More people pedaling

Area interest in bicycling appears to be gearing up as two local proprietors said they've been slammed in recent weeks with orders for new bicycles and requests to repair old ones.

"It's been really crazy. I can't even keep them in stock. I've got hundreds of them on back order and hundreds sold," said Gregg Borger, owner/operator of Borger's Bicycles LLC in Coldwater.

Borger, who began working on bicycles at age 12 and has run his business for 20 years, said he likes to keep between 100 to 150 bicycles in stock at all times. Right now, that's just not possible, he said.

He believes the struggle to secure new bicycles is due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic. People pent up in their homes sought an activity they could enjoy with their family while at the same time bicycle manufacturing was temporarily shuttered because of COVID-19.

Borger tells people interested in buying a bicycle to get back with him next month when he'll know if his back orders have arrived.

Nationwide sales of bicycles, equipment and repair services in March nearly doubled compared with the same period last year, according to market research company NPD Group. Sales of commuter and fitness bikes in the same month increased 66%, leisure bikes jumped 121%, children's bikes went up 59% and electric bikes rose 85%.

Richard McNaughton, owner and operator of the Bike Hub in Celina, also touched upon the difficulty of acquiring new stock.

"Sales have been pretty busy. Right now we've pretty well sold out of everything that we have, and now we're just doing back orders," he told the newspaper on Friday afternoon.

Aside from top-dollar brands, most bicycles come from overseas, McNaughton explained, saying COVID-19 disrupted manufacturing.

"I do know that bikes are kind of few and far between right now as far as new ones," he said. "I just happened to get four bikes in yesterday, and I've already sold one today. Right now I have five new bikes in the shop, and those probably will be gone by the end of next week."

While the two businesses wait for back orders to be filled, McNaughton and Borger have also been inundated with service requests.

"I think that's a lot to do with not being able to find a new bike, so people are bringing in their old bikes to get serviced and back into working order," McNaughton said.

The problem, though, is bike parts also are largely made abroad and have become increasingly scarce, McNaughton noted.

"I've been waiting on bicycle seats. I've been out of stock for two weeks," he said, adding he was expecting a delivery on Friday.

Borger has been logging several hours getting bicycles back into working shape for his customers.

"I'm keeping very, very busy on (repairing) too because now people are pulling bikes out of the barn that have been in there for 20, 30 years, and now they want to get it fixed to get back out," Borger said.

Finding a bike is indeed getting more difficult, according to The Associated Press. From bicycle shops to big-box stores, bicycles for men, women and children are rare.

First, manufacturers shut down. Then there was a big spike in demand as cities and towns shut down. As cars and buses were taken off the roads, more people hopped onto bikes.

For those in rural communities, bike riding didn't become a commuting alternative - people just wanted something to do outside since they had to stay inside so much.

"I think a lot of people have gravitated back to bicycles," McNaughton said.

Borger agreed.

"The stay-at-home order, I think a lot of people are doing stuff with families, which I think is great," he said. "People are staying local, which I think is great, too."

Most bicycles are made overseas. China, Taiwan, India, the EU and Japan churn out 87% of global production. And even for domestic bike makers, some key components must be imported. So while they were shut down, they couldn't make any more bikes either.

- The Associated Press contributed to this story