No bikes, no furniture, still no For Rent sign, but that’s coming. I ran into Vince the manager as he came out of a nearby door, his arms full of the last couple of handlebars and cable housings. Apparently he got a call from his boss in Seattle a little less than 2 weeks ago to send all the stock to the Seattle store and find a new job. Not much more information than that.
He and Chris, the other Chicago employee, are out of work as of now. They were the best reason to go to the shop, as we found a few times when we had to deal with the guys from Seattle. If you know of a good job in the area keep them in mind.
See our About Cargobikes and our trikes page for your other cargo bike options in Chicago. If you are looking specifically for a Bakfiets.nl brand cargobike or Workcycles city bike you can still find them according to the Workcycles website at
USA
AdelineAdeline Manhattan, NY
Clever Cycles Portland, OR
My Dutch Bike San Francisco, CA
Wheelhouse Santa Barbara, CA
Canada
Curbside Cycle Toronto, ON
Everybody and his brother sells Civia and Linus, the other brands carried by Dutch Bike. Not sure who has Gazelle in town.
I don’t know about Dutch Bike Seattle — they may still be in business — but they haven’t been the most helpful people we’ve ever dealt with. I would guess that they will be responsible for warranty repairs if they are still there.
If you already have one of these bikes, any bike shop in Chicago will be able to fix them well, but make sure they have someone with good experience repairing the internal gear hubs. Blue City and Rapid Transit have been helpful to us, and the other cargobike shops in Chicago, JC Lind and Copenhagen, may be able to help you as well.
Who will fill the gap in Chicago now?
By the way, here's a link to a Streetsblog article about commuting with kids that seemed interesting.
This is the most bizarre news. How can you close a store overnight like that? And sending a thousand pounds of bikes across the country? Why not try to sell them here at a deep discount?
ReplyDeleteGood questions. I guess from talking to people earlier that Dutch Bike hadn't been selling many cargo bikes, and the Dutch city bikes always seem too expensive to sell much either. I think they had a bad markup since the wholesale was already so high. So repairs and lower end bikes like Linus took over the spotlight. For some reason Dutch Bike moved to a new space at the same time - maybe that cost too much. But it is odd - no Going Out Of Business Giant Blowout Sale Of A Lifetime or anything.
ReplyDeleteAndrew went by the shop this morning and immediately called me perplexed because they appeared to be empty as well. I too don't understand why one would pay to ship heavy bikes across country instead of selling them, but who knows.
ReplyDeleteI was shopping for a Dutch bike recently and was in this store a few weeks ago. They had almost no inventory in the shop, so nothing for a fire sale.
ReplyDeleteJ.C. Lind sells Gazelle, and is where I bought mine.
Although most areas have several bicycle stores, they aren't on every street corner. In fact, depending on where you live, there may be only a few in your area. Even so, you should visit each shop to get a feel for which store is right for you
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