I received a notice recently that this shop will be closing its doors in San Diego. It sucks to see any shop have to do this, but I must admit that I’m not too surprised. San Diego already had many very good shops before Bicycle Sports moved in and it has to be a really really tough market to break into. Hopefully the Bicycle Sports shops will continue to grow and prosper in other areas. I’d like to see them focus on markets that do not already have a strong Triathlon presence and see if they can help the sport grow.
That sucks. I was planning to ship my bike there for Ralph’s in April. Guess I will have to put it together myself.
Ship it to B&L. They receive a ton of bikes for that race and handle the buildup/tuning.
Contact info at: http://blbikes.com
That is interesting. Where did this notice come from? Was it an official notice from the store, or a San Diego rumor?
We’ve had these business closing announcements here before, some have been true, some not so true.
This isn’t listed on the JC site yet, like they did with the SF store closing.
“Where did this notice come from?”
it’s official. i spoke to chad at the store, and to cody at hdq.
I received an email from Dave Bunce.
My gut feeling is that rent was just way too much in Encinitas to justify the business. And he just didn’t have the stock to compete with B&L and Nytro. But he did have some cool stuff.
Mike
it’s official as official can get. Dave is my room-mate and the truck is coming this weekend to load everything up, and Dave is heading back to Texas/Louisiana next week. Not only is San Diego losing a good tri shop, but I’m losing a cool room-mate.
Awwww. The women of north San Diego County will be bummed!
Yeah, I have to find a new home for the SoCal TT Cup trophies now!!
these are the tropies that are for this years winners www.timetrial.org/ttcup.htm
.
That’s too bad for the guys who had jobs there.
However, it was a mathematical certainty that the business would struggle. Opening a new tri shop in San Diego that was already served quite well by several shops and without a strong product line-up in place was wishfull thinking. That’s been done before in SD with similar results.
That type of focused high-end tri shop business model, at least in San Diego, is about 10 years too late.
We all admire and respect John Cobb but I don’t think the JC franchises can offer the magic that JC and the original Bicycle Sports delivers.
<< Dave has a trophy back home that he will be willing to show off.
that trophy is due to arrive at the household next Wednesday!!
hard nosed coverage Dan? 
…or are you waiting to tell the “bigger” story.
Either way, it’s a sad story (the Bicyclesports saga), unless you’re the bike companies who managed to get back their inventory from the stores across the country without losing to much $$$'s.
“…or are you waiting to tell the “bigger” story.”
what you said.
just my two cents…it would be great to have them in los angeles…they would do well in northern l.a., such as malibu…or even santa monica area…we don’t have anything like that here especially if you want something different than helen’s…there isn’t really anyplace to go in l.a…manhatten beach is not l.a. to me…it’s orange county…which we stay away from…ha…seriously though where is there to go in malibu or west l.a.? the zombie store is good???
That is a shame. J.C. is a hero among bicycle retailers like myself and a fine man who has done a lot for the sport. I don’t see this as any kind of significant set back though. Bicycle Sports strikes me as a very strong organization.
Having said that, I think their expansion plan was very ambitious. A number of years ago Hillary Clinton correctly identified under-capitalized businesses as a drain on the economy. She failed to comment on the bane of OVER capitalized businesses that grow too fast within a finite market.
The cycling industry and all its attendant niches are characterized by trends and fads. When you are in the middle of the “trend” or fad cycle it looks like it will never end. Whether it is skateboards, BMX, recumbents, MTB’s or triathlon bikes.
We’ve been selling triathlon bikes since before there were triathlon bikes. There was a time when we thought we may be able to sell as many as one triathlon bike a week. Now we often sell 5-8 per day on a busy day. Most days at least 1-3. The triathlon trend has reached and is at it peak, its zenith. It is all downhill from here. The sport has already survived one of the most turbulent periods in U.S. economic history- the period since 9/11/2001. That is impressive and suggests some version of the sport will be around for a long time. However, I don’t see a lasting market large enough to support a lot of the retailers who are now “speicalizing in triathlon”.
The Nytros, B&L’s, Bicycle Sports and Mission Bays (as well as us) will always be around. But a lot of the triathlon specialty retail we’ve seen born in the last four years will be gone in the next four years or sooner.
It’s the nature of the business. I’ve been doing this since I was sweeping floors in a Schwinn shop at age 15. I’ve seen 27 years of trends and fads in the bike industry. I’m just pleased my favorite spoort is the flavor of the decade now.
That is truly a shame because Dave bunce was an awesome guy. He did my bike fit and was very thorough and provided superb customer service. I also have been to Nytro and have no complains but I wouldn’t hesitate going back to Dave.
Regretfully, we are closing the doors here at Bicycle Sports San Diego. I truly appreciate all those who have supported us in this area. It’s been a blast getting to know all of you. I have accepted a job in TX with the company. Time to sell the surfboard and get out my cowboy boots!
There are some very new and exciting things happening with Bicycle Sports. So exciting that Chad Baker will be accompanying me as well. I couldn’t steal Dan Mayer away form the area as his roots have grown too deep. He will be missed. Stay tuned folks as details will be unveiled soon by either myself or Slowman.
Sincerely,
Dave Bunce
760.473.5307 (cell)
Would that be in Austin anywhere???
Please say Houston, we have nothing in Houston, we need something in Houston.