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There’s never been a better time to take up biking.
Brett Winter Lemon
It’s not only about having a great bike to ride the roads or trails – it’s also about having trusted professionals properly care for your bike, too.
It’s early afternoon at Downshift, a bike shop on Campbell Avenue in the heart of downtown Roanoke. Owner Steve Ambruzs is helping one of his repeat customers with questions about her bike’s chain. Customers are ordering coffee and craft beers from Downshift’s bar. Many take their drinks to the tables and chairs scattered about the store, in-between bicycles and gear for cycling enthusiasts hanging on the wall. It gives Downshift more of the feeling of a cafe than a store that specializes in selling, customizing and repairing bicycles. That’s exactly the point, Ambruzs says.
“What we offer to new cyclists and people who have been biking for a long time is a place to meet up, get acquainted and get advice and support. We wanted to create a really low-pressure environment. We’re not trying to sell them a bike, we’re trying to build community.”
Many of Ambruzs’s clientele are chatting with each other with a warm, relaxed familiarity that shows Downshift’s philosophy is working. It is clear this is more than just a store for them, it’s become a destination.
“We didn’t know how well the cafe would do for us,” Ambruzs says. “It has been doing really good. We’re kind of like Cheers, we know their names.”
There are more names to learn every day. Bicycling is growing in the region, as a hobby, as a business and as an alternative to the car-commuting lifestyle. There have been bike businesses in the Valley for a long time, driven by the Blue Ridge Parkway, an abundance of local trail rides and the sheer beauty of Southwest Virginia. In the last few years, several new bike stores have opened up catering to the growing number of people wanting to get out and ride.
Ambruzs came to Virginia from Alaska and opened Downshift in 2017 after selecting Roanoke as a promising location.
“We interviewed many cities before we decided to open here,” he says. “Roanoke offered the best mix of cost of living, quality of life, and environment.”
He commends the local governments for encouraging bicycling by including bike lanes on their roads, developing and expanding the Roanoke Valley Greenway program, as well as supporting and sponsoring local biking events like the Annual Blue Ridge Go-Cross cyclecross racing event held on Labor Day weekend.
The Go-Cross has attracted national and international bikers to Roanoke and the surrounding region. Last year’s event drew thousands of spectators and over a thousand participants including riders from 29 states, Australia, Canada, Denmark, France and the United Kingdom.
Go-Cross also had an economic impact of $388,149 in indirect and induced spending on the region, an increase of 90% from the previous year’s event, says Pete Eshelman, with the Roanoke Outside Foundation, which organizes the Go-Cross.
“We’re meeting our goal of becoming a destination event,” Eshelman states. “It also reinforces awareness of the Roanoke Region’s outdoor assets especially in the international cycling community.”
That awareness impacts bike shops like Downshift, which has experienced such a demand for their repair and customization work that they have expanded their service facilities to a building nearby on 4th Street.
Another long-time local bike shop, Cardinal Bicycle, is also expanding in response to the growing biking community here. Cardinal, which opened on Orange Avenue back in 1977, is converting the Mick-or-Mack grocery store building off Grandin Road into a new 11,000-square-foot store.
“We’ve experienced growth in a few areas,” Whit Ellerman, the owner of Cardinal, says. “With more attention to our area trails, we are still seeing more people buying mountain bikes. We also saw an increase in road bike sales this year coinciding with the announcement of the Ironman 70.3.”
Ironman 70.3 is an international triathlon race. It includes a 56-mile—or 90-kilometer—bike race. Carilion Clinic was sponsoring the inaugural year of this event in Roanoke this June. However, due to events surrounding the COVID-19 epidemic, Ironman’s first year in Roanoke has now been pushed back to 2021.
“We’re seeing a lot of interest in the Ironman 70.3,” Wes Best, the co-owner of the East Coasters Bike Shop on Brambleton Avenue, says. “A lot of folks are buying road bikes getting ready for that.”
East Coasters opened in Blacksburg in 1974 and expanded into Roanoke in 1993. Best says their business has been brisk. He’s happy to see biking in the region finally getting its due.
“Carvins Cove is the centerpiece of off-road riding, but there are hundreds and hundreds of miles of trails outside of the Cove, from Mill Mountain in Roanoke to Waid Park in Franklin County to the National Forest that surrounds the area. The paved road riding is world-class. Everyone raves about the Blue Ridge Parkway which is for sure great but the back roads of Roanoke County, Franklin County, Floyd County all offer some really breathtaking beauty, smart route choices and pretty low traffic.”
All those trails and choices led to Roanoke acquiring a Silver-Level Ride Center designation by the International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA). Roanoke is the only community on the East Coast to have such a designation.
“The Ride Center designation means bikers across the country, and the world, know there are good trails to ride here,” explains Richard Blackwood with BROC—Blue Ridge Off-Road Cyclists, a chapter of IMBA.
BROC, and many other private, municipal and volunteer organizations put in the hard work over several years to make the IMBA certification a reality.
“Bikers go to destinations,” Blackwood says. “They’re willing to travel for good rides, good trails and they have money to spend on bike shops, hotels, restaurants, breweries and bars. The local municipalities have come to understand and value that.”
For many in the bike business, it’s not just about good business for them, it’s about lifestyle, sustainability and quality of life.
“No doubt, biking has made my life better,” says Cody Stallard, with Just the Right Gear, an 18-year-old bike shop located near Carvins Cove. “It’s not just about the money for us. We’re contributing to the whole community. I like to think of it as smiles per hour.” I
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