Colorado's Pro Cycling expands with second location

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (BRAIN) — Retailer Bruce McGrew recently opened a second Pro Cycling store on Colorado Springs' east side. Located in a high-traffic retail development, the new store serves a growing part of the city, which is home to about 450,000 residents. The shop opened its doors mid-June.

McGrew, who opened the first Pro Cycling store near downtown Colorado Springs' in 2003, said he had thought about expanding for some time, and finally the right opportunity came about when he bumped into the owner of the retail development at a party.

"He told me he would like to have a bike shop out there on that side of town, and he gave me a favorable rate in a high-profile location," McGrew said. "We're coming in at the right time I think. The east side was underserved, and the shops out in that area are more performance oriented and don't cater to family-style bikes. Since it's the growth part of the city, we felt that kind of store would do well."

The new store focuses on lower to mid-priced mountain, road, fitness and kids' bikes and e-bikes. The original Pro Cycling store caters to enthusiasts and racers with a broader selection of higher-end models, particularly in the mountain bike category, where McGrew said sales have grown steadily over the past few years.

"It's more of a mountain town than a road bike town, even though we've got a very active cycling community, with USA Cycling and the Olympic training center here," he said. "But we've seen a distinct reduction in our road sales, with about 80 percent of our overall sales going to mountain. It wasn't that long ago when we were 60/40 mountain-road. But a lot of our customers who I pegged as dyed in the wool roadies have started mountain biking. They perceive, and probably correctly, that it's safer."

But gravel sales have replaced some of those lost road sales and Pro Cycling's overall unit sales are up — just in a different category. McGrew said he hopes the new store will complement Pro Cycling West.

Pro Cycling worked with Specialized to design the new 5,500 square-foot store.

"I appreciate the efforts of the Specialized crew that assisted us. They came down and designed every fixture location and came up with great ideas, like using the faux barn wood and planning traffic flow — ideas I wouldn't have thought of," McGrew said. "They really know what they are doing and were very helpful."

The shop has a full-service repair department and a dedicated section highlighting the Turbo e-bike line, with 15-20 models in stock. McGrew said Pro Cycling was an early e-bike adopter, having stocked Turbo models since they first came available. He's optimistic the new store's location is ideal for selling pedal-assist models.

"We've only been open a few days and have sold one e-bike with a deposit on another one," he said. "The neighborhood is conducive to it, and now we've got e-bikes we can sell for $2,500, where not that long ago, they were more than $5,000. It opens up the category to more prospective buyers. I'm excited about it."

Brian Stratton, who is also a partner in Pro Cycling, oversees both stores and runs the day-to-day business. The new store employs eight people, and 10 employees work at the west side location, which is around 5,000 square feet with a 2,000 square-foot warehouse. Both stores carry bikes from Specialized, Santa Cruz, Juliana and Yeti.