Local bike shops benefitting from El Tour de Tucson

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Turning the spokes on a bike in his shop, Gary Menard thought back to his childhood when he first started working on bikes.

“I was 13 years old and I told my mom ‘I’m going to own a bike shop someday mom’ and she said okay,” Menard said.

He’s owned Pima Street Bicycle for about 8 years.

When El Tour de Tucson comes to town every year, he looks forward to it because it benefits his sales. He said because so many bike riders need repairs, his repair sales go up about 50 percent.

He said besides flat tires, tune ups are his most popular service in the weeks leading up to El Tour de Tucson.

“Pulling the whole bike apart, pulling the wheels off, truing the wheels, cleaning things up,” Menard said about his services.

He said the weeks leading up to El Tour de Tucson are his busiest weeks out of the entire year.

However, he said this year his sales aren’t as high compared to other years.

“It seemed like a more out of town people doing it than as many in town people,” he said.

Transit Cycles is also riding their way towards higher sales. Their mechanic Sebastian Matthews said sales can double compared to a regular day.

“Yesterday was insane. Everybody needed something, so usually about a month before and then the day of,” Matthew said about the days the bike shop sees the most sales.

Matthews said compared to the weeks leading up to El Tour de Tucson last year, sales are a lot higher this year.

“People are just trying to get out. You know, people are trying to have fun. People have been itchy because they’ve been at their house for years,” Matthews said, referring to the pandemic.

He said it’s not just locals that are helping out the business, but also people coming from countries all around the world such as Belgium and Mexico.

He said people who are looking to participate in El Tour de Tucson, should be bringing in their bike once a year.

“Bring it in if you don’t feel your bike is safe,” Matthews said.

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