only reason I could recall why my dad wold make a visit there, would be for lawn mower parts, or bike tires, maybe three times a season at best.

My first Schwinn came from a combo Toy/Bicycle Dealer (Schwinn), and the 2nd from the same. They went out of business, and the next bikes for kids came from a Bike/Fitness combination shop. That is the current trend for two shops in town, the third is a mix with skate boards and bikes, and another is skiing & bikes.

grayloon

That one's not so strange...well, maybe the typewriters. Guns and sewing machines are both fine instruments and the skills it takes to repair them have some similarities.

dscheidt

It's not the fixing of them that's weird (all three require many of the same skills and tools). It's just that you don't think of the markets overlapping. "Gee, I can get a walking foot for the sewing machine, and a new choke tube for the Remington in one trip!"