What the store in Gothenburg looked like, back in the day. (We borrowed this picture from Cykelcity i Göteborg. Hope that's OK!)
As I wrote Cykelcity was a chain of specialised bicycle stores, they only sold road, mountain and triathlon bikes (and, of course, clothes, bicycle parts and accessories). To be honest, they could give you quite an attitude. The first time I went there I was looking for a cassette for my 1988 Peugeot Mont Blanc, a six speed cassette. The guy behind the counter looked at me, said “No, we don’t have anything like that” and the other guys in the store started sniggering. That attitude. Some time later I saw, from a distance, a guy dragging his old bike into the store, only to storm out seconds later, still dragging his bike. When we passed each other I saw that he had a flat tire. I have no idea what the guys in the store said to him or what they did, but he was fuming. Cykelcity didn’t deal with old bicycles and they certainly didn’t deal with regular bicycles, but… just because you have a specialised bicycle store you don’t have to be a jerk.
To be honest I don’t remember what made me come back
there. Maybe I was looking for something that I knew that they sold, or it was
around the time that I started to put together my road bicycle. Anyway, now
that I started buying specialised, expensive stuff I got treated completely
different. The guys in the store talked to me, helped me and explained pros and
cons of the products I were looking at. When I bought a complete Campagnolo groupset
(well, almost – they didn’t have everything in) and Fulcrum wheels I got the
royal treatment. I started accepting that Cykelcity is a specialised bicycle store,
they sell and serve high-end road and mountain bikes. I still don’t think that
you have to be a jerk, though!
And maybe it was that attitude that forced them to
close down. When you’re treated badly it takes a bit to come back to the place.
(Now that I think about it I think I might have been accompanying my friend
Christian the second time I went there.) And rumour spreads, if you’re treated
badly you will tell your friends to not go there. But there are also some other
factors that I think have played a part:
1. It felt like they started focusing on selling triathlon equipment. I have
to confess that as a bicyclist I am completely uninterested in triathlon. (As a
human, I am a little fascinated by the sport, the effort and the athletes.) And
aren’t triathletes sort of the unfaithfuls of the bicycle world? They only ride
bicycles because they have to, not because they want to. They only ride their time trial bicycles really fast, they
don’t take the time to enjoy the surroundings, the nature, your company... To
be honest, I don’t take the time to enjoy all of those things either at times,
sometimes I am just trying to push myself, riding fast and letting my body work…
but sometimes I really just enjoy the sunshine! Anyway, there is a limited
market for triathlon equipment, and I think that “regular” bicyclists are quite
uninterested in that stuff.
2. They stopped selling brands that were sold in other
store chains (like XXL). Crank Brothers, Sidi, Tacx… Officially they didn’t want
to sell stuff that you could buy just anywhere, but I suspect that it was hard to
compete with the prices of the other stores. For example, the distributor of
Sidi in Sweden is in fact a Norwegian company, and XXL is a Norwegian store. It’s
a pity that small, passionate shops always have to lose to big corporates!
3. And, of course, it’s hard to compete with the choice
on the internet. Most stores and shops can order the stuff you’re looking for,
but it’s just as easy and often cheaper to order it yourself. Small special
products might be impossible to order from the local stores (try offset brake
pad holders – I had to order them from a factory in Taiwan) and again, the
prices on the internet can be really competitive. What you lose when you buy
your products on the internet instead of supporting your local shops is the
help that the local shops can provide, the expertise that they actually have. I
won’t go deeper into this, this discussion is ongoing in the bicycle world, but
what I can say is that I try to mix, to only buy the stuff online that I can’t
find in the local shops. But I admit that it is hard to resist good prices.
4. Lastly I don’t know if it’s an effect of the
competition from the internet-based stores, or if it’s simply the fact that when
you know and have seen what can be bought online, the choice in the Cykelcity
store seemed a bit… limited. There weren’t that many shoes, that many jerseys,
that many helmets… And for some reason Italian brands were especially limited –
Santini, Nalini, de Marchi… However, that could be due to the Italian sales and
distribution chains, I guess. (We love Italians and the Italian cycling
heritage here in Ensliga Bergens cykelklubb, but the Italians really are a
handful in some aspects.)
5. Talking about Italian brands: A specialised road bicycle
store chain that doesn’t sell Campagnolo? Come on! About two years ago
Cykelcity took the decision to stop selling Campagnolo. Officially it was
because Campagnolo products simply didn’t sell that good anymore. I don’t know
if that’s true, but Campagnolo will always
be a part of road bicycle history and if you have the means you simply have to
sell their products. If you run a smaller, independent bicycle store it’s
harder, especially since Campagnolo used to resist OEM sales, but... Well, we just
don’t know the truth. But the text that Cykelcity wrote in their (physical)
catalogue when they took the decision to stop selling Campagnolo was crap. (And
we have to admit that we love Campagnolo!)
I bought this Campagnolo polo in the Cykelcity store in Gothenburg a couple of years ago.
Oh, and everything I have written refers to the store
in Gothenburg. To be honest I have never even visited the stores in Lund or in
Stockholm, which will continue to exist. One day I probably will visit them,
though, especially now that I have this soon-to-be-vintage cycling jersey from
Cykelcity! (It's pretty good-looking too!)
We wish the staff of Cykelcity all the best for the
future. Be nice and ride safe!
Here’s the Swedish text, found on their website:
Vi drar oss tillbaka efter 35 år
Vi drar oss tillbaka efter 35 år
Då var det dags att avsluta det som påbörjades 1982. Efter 35 fantastiska säsonger tackar vi för oss.
Vem kunde tro att vi skulle få vara med om en sådan fantastisk resa när vi slog upp dörrarna till vår butik i snöglopp i Lund 20/2 1982.
Veckorna innan vi öppnade skulle cyklar monteras. Vi hade fått hem Campagnolo, Selle Italia och alla andra tillverkares produkter som behövdes för att montera cyklarna.
När vi monterat 3-4 cyklar insåg vi att det mesta vi köpt in gått åt till att montera cyklarna, då blev det lite problem. Vi måste ju ha lite på hyllorna också annars ser det ju helt tomt ut, hur löser vi det?
Efter lite klurande kom vi på att om vi skriver ett litet E på lådorna ser det ut som om vi har hur mycket Campagnolo och annat som helst på hyllorna. E?
Kom nån som ville ha en Nuovo Record bakväxel gällde det att ta en låd utan E för E:et stod för empty, d.v.s. lådan var tom… Som tur var blev det ganska snart inga lådor med E på längre..
Det har under åren kommit och gått en otrolig mängd produkter som gjort det till ett sant nöje att få jobba i branschen, en del fantastiska, andra kanske inte lika fantastiska…
Det man kan konstatera är att det har varit otroligt kul att få vara med och följa utvecklingen inom branschen.
Det ska bli spännande att fortsätta följa utvecklingen, men framöver kommer vi göra det från läktaren.
Att ha förmånen att få jobba med sin hobby är få förunnat och vi ser tillbaka på alla åren med ett leende. Man brukar säga att det ska vara kul att gå till jobbet och vi har verkligen haft kul, varje dag.
När man tänker på alla människor man mött kan man inte annat än att le. Många profiler har passerat genom åren och vi har kunder, leverantörer och kollegor som har blivit vänner för livet.
Nu är det som sagt dags att tacka för oss, och vi ser fram emot att få lite mer tid över till andra roliga saker som inte riktigt hunnits med under åren.
Affären i Lund är såld och nye ägaren kommer att ta över verksamheten 15 juli. Namnet blir fortsatt CykelCity och vårt cykelmärke Columbus kommer också att vara kvar. När det gäller garantier och service på produkter köpta i Lund så tar nya CykelCity över ansvaret mot uppvisande av kvitto från CykelCity i Lund.
Nu tömmer vi butiken inför ägarbytet 15 juli så passa på allt ska bort i vår Super-Rea!
OBS! Alla värdecheckar och presentkort hos oss måste lösas in senast 15 juli!
Affären i Göteborg kommer att stängas efter sommaren. Det betyder att allt lager kommer att säljas ut under sommaren i vår Super-Rea och affären stängs senast 30 september.
När det gäller service av alla våra sålda cyklar och eventuella reklamationer på alla sålda produkter kommer detta hanteras av Sävedalens Cykel AB 1956 Göteborgsvägen 46 Sävedalen. Vid service och ev. reklamationer krävs att kvitto från CykelCity medtages och uppvisas.
OBS! Alla värdecheckar och presentkort måste lösas in hos oss innan vi stänger affären!
35 år! Vi vill tacka alla våra kunder, leverantörer, kollegor och vår personal för alla dessa fantastiska år.
Håkan och Anderz
