In this episode, I'll share conversations I had this week with two Portland bike shop owners. The first is Brad Parker from Metropolis Cycles on North Williams Avenue and the second is Cassie Hidalgo, the owner of Gladys Bikes on NE Alberta.

As we move further away from the peak of the pandemic, I wanted to circle back with shop owners who've been at the front lines of a tumultuous 20 months. First Covid hit and they had no idea what the future would hold. Then before they coucatch their breath, people were knocking down their doors as a bike boom took hold. They they ran out of parts and bikes as they set up an entirely new business model and scrambled to meet demand, while keeping staff and customers safe.

I waited to do these interviews, because it feels like bike shop life is finally getting back to normal and these owners are starting to breathe easier again.

Stay tuned for future episodes as I expand this series to a wider variety of shop owners across Portland.

The Bikeportland Podcast is a production of Pedaltown Media Inc, and is made possible by listeners like you. If you're not a subscriber yet, please become one today at bikeportland.org/support. You can listen to more episodes and find out how to subscribe at bikeportland.org/podcast.

Our theme music is by Kevin Hartnell.

Brad Parker 0:00

People were just coming in, like, I want to buy a bike, and they wouldn't even test ride them. They were just like trying to give us money for bikes and we're like, Yo, you need to make sure that this bike fits you and it's, you know, and people are like, I don't care. I just want to bite.

Jonathan Maus 0:13

Brad Parker 1:34

Well, it was really scary, you know, not knowing what to do, or, you know, what to do with the staff what to do with the customers. And that first week after the governor kind of made some announcements, we were really slow. So that was good. So we could kind of figure out what we were going to do. And one thing that I did was instead of, you know, just being like, I want to do this, I want to do this, I want to do this, basically, with the staff and myself were kind of like, what should we do? How should we handle this? And you know, we all got together and we're like, hey, maybe we should, you know, use our side window as like a check in, maybe not have people come into the shop, that's less interactions with people, you know, so that that was like a whole first month of COVID. You know, figuring out what we're going to do, how we're going to continue staying open and how we're going to work on bikes. And basically limiting the interaction we had with our customers, made our customers happy, made my employees happy. You know, but it was still kind of up in the air because we didn't know how easy you could get COVID. And, you know, it's just like everybody we were, you know, like real nervous and anxious and not sure what to do. We were scared, we are going to be able to stay open. There was no, you know, we didn't even start seeing the boom till I would say that the end of April, is just like when it started happening. And especially also that quick. Yeah, especially soon, as soon as the first checks started coming to help boost the economy is when it just went from zero to like holy cow. And, and also like, the other thing was, you know, people finally realized, like, Hey, I still want to be active, I still want to do stuff. I can be outside as long as I'm away from people. And so there's a combination of people getting a little bit of an income from the government. And then people being like, shoot, I can be on a bike, be away from people and still get away from all my problems. And that just, you know, was one of the reasons of the big boom, everybody wants to be outside and doing something.

Jonathan Maus 3:32

Yeah. So you went pretty fast from kind of nervous, anxious about what this thing might mean. Like, I think a lot of people were kind of like a lot of people in the retail business or like, or in the economic you know, economic advisors, stuff like that. Were thinking everybody might just, I don't know, sit in their house and like never spend another dollar. I think that's actually part of the supply chain issue that we'll talk about later is that this this, they totally underestimated consumer demand. But So you went from like being really nervous to all of a sudden you're seeing this uptick, uptick. And people are It's dawning on people that bicycles might be, like, cool, like, it might be fun to ride bikes, exactly. With the social distancing, as it dawned on people. So you saw that pretty, pretty quick. And was it new kind of people coming into the shop? Or like, what did you notice about like, who was buying stuff and what kind of things they were buying?

Brad Parker 4:18

That's actually a really good point, you're bringing up the first big wave, as we like to call it was first time but bike buyers or somebody who hasn't had a bike in a long time and buying a new bike. And that was like the first craze, like, people were just coming in, like, I want to buy a bike, and they wouldn't even test ride them. They were just like trying to give us money for bikes and we're like, Yo, you need to make sure that this bike fits you and it's you know, and people are like, I don't care. I just want a bike and it was nuts. There was people lined up outside just to buy bikes. So our inventory of bikes went super fast. Like three weeks we went from full bike shop to zero bikes,

Jonathan Maus 4:53

what kind of bikes were they buying?

Brad Parker 4:55

Everybody wanted to get commuter bikes. That was like the most popular like hey, Want the cheapest bike that's still good. Those went really fast. And then you'd come into the shop a few weeks later, and all we had was our most expensive bikes. That's what was left. But then those started going to, and it was just, yeah.

Jonathan Maus 5:17

Did you get a sense that people were buying bikes to like, recreate and roll around the neighborhood? Because they were stir crazy, or? Because they, you know, what did you get a sense of like, what? What is it about bikes that people were kind of getting excited about? Or was it maybe people that like, I don't know, they, they needed exercise and the gym was closed? Like was it a mix of things,

Brad Parker 5:41

I think it was a mix of things. Stir Crazy would definitely be one of the the top points there. And the reason being is, we we assumed like all these new people were getting bikes. So we started for an example of knowing that these are kind of people that were only what we call like Sunday writers are only going to write on sunny days, is so we bought a bunch of fenders for that fall, because we'd sold so many bikes were like, oh, all these people are going to come in to buy fenders. We didn't sell any fenders that first year. You know, it's just like, Okay, we didn't really think about this, you know, people weren't buying bikes to be hardcore commuters and be the hardcore Portland cyclists, they just wanted to get out of the house and, you know, get get a little exercise and enjoy the the good weather. So that, you know that we did get a few hardcore cyclists out of it. But it's mostly, you know, fairweather cyclists that were purchasing them.

Jonathan Maus 6:35

So so going into that first summer, you had this uptick in sales, people were coming in just grabbing whatever bike they could get. Tell me about what you settled into in terms of like, your COVID, like standard operating procedure, just like as a shop was, you know, appointments, like how did how did the shop work at that point?

Brad Parker 6:51

Well, we we basically, right at the get go made it. So everyone had to make an appointment, whether you were getting a flat fix whether you were wanting to just look at a bike, you wanted to buy a tube, you wanted to get pedals, whatever it was, we said, you need to make an appointment, mainly because you know that that first few weeks of people buying bikes, and it was nuts, we wanted to like maybe make it so everyone wasn't coming at the same time. So we weren't getting crowds outside the bike shop, because that's kind of what you were trying to get away from. And so by doing the appointments that really worked out well. So we could, you know, have one person come in one employee outside with that one customer, so they could do a test drive. So we could still have that one on one, spend time with the customer. And not you know, make an unsafe situation with having a bunch of people even even outside close to each other. So that that's one of the first things we did. Other than that, obviously, everyone in the shop wearing masks, cleaning all surfaces with Clorox, you know, all that jazz. You know, and just communicating, you know, if somebody learned something about what we should be doing, telling everyone else should we be doing this, you know, should we implement that? And, yeah, just by keeping all the customers outside, and that way, people aren't walking in and touching everything. And we, it made it easier to keep the bike shop clean.

Jonathan Maus 8:17

Like take me take me into like your frame of mind. So you're selling bikes, so you're probably a little relieved that the doors are probably still gonna be able to stay open. At least you thought maybe thought they were you know, you had you felt pretty good about sales. But then you had all this like nervousness just around like the virus and you're probably concerned like about employees, like what was your What was your mindset? Getting into that summer, that sort of first summer of COVID? What were you feeling as the owner of the shop?

Brad Parker 8:42

Well, that whole year, like just being, you know, our, all of our anxiety, anxiety levels were super high. But my main concern was making a safe environment for my employees, as well as you know, like, keeping the business going. So they have a job. And basically, any extra penny we made above, you know, normal profits, we saved it just because we didn't know what was going to happen. Like we were going to have to close for two weeks, a month, you know, whatever we wanted to just, I want to make sure we had like a little nest egg so people could still get paid. Whatever we needed to do. You know, the government came out and started helping with that kind of situations. But fortunately, we only had to close once for five days because we just had a scare all negative tests.

Jonathan Maus 9:30

So you so you dodge this sort of health issues with your own own staff and everybody was stayed healthy throughout most part. Tell me how long it was until you started to notice like product shortages and that that whole wave started.

Brad Parker 9:43

I would say when it started started getting bad. It was like towards the middle of the first summer. And I just went to go reorder pedals. And there was no pedals that soon so that yeah, you're selling all those new bikes. And most nice new bikes don't come with pedals. So if everybody's, you know, selling bikes like crazy, they're selling pedals like crazy. And so it's just like, oh crap, why are pedals hard to get? You know, and then, and then right after that, it's like, you know, what wears out the soonest on a bike, usually brake pads and chains, that stuff started going,

like, like you would call your distributor or whatever, whatever. And they would just say, either it's a long wait time or call us back. We don't have it yet. Or like, what were they? What were you hearing?

Well, at the beginning, they, they didn't even know what to tell us. They're just like, we don't know what's going on. We don't know how long it's gonna take, you know, because it was a bunch of stuff on there. And, you know, you know, our that our reps were just like, the purchasers don't know how long it's going to take because the factories closed, because people are sick, or, you know, we can't get containers and stuff like that. But I would say, a few, six months after that, they kind of knew it was a bunch of things. So it wasn't just one thing.

Like in terms that was what was leading to the shortage. Yes. Right. Because like for, for listeners that aren't like in the in the biking world, it wasn't just that a lot of people were buying stuff, it was that a lot of bikes and bike parts come from places in Asia. Yep, that were hit really hard with COVID. And they just, like really shut the factories down. Didn't they? Like at first? Yeah. Before us. So that predated the surge in, in sales? And then so it was there's multiple factors there not just the demand from customers.

Yeah, exactly. Because, you know, the bike shops run out of stuff, then the warehouses run out of stuff. Then, if the factories aren't producing stuff to fill the warehouses, then it starts getting backed up, backed up, backed up to where, you know, the only people that are getting parts are bike manufacturers. Why? Because their factories are over in Asia. So Asia to Asia, you know, fact factories work together better than having to go across, logistically across an ocean and all that jazz. So yeah, it's, it's almost like all the parts went to New, because all the bike companies, you know, they're like, Hey, there's this new bike, boom, we got to pump out the bikes. So what's the priority bikes? Not, you know, getting these replacement parts out to the, you know, the end user, if that makes sense?

Yeah. So how did you navigate that? Did you have to tell a lot people No, did that add? Like, were you nervous that maybe that was going to have a real dent on sales? Or how do you deal with not having the right kind of products when you needed them?

That's a good question. What we tried to do is instead of have not having an option at all, just finding a different option, you know, instead of having the name brand brake pads, we went to a generic brake pad we even went to like new distributors we never ordered from and and now they're like a main distributor for us because they have it's just like, wow, I never thought about this and

what happened locally with like other bike shops Did you was there like communication going on? And like how to deal with this stuff, where people just like triaging their own shops and not able to talk? They know, in the past, there's kind of been this like, seems like there's a pretty good camaraderie among most shops, especially regionally in town like north northeast Portland, like, did you have communication with other shop owners to find out what they were doing?

Yep, absolutely. At the beginning, we were talking quite a bit. And even communicating, like, where can you get stuff. But as it went on, it was like, almost, it was just like, that was our full time job was finding stuff. So I don't know, as as it went on, we kind of got away from that. It's not that we weren't, you know, continuing to communicate, because every once in a while, you get a message on our little message thing that we had were like, hey, these people have brake pads, you know, but I think we're just all in the same boat after a while. It's like, just get it where you can, you know, and and, you know, if you did get a good tip, you shared it, you know,

what happened after that two things kind of ever reached like a normal stasis where you kind of Yeah, you still have some part shortages. And there's, you know, you're still seeing maybe more people buying bikes or like, what what ended up happening on like, the demand side, you know, going into like, just this last spring?

Well, it's, we're still really deep in the park shortage. Especially, you know, with hydraulic brakes, 1112 Speed chains, can't get a, you know, a 12 speed derailleur till you know, the end of next summer. So the short bike part shortage will last. If it's not one year, it might even be a few more years, it's gonna be a while before it's, it's normal. For our bike shop. The one thing that's starting to get normal is we have bikes you know, some of our bike companies, we really haven't gotten any in like a year and a half, where a few of our other companies we're starting to, you know, fill up our backstock which our basement where we usually keep some of our backstock has been empty for almost two years and now we're like putting stuff down there.

And have you seen any any shift in the kind of customers I mean, I'm assuming you lost a probably a lot of like commuters since a lot of people aren't aren't coming to the office. I was curious about that. And you also live like on a commuter corridor. So has that have you noticed that and then it was it like are our people I know a lot more people are riding like off road these days. Seeing some of that like any Can you share anything about like, the customer mix? That's been different?

Yep, absolutely. So the first year, commuters were like done like, as in like coming into the shop we had almost zero commuters. The uptick new bike sales we were talked about earlier, but the other thing was mountain biking and mountain bike sales. You know, we couldn't even get mountain bike so the demand was so high for for almost a year. And so anything to do with mountain bikes, whether it's brakes, brake pads, chains, you know, suspension service just really grew in the last year and a half the one thing that we have been seeing in the last like four months, commuters are coming back and they're coming back really strong for us at least because we're on this commuter. Yeah. Corridor and and that's what our services totally right now, all summer long, mountain bikes, gravel bikes, now it's commuter bike, commuter bike commuter bike, and it warms our heart, you know, cuz commuters have always been our, our main, you know, clientele and it's just good to see him come back and see the fender sales like sales, you know what I mean? Just like the, the stuff that we've telltale signs of commuters. Yep. And, and you can it's, you know, we we were busy at like one o'clock during COVID Now we're back to people are actually working downtown. And the last hour, we're, we're open, we're just running our butts off. And it's just like, This is how it was before COVID. You know, and, and it's, it's slowly, you know, at least for us coming back in that fashion. And so

you're you're not quite back to the old way of the shop, we can just kind of barge on in and and or what is left of your COVID sort of safety protocols?

That's a good question. So we still have, you know, multiple signs outside that say, you know, check in at the side window. And that's mainly so we visually can see that you're wearing a mask when anyone calls to you know, see if they still need to make an appointment, or can they come in to look at a bike will usually tell them on the phone, if you're wearing a mask. Come on in, you know, and you know, bring your own helmet if you want to go on a test ride, you know, stuff like that. But um, we, we I think it's been since last April that we started letting people back in so we were not letting people in for just over a year. So cool.

So is it do you think is anything about like this whole last year and a half or so that like a lot of customers a lot of riders like just got wrong about like local shops and what you're going through? Did you hear any, like misconceptions from people? I'm just curious if you if there's anything you want folks to know, that, you know, kind of set the record straight about something or anything that people kind of assumed incorrectly or anything like that.

There's been a few people that have complained about like the increase in in, you know, how much stuff costs, so,

so things are definitely back to normal because customers complaining about? Yes. Okay, so any thoughts about like, what do you think it's gonna be what do you think's gonna hit the fan next, like, you know, supply chain stuff still there, I mean, the COVID things probably not going to get any worse here. So that's going to continue to kind of probably get back to normal, or some some semblance of that, or at least some kind of, like, status quo that we learned to deal with, but like, anything in your mind that like, you see coming on up on the radar that that could be different coming up here pretty soon with the shop.

You know, that that's a really good question. Just because the last few years, it's just been, you know, learn as you go. And, you know, the only thing that we've been changing is the fact that we know we can't get parts for a long time. So we've kind of started storing a lot more parts like you know, instead of buying usually having three in stock we have like 30 in stock if we can get it just you know, because we know we can't get it for a really long time. And so my my fear is like what if everything comes back into stock and we have like all this stuff, you know what I mean? So that's any business owners you know, problem they're dealing with right now you know, the supply is just I see what's the next year gonna bring? Should I keep doing it? Should I keep hoarding part right you know, so you

got a ton of stuff and then so something some wrinkle happens when you didn't you don't need that or for whatever reason that could be a little gloves.

Yeah, shop. And rumor has it too there's there's quite a few manufacturers, you know, overseas that that they feel like the the bike boom is going to when it stops it's going to stop pretty hard. And a lot of their investors or whoever's in charge of the factory and how much they produce. They I've what I've heard is they don't want to be pumping it out because they feel that if they do, they're going to flood you know, the market their products not going to be as worth as much because there's too much of it out there. Or they're going to be stuck with a bunch in their factories, you know, because everybody's got too much of it.

It's weird to think it's weird to think of bike parts as like, like I think like oil or something like there's oil cartels that get to decide how much to pump and then like that sets everything but like the way you describe that is like there's a Actually, I mean, it doesn't make sense. They have these levers that they can push and pull. And that determines how much stuff can be made in this in the big in the big factories. Yeah. And then that sort of sets the tone for pricing and availability and all that stuff. Yeah. Right. You're saying if they, if they decide the booms over and they, and they sort of like overcorrect for that, that may shut off the spigot and cause other problems.

Yeah, that, you know, they're worried about the, you know, their own, you know, I wouldn't call it micro economics, but their own, you know, true economics for the future. And, you know, they don't want to damage, you know, their profits the next season.

Okay, so keep hoarding, you're gonna need to maybe move into another little part of the shop here. Yeah. Right. Like anything else you want people to know.

I mean, we're excited people are biking. You know, the bike boom is awesome. And we love seeing more people out there. And, and we're stoked to start seeing faces we haven't seen in a long time. So if you haven't been by, please come by and say, hi, we, you know, COVID affected everybody differently. And, you know, a lot of people got into cycling, and a lot of cyclists we used to see all the time disappeared, you know, and we're hoping to see some faces, again, that we haven't seen in a long time. And, yeah, we missed a lot of people. We missed a lot of things. And we're hoping that we can make it as close to normal as we can in the future.

Cool. Thanks for talking with us, Brett. Yeah, you

got it. Thank you.

That was Brad Parker, owner of Metropolis cycles on North Williams Avenue. My next Conversations with Cassie Hidalgo who took over as owner of Gladys bikes, the same month, we all went into lockdown. Here's our conversation.

My name is Cassie Hidalgo. I'm the owner of Gladys bikes. We're on 29th in northeast Alberta. I labeled us as a commuter shop. And recently, we've been selling some new bikes, which is really exciting because a lot of folks out there's like a bike shortage and all the things. But most of the bikes that we've sold in history are commuter bikes, touring, bikes, grappling bikes, grappling gravel bikes. And most importantly, we're here to answer people's questions and like a be a support for whatever type of cyclist you are, which entails. You get on a bike, you're a cyclist, and like, that's kind of then that's the bar

to help get you back into your frame of mind as you start to like, watch the news and you can kind of tell something's gonna happen. And then like, for me, personally was always like, when Governor Brown came out with her statement about it, I was like, Okay, this is this is a real thing. This is gonna impact us all like, do you remember what you were thinking about? You know, mostly as a shop owner at that time, like, what was your frame of mind?

Yeah, I mean, can I say that? Like, is it concrete enough to say that my charisma just like, vanished before my eyes, I was expecting the transition of taking over the shop to be just this like, really, like magical time for myself and the previous owner, Leah. And when I saw the announcement and kind of just saw COVID start taking effect in the western world in general. I knew that it was going to be something big. And so yeah, I just lost charisma got really concerned. And mainly, I was concerned about my employees. I just wanted to make sure that like we were all gonna be okay. Because that was the biggest new thing for me and being a owner was having employees.

And when you say you lost charisma you're Are you saying that? What you? Are you kind of like an extrovert Did you think that did you were you looking forward to the aspect of the shop where like, there'd be all these people around, and you'd be able to host things in the shop and have people like events and stuff like that,

just wanting the transition and just my first six months to a year the shop to be a lot more community focused. What that means for me as like a queer, Latina next person is just honestly just gathering and getting goofy and being weird. that couldn't happen. But what I was really excited about was taking over the ship that is Gladys, and I think Gladys just means a lot more to me and to a lot of people than just like a bike shop where you can come in and get things and do things. And so as soon as I found out that we weren't going to be able to gather or see people or you know, I think when did we hear that term lockdown? I can't remember when that was had been March or April, I think. Yeah. And so March was when I officially like took over. And so like March was the time where we heard the term lockdown, and I was just like, okay, all right.

So did you did it take you a while to settle into like a new operating procedure? I know things were I'm assuming you had some time close but then you reopen and what did that all look like?

Yeah, our time close just met me doing the things so my employees were able to get on unemployment pretty quickly. And then that only really lasted for like a month to two months depending on the employee. And then it was just me doing like bare bones wrenching and getting people bikes because we had bikes and people were wanting bikes to get to and from They needed to be without having to take the bus at that point in time after that it was just a matter of creating, like a functioning but yet restrictive bike shop, to where two people could be here safely. You know, I think it took us what, like, four months as a society to figure out the mask thing. Yeah, right. Yeah. And then we long time. Yeah. But we didn't let anybody inside until probably like, fall last year. Wait this year? Okay. Yeah, I very fuzzy on timelines, because of the most that has been the last few years.

Yeah. Yeah. How long until you? Or did you see the impacts of this boom, and like more people wanting to go on their bikes? For physical distancing? Or, you know, that sort of thing? Did you? Did you feel that at the shop quickly? Or did that ever happen? Or?

Yeah, it was quite quickly. So I mean, and I think that, you know, I can only speak to my experience, but taking on the shop, was, I would say, good timing, bad timing, in the sense that there was such a big boom and the desire for bikes in 2020. But we had not a lot of backstock, because I was taking on new ownership. And so there wasn't, the idea was that I would like build my preferred inventory. As I took over the shop, just to keep logistics a little more simple, changing ownership. And then, so we just didn't have a whole lot of bikes. And so we ran out of bikes really quickly, some really started to kick in. And we were selling everything. Yeah, as a business owner. That's not like a complaint a complaint at all. But what is was challenging for us. And what kind of really clicked was when people were buying bikes that maybe weren't even like the best fit for them, or were $1,000 more than what they had, like, hey, you know, I just want like a bike to like, get me to and fro. Something like $300. And like, well, we have this $1,300 bike that can get you across the country. Does that? Does that work?

limited supply to meet the demand, or at least this some specific demand must have been frustrating.

Yeah. And that's kind of when it clicks. So here in the shop, we felt it mostly just based off of people's thirst to kind of get their hands on whatever they could say the main time it clicked when I was like, Oh, this is gonna be weird was when people were coming from like, Grants Pass, bend, like people were coming from other parts of Oregon or other parts of Washington to scoop up a bike here. And take it back.

Wow, they were just like, scouring the web. And yeah, maybe realized you had a brand that they wanted in my head stock or something. Oh,

absolutely. And, and, and that was, you know, I'm grateful to those people for choosing us as that shop, but I love it when folks buy from us and then stick with us as like they progress or just need more support. So I like it when people become kind of a part of our family here as like cliche as that sounds. And so that was like, not an ideal sale for us. But I'm not gonna say no, we're not going to say no to people that come through the door, and like, oh, I want that back. And I don't live here.

So you experienced the like the anxiety of this, this this lockdown and this virus going on. And then pretty relatively quickly, you have to sort of like get everything up to speed and deal with like a boom and an increased demand. And then did you What about any shortage in supply? That I mean, beyond just the initial rush of the of the sort of increased sales and business people coming in? But when did you start to notice some of like, the supply chain stuff that we're seeing now? And like bike bike parts not being able to, you know, just because the factories were closed down and that sort of thing? Is that something you experienced? Oh, absolutely.

Yeah. So I mean, we experienced a shortage of everything, from helmets, to tubes to chain to cassettes, to saddles, and a lot of still persistent today. Because the demand is lessened with the colder and rainier months. I don't think that, you know, I'm scrambling as much to meet the needs of some of our basic inventory demands. But the shortages still exist, you know, understandably, I think it's gonna take you know, I have no support for this at all, but I would dissipate shortages getting continuing for like another year, year and a half.

What about what about workers and staff? Have you experienced or what's been that what's like debit dubbing experience, like in the past year or so just with keeping your existing ones around and dodging some of the health problems? You know, the dodging COVID infections? Yeah, and also just retaining people and getting staff and keeping keeping enough workers here.

Yeah. We're really lucky. As you can see, it's a small shop so it's really just me and two other main humans and then the fitters who work in this building or in this shop and I was super fortunate to have folks that were willing to stay on after Gladys was sold. So I've had Gladys has had the same employees for the past five years. And then Jim, the service manager has been around since the like genesis of Goddess. So really, I would say they were my rocks in a lot of ways. And then keeping them on, I just made sure to tell them, like, instead of just taking like one day off here and there, like they would take weeks off, we joke that like, everybody got like a week long vacation every month. And that didn't actually pencil out. But yeah, it was nice to just be able to give each other space when we needed it and kind of pick up the slack when somebody else needed to leave. And but yeah, for the first year and a half, I would say a lot of or the first full year, year in 14 months. None of us really could go anywhere, right? Or could do anything. So we were just, we were pretty happy to have this place to come to what

how would you sort of assess where things are now? It's not completely normal yet. But where's Where do you feel like the shop and the community around the shop is at this point in regards to all the tumult of the past year and a half or so? In terms of what what you might see as a normal down the road? How close are you? What's it like right now?

Yeah, that's a good timing question. I mean, with the fall, and like the seasons of change, I've been able to see glimmers of like, what I want the shop to be as far as just operationally how its functioning, like the smoothness of it. And then, you know, personally, I feel like I'm able to do a few more like creative projects, which is cool. And I'm like, not a creative person, like at all. And so it takes me just a lot to actually get creative. And to think outside the box. I'm a lot, a lot more like technically oriented person. And yeah, so getting creative for me just takes a lot of a lot of time and a lot of mine space. And I've been able to step into that with the slower season, as far as community of the shop goes, have been able to like we have friends come and visit us at the shop now. And we like hug each other and cross is across seasons, always a really, really great time to kind of be reminded of you know what could be because you're outside everybody's, everybody's feeling weird. Everybody's feeling good. And so that's been really fun to kind of dip my toe back into dipoto back into. And then I've been really, really inspired by all the people who don't, who aren't bike career people like don't work at bike shops, like with all of the pedal Palooza rides that happened this year, like all the Ala bipoc groups that are popping up bolstering up the community of cycling and making it more inclusive and welcoming. And, you know, I don't think Gladys has had in the past two years under my ownership has had really anything to do with that. We've just been kind of existing as a bike shop. And I'm really, really happy to be able to step back into that community.

Yeah. And speaking of that, have you noticed you just mentioned like the the bike park Northwest and there's there's other groups of people who weren't sort of what people would typically assume the Portland bike community as and so the the color and face of that has changed. I think in the last year and a half people have sort of risen up and said, Hey, we're here to we're going to start organizing rights. Anything else about like the type of writers you're seeing that that are different? I talked to another shop owner a few days ago who's saying like in his vibe, and he's also like, sort of on a commuting corridor. Over on Williams it, there's definitely you notice that people are actually going back to the office. So like, have you seen a return of the commuter or anything like that? That's worth noting? Yeah,

definitely. I mean, we've seen a lot of commuters for the past two years that work in the medical field. So we've still seen our fair deal of commuters. And so that's been really cool. I love I love that I love people come in and you're like, I don't know why my bike is like so thrashed. I just commute on it. That's like that's the hardest thing to do on a bike like that also considered biking. Yeah, that's like your the roads are gross. And like you're putting it through so much.

Have you seen any but what's your what's your take on like some people that maybe came in here? Just because they want to do social distancing. And they were sort of like, you know, they went to dust off their bike because they finally realized oh, my gosh, biking is such an awesome thing to do during this COVID time. So they came in and maybe got a new bike or new parts. Have you noticed people you think you're gonna stick around? Do you have a sense for that? Like, how do we create some lifelong riders throughout this pandemic? Boom situation?

Yeah, it's hard to say. I mean, I, I'd hope so. I mean, I'd hope that folks keep those really reliable and resourceful machines. That bikes are keep them operational. Because I think one thing that has been, you know, and that's not to put any pressure on anybody, I think that's just as a person that likes biking and finds nostalgia and and like a euphoria in writing and keeps me healthy and keeps me sane. I hope that if that is something that rings true to other people, even in the slightest sense that they continue to do it. Another one that's been new. I remember when I moved to Portland, just the better part of 10 years ago, I saw so many weird frickin bikes, on the streets just like weirdos riding bikes. And it was awesome. And I think this past year and a half I've just seen, I've kind of seen like a rise of that again. Whether that be in like a group or by themselves. And so I've really enjoyed that I've loved seeing people get really creative and real fun with their bikes. Again,

that's always like a great sign. I think of like a healthy biking community ecosystem. Assume we have like the freak bikes and the creative bikes. And yeah, love it. So looking ahead, what is there anything you want to share with folks about like, what they might see from Gladys in the next maybe spring or summer? Like what what should people be thinking in terms of the future of Gladys and what to look forward to?

Yeah, I'm hoping to. And we already are starting last month, we're going to start doing our maintenance workshops, again, which has always been small scale. So we do like small workshops of like four people at a time. And then we try and do those twice a month. Right now. We're just doing them once a month. And then we're doing one on one workshops. And hopefully, I mean, winter time, it's hard to do, you know, functioning group rides to the point where you can have fun photos and lots of laughs because everybody's just trying to keep their hands cold hands warm, and more group rides coming out of here, that doesn't mean that we'll be leading them. But there have been lots of folks who have reached out who want to, you know, start their rights here and hope to just continue to be a spot where folks can come and feel welcome and where machismo can just like get dropped the door before they come in. So

thank you so much, Cassie for sharing. Yeah,

yeah. Thanks for checking.

That was Cassia Hidalgo, owner of Gladys bikes on Alberta. Stay tuned for future episodes as I expand this series to a wider variety of shop owners across Portland. The bikeportland Podcast is a production of peddle town Media Incorporated is made possible by listeners just like you. If you're not a subscriber yet, please become one today at bikeportland.org/support. You can also listen to more episodes and find out how to subscribe to our podcast at bikeportland.org/podcast. You can listen to more episodes and find out how to subscribe at bikeportland.org/podcast. Our theme music is by Kevin Hart now. I'm your host Jonathan Maus. Until next time, thanks for listening and I'll see you in the streets.