Tucson’s newest bike shop, ProBike Tucson, has opened its doors and though it isn’t completely finished, its owners say their shop is taking it to the “next level.”
ProBike Tucson partner, Chris Gould said it’s all about the presentation. “Think Apple store or jewelry store,” he said.
The shop, which was opened by Gould and partner Karl Schindler features bikes spotlighted in their own display cases with high quality lights.
Gould, who worked as a bicycle sales representative for several manufacturers, said he traveled to hundreds of stores and wanted to recreate some of the best shops he’d seen.
“The physical appearance of our store is quite different,” Gould said. “As a consumer we are hoping your shopping experience is going to be a little bit better. A lot of bike shops tend to be cluttered with stuff so the the presentation component is lacking.”
ProBike Tucson, which is located at 6540 E. Tanque Verde Rd. in a building which used to house a dry cleaners, is just a mile down the road from Miles Ahead Cyclery and Sabino Cycles.
Gould said they didn’t plan on opening the shop in that location, but two other locations fell through. They had even signed a lease at one location before the building went into foreclosure.
Despite the proximity to the other locations — one of which is owned by Gould’s brother — he said it could help the consumer.
“The auto mall is the example that comes to mind,” Gould said.
Because there are three shops, all which have different brands and equipment, Gould said people could go to each of the shops easily and buy whatever product they like the best.
ProBike Tucson is focusing on road, mountain, tri and urban commuter bikes and their bikes will start at about $1,000 and go up.
“We are not going to be at the bottom, bottom,” Gould said. “We want to be able to offer product to entry level enthusiasts who want to spend a little more than a very basic bike.”
They will only sell 29er mountain bikes.
Gould said they hope to be a place where cyclists can hang out.
“We want to try to be more of a destination where you can come by and not necessarily feel like you need to buy something,” he said. “We are going to have an espresso bar and an outdoor patio where if you just feel like stopping by and hanging out, that is totally fine.”
Tim Carolan, who used to work at Arizona Cyclist has come on board to help run the shop and has a fitting space inside the location.
Pro Bike Tucson will sell BMC, Scott, Focus, Ridley and Pinarello bikes.
Gould said they are still putting the finishing touches on the shop, but are open for business. Check them out online on their Facebook page.
“Gould, who worked as a bicycle sales representative for several manufacturers, said he traveled to hundreds of stores and wanted to recreate some of the best shops he’d seen.”
So it will be a lot like Velo Cult, right?
I think these guys — and, for the sake of diversity, I hope they’re not all guys — are on to something.
Back when I worked in a bike shop, we had the typical “bikes lined up in the showroom” display. While it made sense for the staff, since we could categorize and sort the bikes easily, it was confusing for the customers. All they saw was a big lineup of bikes.
Back to the diversity thing: One of the big problems that the bike industry has is that it is too male. And it’s been this way for generations.
Why is this a problem? Because women buy bikes too. If your industry is overwhelmingly male, you’re going to have a hard time appealing to women.
This is one of the reasons why the Japanese auto manufacturers started doing so well in this country during the 1980s. It wasn’t just due to the ineptitude of the American manufacturers. A good bit of the Japanese success was due to the fact that its big auto companies did a lot of market research on what American women wanted in a car.
The bike industry has done a ton in recent years to appeal to women riders, and a lot more can be done as well. Seems like more shops are more “sensitive” to women buyers in general . . . and there’s room for improvement.
Bike shops are still dude heavy, but this isn’t always a problem. My only advice to any woman is to do a ton of research on her own so that she can go to the shop with knowledge and more confidence to figure out which bike best suits her needs. She needs to at least troll a couple of forums to see what the guys are saying about “stuff”, and learn how to discern valuable info from crap.
More knowledge of how bikes work, the different categories of bicycles, the heirarchy of parts amongst the various manufacturers and the confidence to say in whatever words “dude, you’re not hearing me. I don’t want the pink cruiser, I came in for a downhill rig” is what anyone – especially women – needs to do to have a positive bike shop experience.
The “Build a Bike” class at BICAS is the single best thing anyone can do to familiarize themselves with a bike.
The second best thing is to clean a bike…actually look at the components to see how they interact, what they do. It’s also a good way to spot problems early. Bikes are a lot more fun to learn about than cars.
I finally got a chance to stop by this place the other day and was really impressed. The lit bicycle “cubbies” are rad! They have a few unique brands that I haven’t had a chance to interact with locally (BMC [which are beautiful!!!] & Ridley). Also, I was happy to see that the mechanic they hired was that guy that used to work at Arizona Cyclist. Super nice guy that seems to know his stuff. Anyways, hopefully these folks can keep the doors open, I wish I had the cash for a new whip.
Great comments ProBike. Best of Luck.
I spend a lot of money on bikes (thousands every year), yet I will never shop at a store that only carries high end stuff. Bikes are simple machines, and they should be available to all walks of life. Supporting ‘diversity’ is not selling bikes that only rich people can afford.