Bike sales in Grande Prairie have sky rocketed during COVID-19. Photo Credit: Shane Clausing

By Shane Clausing

Bike Sales

Bike sales in Grande Prairie sky rocket during COVID-19

May 28, 2020 | 5:30 AM

Bike sales in Grande Prairie and across the Province of Alberta have taken a big hike during COVID-19.

With COVID-19 providing more free time for folks, seemingly more people around the region have taking up cycling as a new hobby.

Dean Radbourne is a partner at Ernies Sports Experts in Grande Prairie and says he’s never seen bikes fly off the shelves like they have during COVID-19.

“I don’t think it’s any secret that anything with wheels right now has been wildly popular through COVID. I think we are certainly seeing days like we haven’t seen before and the demand for bicycles is grossly outweighing the supply chain.

“The bicycle business is pretty well documented right now that it’s never seen a surge like this before, so all of our supply chains are drying up which is leading to some different challenges than we were expecting going into this. It’s wild for sure.”

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Radbourne said that he thinks this surge in cycling is good for the community and adds that he could see recreational cycling being sport that’s back on the upswing.

“I think that COVID has pushed people to get back on their bicycles or to look at cycling again as a way to be mentally and physically healthy while keeping social distancing practices in place,” said Radbourne. “A lot of these folks are coming back to cycling after quite a break and just to see how much they’ve (the bikes) changed and how much more comfortable they’re to ride or faster or whatever the case might be.

“I think they’re already kind of re-falling in love with cycling. I think that we’re going to see this trend continue because I think people are remembering how much fun they had on bicycles beforehand.”

With summertime almost here many people are looking for what bike it is they want to ride.. Radbourne says there plenty of options to choose from.

“The big questions that we ask are, ‘where are you going to ride?’ Will it be strictly on the road, fire trails, gravel trails, Nitehawk or the South Bear Creek Skills Park?”

“The second question is of course ‘how often are you going to ride?’ Is it something that is very recreational for you, or are you looking to get into this on a bit more of a serious level?”

“With those pieces of information we can really narrow it down to style and the type of bicycle you’re looking for.”

While the bike supply chain is low in Grande Prairie, there are still some in stock and there is some good news for parents that are looking to get their kids onto a bike this summer.

Over the years. Ernies Sports has provided a trade-in service for used kids bikes, because most kids out grow their bikes after a summer or two.

On Saturday morning, May 30, the store will put the used bikes collected from the last year out into the parking lot and sell them to the public at affordable prices.