30 years in the past this week Dave Guettler opened the doorways of River Metropolis Bicycles. The enduring store on Southeast Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and Alder close to the Morrison Bridge is beloved regionally and revered nationally as probably the greatest bike outlets in America. Given immense modifications within the biking business, the tradition of Portland, and small enterprise typically since 1995; operating a motorcycle store that also thrives after 30 years is an unimaginable accomplishment.
Yesterday I sat down with Guettler to be taught extra about him and the store he’s tended to with a lot love and take care of the previous three a long time.
I realized throughout this dialog that Guettler had a profitable chain of seven shops in northern California earlier than he moved to Portland. So why come up right here?
“I had tons of mates who have been bike racers… I’d see all these cool bikes and all this cool stuff that they’d that they didn’t purchase from any of our outlets. And it will simply sort of break my coronary heart. On the one hand, I used to be doing all of the buying for these shops; however however, there actually wasn’t something that I’d have needed to purchase for myself. So I used to be considering, ‘There’s obtained to be a special manner of doing issues.’ So the idea of opening up a single retailer that had a really sturdy group tie-in with it, and that catered to extra of an fanatic sort bike owner — to me, that simply appeared like much more enjoyable than the multi shops and simply sort of doing issues by the guide.”
With Specialised Bicycles founder Mike Sinyard in his nook as a pal and monetary backer (Sinyard gave him a big line of credit score to open the store), the 2 hopped in a automobile after a breakfast in Portland in 1994 to have a look at a number of buildings Guettler was interested by for the store. “And he noticed the one on Martin Luther King, and goes, ‘That’s, that’s the one.’”
Guettler mentioned opening a store in Portland in 1995 was a giant “leap of religion.” Town hadn’t but embraced its perennial title as America’s Greatest Biking Metropolis and Guettler frightened about how a lot rain would dampen enthusiasm. But it surely didn’t take lengthy for Guettler to see the sunshine:
“While you do marketing strategy, you do three: a best-case state of affairs, worst -case state of affairs, and a probable or hopeful state of affairs. And inside six months or eight months, we had blown the doorways off of the best-case state of affairs marketing strategy. So we actually did sort of hit the bottom operating, and that was extremely thrilling. In comparison with what we have been doing within the Bay Space all of the sudden it was like, ‘Holy cow! This can be a stable market.’”
Guettler was prepared for our inclement climate in additional methods than one. He devoted a whole ground of the constructing to an indoor take a look at monitor so prospects may keep dry whereas driving any bike on the showroom ground. He additionally made positive his store grew to become a go-to for fenders and different moist climate equipment and attire. He even crafted a line picket fenders for a number of years (which he co-designed with an worker). Guettler is a devoted woodworker who made all of the store’s indicators, racks and furnishings; however his picket fenders ended up being too common for their very own good.
“That was tremendous enjoyable. By no means need to do it once more, however it was very enjoyable,” Guettler shared.
“You’re not promoting them anymore?” I interjected.
“No, I burned the molds. I had an order for 700 pairs of fenders are available in from this firm referred to as Dahon folding bikes. And it broke me. They ordered matching fenders and chain guards. We stuffed the order, and that was it,” he recalled.
Regardless of that grueling order for Dahon, Guettler, now 67 and nonetheless recovering from a really critical site visitors collision in 2023, nonetheless places in hours on the store. “My favourite day is Saturday,” he mentioned with a childlike smile. “That’s after I get to work on on the ground at a motorcycle store, the bike store of my goals.”
These are simply among the enjoyable moments within the interview. Watch the entire thing on YouTube or pay attention within the participant beneath or wherever you get your podcasts.
River Metropolis Bicycles thirtieth Anniversary PartySaturday, March eighth from 3:00 to five:00 pm706 SE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd“Be part of us for cake, champagne, tales, music from our personal DJ TWOBIT, and some odd surprises. Everybody’s invited! We are able to’t wait to see all of our outdated and new mates and fam!” Cake and champagne toast at 4:00 pm.
