April 2009 - Spokes Magazine

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COLUMNS MY BIKE SHOP by BRENDA RUBY SILVER CYCLES WHIZZING DOWN GEORGIA AVENUE just half a mile south of the beltway exit for Silver Spring, Md., it might not catch your eye at first, but nestled between Seminary Road and 16th Street in Silver Spring, Silver Cycles bike shop stands as a testament to one woman’s love of cycling. Linda Mack opened shop in August 2004 and the story alone might be the fact that Mack is one of the few female bike shop owners in the area. But just like her tiny blink-and-you’ll-miss-it store, you’d be overlooking a real gem. Her get-down-to-business, get-it-done demeanor obviously has been one of the keys to her success, subtly conveying confidence in her store and work. But her understated nature belies the fact that you’re talking to one of the woman largely responsible for bringing women’s racing to the area. Mack had been involved in cycling a bit when in college at Cal State Northridge where she took a cycling class and learned the basics of racing. That combined with the high gas prices in the 70’s made biking a key part of her life. But the story doesn’t begin there. Really it seems to begin back in childhood where one of Mack’s early memories is of going to the dump with her father and dragging home bikes to fix. “I was always interested in fixing things,” Linda told SPOKES. Though a Humanities major in college, her jobs have reflected her desire for meticulous, exacting work. She did a lot of radio and audio, eventually making her way to National Public Radio (NPR) where she worked for 26 years doing high-end sound work. All the while Mack raced, but there was only one field for women and that included the top racers and the few who would be willing to take on the beating. Mack, being one of them, knew first-hand the difficulties facing women who wanted to race. “It was an uphill battle,” she says, of establishing a Cat 4 field for women, but ultimately very successful. “Women who cycle today have no clue what it’s like not to have different fields.” Mack recounts her race memories where there would be the top female cyclist who was riding at a national performance level, the second place rider who could maybe ride her wheel, and “then there was me and the other women, riding way off behind them.” A driving influence to have local clubs include women’s entry level Cat 4 racing in this region, her efforts made it easier for women to break into the sport. Local clubs run the races, often combining the top fields when there are fewer participants, like in the women’s field. The unfortunate result being novices competing and trying to learn to race along side seasoned racers. (By contrast, the men’s racing fields are so crowded that some close weeks before the event.) It’s participation in and results from these races which allow a rider to acquire the points needed, as mandated by the United States Cycling Federation (USCF), to move up. But without a designated beginner’s field to compete in, it’s not likely that you’ll even get that chance. Before the addition of Cat 4 to the women’s race scene it was very difficult if you, as a female novice, wanted to seriously give racing a try. Of the ultimate success, Mack remarks, “institutionally it worked very well. That’s what happens when you convince other people it’s their idea.” “The ultimate goal was to get women out of the region to race, get some national level experience, and bring that experience back to raise the level at home,” states Mack. By all accounts, it’s worked. Considering all this just happened in 1997, Mack’s efforts have helped shape current racing in the region. It was Mack who got Evelyn Egizi, eventual founder of Artemis, a successful local team, into racing. Mack’s efforts were going on while she was working at NPR and on one of her daily commutes she recalls being passed by Egizi, though she didn’t know her at the time. Riding strong herself, Mack recalls thinking “this woman wants to have fun racing.” After introducing herself, Mack suggested Egizi get into racing. She did. Mack states, “What I started at a local level, Evelyn took over and took it to a higher level.” After her success with this and after racing a few years, Mack’s life took on a new challenge as she became the mother of first one, then two adopted daughters. It’s while she was on maternity leave in 2002 that she first got into bike shop ownership, helping to purchase the existing Proteus store in College Park with Jill Dimauro. Working there for eight to nine months fixing bikes, Mack decided that with possible changes coming to NPR, her full-time employer, she wanted to venture out on her own. Turning her usual attention to detail that had made her a successful audio person, Mack took online business classes for a year, drew up a detailed business plan, talked with current shop owners, and meticulously researched demographics and other shop locales before deciding on a location and opening Silver Cycles. It may seem easily overlooked, but in actuality its location reflects the precision Mack puts into everything. All this in an effort to keep from “falling flat on my face,” she says. Far from it. While the growing years can be nervewracking, Mack’s business plan has taken her from startup to growth and beyond. “Starting a business requires a lot of capitol to live through the build up phase. Growth costs money. And there are some items you just have to have.” Mack knows a high-end frame which costs thousands of dollars might sit on display for a year or two, but she says, “a good bike shop needs to have that to indicate you know how to build a bike from scratch.” Mack apparently knows how to build more than a bike from scratch—Silver Cycles has grown 30-40% every year except for last fall. “We had so many repair bikes and were selling so many bikes that we expanded into a warehouse to get all the work done.” Located not far from the shop, the warehouse has four repair stalls and allows the tiny shop not to be hindered by its size. Asked how the current economy is affecting business and she notes that “when you’ve been having such tremendous growth the past few years, growing 3 or 4% like we did last Fall is hardly anything.” But while new bike sales may have fallen off, everything else has been increasing. “People are fixing bikes more instead of buying new.” While the increased gas prices of last summer not only affected the cost of getting goods shipped in, increasing bike prices a good 20%, the other effect is that “people are dragging bikes out of their basements and fixing them up to ride.” She notes that the good news is “a lot of the low end bikes really aren’t that bad” but if you want to save as much money as possible, a lot of the time “you can make an old bike ride beautifully for under $200.” Linda Mack Mack prides Silver Cycles on being a neighborhood store, selling a lot of hybrids and family bikes. “It’s so much fun to ride and anyone can do it,” she notes. One thing she loves most is setting kids up to ride. “Good kids’ bikes are really important because if they like their bike, they’ll like to ride.” Though the store is just a few years old, Mack hopes that those kids will someday bring back their own. It’s no surprise then that Mack’s daughters, who’ve grown up around one bike shop or another, are developing their own interest in biking. While Mack stopped racing with her first child, she’s coming back into the race community because her daughters ride with Artemis in their Junior program. Bragging just a little and smiling she says of Svetlana, her eleven-yearold, “she’s got great handling skills.” With solid service, Silver Cycles’ reputation is growing. A high-end frame in the window isn’t what garnered a double check rating from Washington Checkbook, only one of three bike shops in Maryland to receive that distinction from the nonprofit consumer information resource. Mack is obviously the key to this success. “I’m always trying to make sure the work gets done properly and solve problems.” She sees basic good service as integral to longevity. But just as essential is her attitude of equality. “People deserve respect no matter what bike they bring in.” In other words, you don’t have to be a racer or even know much about bikes to be taken seriously. “There’s a bike for every purpose. What can be a more important use than an El Salvadoran using a bike to get to his job? That’s an important bike.” And that’s not just Mack’s attitude; “my employees are all like that, too.” The way Linda Mack sees it, “biking is freedom and independence.” Whether it was riding on her Schwinn as a child to the local amusement park to ride the roller coaster over and over with her brother, establishing a way for local women to break into racing, or eventually riding the Allegheny Trail with her family as she hopes, Mack is someone who lives her belief. EDITOR’S NOTE: A good independent bicycle shop still remains one of the treasured resources of bicycling–among the best places to learn about places to ride, meet locals to ride with, and learn about new products. Oh, and they also do a super job fixing the bike stuff you break. “My Bike Shop” is a regular feature of SPOKES in which we give you a look into a local shop and the folks behind it. 30 April 2009
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April 2009 - Spokes Magazine

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