Hopefully someone has better intel on what constituted "circumstances" that led to this.


The circumstances?

I've seen estimate that the bike market in North America was down about 4 - 5% last year. The mid-to high end road market (which is where I would put the tri market), was down considerably more than that.

Changing/shifting consumer buying habits. Many buying online.

Many stores mistakenly thinking "customer service" is giving as many people as they can some form of discount. EVERY cyclist and triathlete in North America via some form of membership in a club, team, association, entered in race-x, etc . . is eligible for roughly a 15% discount in EVERY bike or tri shop in North America. That's retailers margin they are just giving away! Discounting (sales) is a good thing and a great promoter and driver of business, BUT when it's this wide-spread and a default thing that EVERYONE does, it's not really doing anything other then killing stores bottom lines!

An extension of the last point, many retailers not figuring out they are in the SERVICE business, and NOT in the selling-goods business.

Hard costs for retail space - rental, leases etc . . keep going up and up. Revenue, as noted above keeps going down!

Poor in-store help. I've had some of my WORST experiences as a retail customer in bike retail stores (and I'm the passionate lifer in the sport). Terrible sales pitches. Irritating sales staff. Awful store lay-out and merchandising . . I could go on and on

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Wow didn't see that coming. I never bought much from them but it was always fun to walk through and see what they had. I guess too many people did the same thing.

I certainly did. It's not often you can walk through a local bike shop and see multiple 5 figure price tags.

I am not surprised the numbers didn't work with their locations (prime real estate) and high dollar inventory. Speaking of, if there is any news of that inventory being for sale, that could be interesting. Since the stores closed so abruptly, I suspect there is significant debt, and the debt holder will own it.

Add me to that list. I'd walk through when I was in Bethesda and marvel at the pricing.

One thing I have seen pop up in the Montgomery County area is the Velofix styled mobile repair companies.

I suspect it's part of the deal they made with Spokes.

which has endured in the DC area for more than 30 years. Actually surprised me how young Freshbikes is, just 11 years, apparently.

+1 to comment re: expensive real estate. One can't purchase a 1Br near their Clarendon location without at least 400k. Similarly, GS Cyclelife, another fancy shop located in Georgetown, closed a few years back.

Conte's opened a few blocks away and seems to be doing well. They've also recently opened new stores in other high-rent areas. Their inventory isn't as high end, but they're not just hawking commuters.

I certainly can't understand how bike stores will be able to stay open. I know some that manage by selling their cruisers and obviously bike maintenance. And others throw in some rentals. But there is just no way they can compete with online prices whether it's bikesdirect, canyon, etc. I've had fine experiences with bike shops but when the price difference is 25%, 50% less online for the same bike it's hard to justify that price.

I was in shock too to see this too.
I has live in both locations Arlington and Bethesda and in 11 years I have bought my 2 Tri bikes from them.
Is surprising to me that the Arlington store closed as other have mentioned there were always people looking around and always seems busy.
How ever on the other hand the Bethesda location always was dead not much action going on or anything which in my case it was my regular store and I could get a quick fix on anything.
Fresh bike was originally Contes bike before switching names due to something legally with the Contes Franchise 2008 or 2009.
The Arlington location has been on the same location for at least 13 years so I doubt the rent increase might have something to do with it.
Another thing that some equity company might have buy the land lot that include them and a golds gym to build a high rise.
Looking for some inside input too as this was my favorite store.

Thanks

Not at all surprised, really. The high end and roadie market is limited. They were probably carrying a ton of overhead and lines of credit and/or probably cash calls to investors, all adds up to crushing debt. High rent as well. They weren’t small enough or big enough to make it. IMHO.

Spokes has not forsaken the kids and toe basket riders that I’m quite certain is where their real margin is.

It is, but they sure sold a lot of 10K bikes and moved a lot of Mavic and Zipp wheels. I was there one day when the UPS truck dropped off ~75 Mavic wheelset boxes.