Pedalling Past Barriers: Exclusivity in the Bike Industry - Transcript
Aryelle Zaios
(0:17) AZ: I’m seven. It's 2011, mid-July. A perfect summer day for the best summer activity: biking.
(0:23) AZ: Zero humidity. The breeze coming from the lake offers just the right relief from the heat.
(0:28) AZ: I scramble to get ready, pulling on my yellow crocs with their jewelled jibbitz…
(0:32) AZ: …a blush pink t-shirt with a purple Justice logo…
(0:36) AZ: …paired with Barbie pink velvet capris.
(0:44) AZ: I really loved pink, and my shiny magenta mountain bike made that clear. In case my outfit didn't.
(0:54) AZ: I reach for my sparkly bike, excited to jump on and take off. Until I hear the air rushing out of my tire. As I look down my tire goes limp. I’ve got a flat.
(0:58) Rodd: Easy, okay, the simplest possible thing.
(1:09) AZ: This… is Rodd Ko. Rodd has been in the bike world for over a decade. He started as a junior level mechanic and now owns his own bike shop, Rogue Konstruct, in Toronto’s east end.
(1:13) AZ: Before meeting Rodd, I believed that every bike shop was just trying to sell you something.
(1:23) AZ: Because when I went into my local bike shop and - instead of having my flat tire replaced, I was upsold a helmet - I never went back. The interaction soured my view on bike shops.
(1:29) AZ: And until stepping foot into Rogue Konstruct, I relied on my dad and our bike pump to keep me on two wheels.
(1:39) AZ: Rodd and I sat down in his shop to discuss my experience. He confirmed something that I learned when I was seven-years-old: the bike industry has a problem with inclusivity.
(1:46) AZ: I go in, I'm like, hey, I need to get my bike pumped up, my tires. Okay. They're like, do you need a new helmet?
(1:48) Rodd: Did you have a helmet with you at the time?
(1:59) AZ: No, I didn't have a helmet with me. I live across the street, you know what I mean? I'm coming in here, I don't know anything about bikes, respectfully, okay, but it's a flat. I know it needs to be pumped up. I don't have a pump at home at the moment.
(2:06) AZ: I'm like, I just want to get it pumped up and I want to go and I want to ride my bike, you know, I just want to go for a little stroll and now I'm being pitched a new helmet.
(2:11) AZ: I don't even remember the outcome of my flat tire because that's all I remember. That's all I took from that experience.
(2:18) Rodd: Was that like one instance that kind of soured things for you? Did you go back after for anything else?
(2:20) AZ: I've never been into a bike shop since.
(2:22) Rodd: What a terrible engagement.
(2:25) Rodd: It's a simple thing, but terrible. You don't upsell kids.
(2:27) Rodd: Because here's the thing.
(2:45) Rodd: Despite it having happened some time ago, you don't even remember if your problem was solved. Like, what a terrible experience in the realm of when we factor in the simplicity of your ask, which is my tires are flat. It might have just been to pump them up and you don't even remember right like what a bummer.
(3:05) AZ: Rodd opened Rogue Konstruct in November of 2019. It’s spacious, roughly 600 square feet, with fluorescent lights and a single tool bench organized with wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers and tape.
(3:09) AZ: His solo-operation allows him to build clientele based solely off of word of mouth.
(3:15) Rodd: It is exclusively word of mouth.
(3:21) Rodd: I like that over time for a lot of my clients, I've become their guy because when they refer someone to me, they literally say, I've got a guy.
(3:36) Rodd: So the way my shop is set up is although I'm one mechanic, I probably have the biggest workshop of the majority of bike shops in Toronto, meaning I give myself all the space I need to work. You can see me work on your bike.
(3:46) Rodd: I made a very mindful decision to not split my shop in half, meaning you can walk in, look at the goodies on the wall, but you can see me work.
(4:13) Rodd: I've always liked that idea because even when I met some of my earlier clients who are very experienced going into a lot of reputable shops in Toronto, there's a sentiment that's sort of been echoed where it's sometimes I go in, I know the service writer and I'm friendly with them, but then the bike gets wheeled into the back and then they don't know who works on it. It just becomes sort of a mystery. So I thought, well, I am the only one here.
(4:15) Rodd: There's no point in having a wall.
(4:22) Rodd: It's that simple. I think it also helps to build trust, but beyond anything else, I think it's just fun.
(4:27) Rodd: I think wanting it to be a fun experience shouldn't be a big ask.
(4:33) Rodd: I talk to a lot of women who hate going into shops because they're always told that they don't know anything.
(4:42) Rodd: And when they do request for specific things to be worked on because they do know, they still get pushback. It’s terribly toxic.
(4:44) AZ: Abrah McKeen was new to the bike world once.
(4:58) Abrah: It was mostly for, um, getting around. I just grew up being, um, biked around in a little baby carriage thing. My parents called it a buggy and then, yeah, my parents just taught me how to bike around.
(5:11) Abrah: First it was in Ottawa, then it was in Halifax, and then I just continued it in Toronto. But it's mostly for getting around on the cheap, getting exercise and not having to wait for the TTC.
(5:30) Abrah: I don't think I remember the first time I ever went into a bike store, but just a general memory was like feeling intimidated. Like, feeling embarrassed, I had to ask how to use a bike pump, not knowing the right words, since there's the two kinds of valves, like, just slightly intimidated and, like, nervous.
(5:47) AZ: With Abrah having been a part of the cycling community for over a decade she's seen a lot of change and not all good. Especially in the last five years with a push for urbanism and maximizing space, it made the bike world a sustainable option for many but with this came opportunities for bike shops to capitalize.
(5:51) Abrah: I just was sick of going to bike stores, so I wanted to figure out how to do it on my own.
(6:14) Abrah: The experience had been like going to bike stores and kind of being assumed I don't know anything about bikes, but yeah at first I didn't, but I was sick of all the money you would spend on fixing your own bike, and when I realized you could do it yourself for much cheaper, I started to learn, and then it just was preferable to do it on my own rather than deal with the more male dominated bike stores.
(6:31) AZ: John Watson, bike enthusiast who created The Radavist – originally a passion project and now a web-shop community for individuals who love bikes and the outdoors – explained how shops that had once opened out of a passion for bikes were now focusing on upselling merchandise, rather than providing inexpensive solutions for customers.
(6:55) AZ: Frustrated by the price tag of simple repairs, Abrah started going to Do It Yourself workshops hosted by shops like Bike Pirates. They’re a bike shop located in the west end of Toronto, and they host workshops every Sunday for women, femmes and transgender individuals, in efforts to make the bike community more inclusive. Although there are places like Bike Pirates who host weekly DIY workshops, women still feel left out.
(7:00) AZ: And they just teach you how to do stuff?
(7:17) Abrah: Basically, yeah. I mean, you do it and there's a few volunteers walking around who can help you. And so if you know nothing, they can explain things, but, um, the person that ended up being there for the most part, like, was very into you doing it yourself completely. So she wouldn't, like, take over. And like, do it for you at all.
(7:33) AZ: A report done by cycling week in 2023 found that 71 per cent of women in the bike industry were contemplating leaving. This statistic is even higher than other male-dominated industries, including the automotive world - which saw 40 per cent of women considering quitting.
(7:38) AZ: For Abrah it wasn’t about not getting proper guidance, it was about not being given the chance to learn on her own.
(7:57) Abrah: She would explain it and just let you struggle through it. Which is kind of, for me, the only way to really learn. Whereas my experience in more male dominated, DIY, do it yourself space was like the job being taken over for me and somebody doing it for me in front of me with me watching and just does not work.
(7:58) AZ: Rather than you actually doing it.
(7:59) Abrah: Yeah.
(8:00) AZ: Yeah, no.
(8:12) Abrah: Did not work for me to learn at all. No. And it's. Like, I can't remember things if I don't do it. I guess some people learn differently, but generally when, like, it's mechanics and it's something so hands-on, I feel like you kind of have to do it.
Give a pause…
(8:33) Abrah: But to be honest, because I have less time right now, I do still go to bike stores from time to time because I just don't have the time. And, but I found a few stores near me where. Even though they're mostly male, you can just tell they're not assuming that you don't know anything and they're giving you a lot of credit when you walk in.
(8:40) Abrah: I don't think that would have been the case 10 years ago, but I noticed at least a couple places that I've gone to that I've had good experience, which is nice.
(8:59) AZ: Most bike shops operate with a front and back of house. The front of house carries the junior level mechanics who act as salespeople, interacting with customers, doing small repairs and writing down service slips. The back of house is where senior level mechanics work on the bikes that are brought to them, rarely interacting with the customer themselves.
(9:16) AZ: This causes an incredible amount of stress on the junior level mechanics who are already underpaid and overworked. A Reddit post from James Heyst reads, “What's happening in bike shops is the workers are low paid and have to watch wealthier people with more disposable income come in and buy bicycles that often are equivalent to what they'd have to save over a year for.”
(9:27) Rodd: Depending on how well you can write that service ticket, if it's good and accurate, when the mechanics pick it up, they just read a ticket. So, usually they've not met the owner of the bike.
(9:43) AZ: The difficulties with a service-only business like bike shops is that sales become the only passive income for mechanics. Making it incredibly hard to stay motivated and even more difficult for smaller scale shops, where mechanics are required to repair bikes and fulfill customer service roles.
(9:55) Rodd: Customer picks up the bike. But say there's something they're not happy with. The customer will ask, may I speak to the mechanic that worked on this?
(10:02) Rodd: I run into the back. Hey, do you remember working on this bike last week, yesterday, whatever? The answer is always no.
(10:08) Rodd: The mechanics, from my experience, are too tired to care about you as a person.
(10:19) AZ: Within the bike business some senior level mechanics may be recognized for their skills and expertise, being paid a bit more, but in most cases their years of experience go uncompensated.
(10:20) Rodd: They don't make good money.
(10:35) Rodd: They work on bikes all day, every day, to a point where most of them stop enjoying bikes. They stop riding bikes. And whenever something comes back, the safest thing to do is to just feign any sort of recollection of the work they did.
(11:00) AZ: After speaking with Rodd for a few hours I realized several things, at its most basic problem the bike industry lacks communication and accountability. The industry needs to create better hourly rates for their employees, or offer commission-based incentives for sales, rewarding experienced mechanics. Their teams should be supported and secure, because in order to maintain genuine customers, it all starts with passionate mechanics.
(11:12) Rodd: There's no certifications for this. There's no governing body that says I can or cannot do this. You as the customer are rolling the dice on whether I'm good enough to make sure your bike is safe or not.
(11:31) Rodd: While you're shopping around for any new place to build a relationship with, hair salon, tattoo studio, coffee shop, bike shop, if you don't have a good feeling about the environment, if you feel like they're trying to sell you something all the time, then don't go there. You don't have to feel any pressure to pretend like you know more.
(11:37) AZ: You don't need to know everything about a bike to begin, you just have to walk into a bike shop.