Article

Bicycle Trip

The 'Friendliest Bike Shop in Santa Cruz' offers a fat selection, expert bike repair and maintenance, community service, and now: a huge fleet of bike rentals.

Sponsored content

Start talking bike shops with a group of Santa Cruz cyclists and it won't be long before Bicycle Trip comes up—often because at least one member of the group bought his or her first bike there. For 40 years the midtown Santa Cruz bike shop has stood on Soquel Avenue, first at the corner with Seabright next to the Rio Theatre (1973-87), then a few doors down at the location now occupied by Monkey Girl Beads (1987-2008) and now at 1001 Soquel Avenue near Whole Foods. In those four decades the shop has developed a sterling reputation, dominating the Best Bike Shop category in the weeklies and, in 2011, making Bicycling Magazine's nationwide Top 100 Bike Shops list. It's a legend among Santa Cruz bicycle shops and an institution in its own right.

In late 2013 Bicycle Trip celebrated its 40th year in business. Its own progression has mirrored the history of bicycling in Santa Cruz. The shop that started out in the 1970s carrying Motobecane, Miyata and Univega road bikes, and which helped usher in a new era in Santa Cruz biking by selling the first Specialized Stumpjumpers in town, now sells mountain bikes by Giant and high-end manufacturer Yeti to an increasingly adventurous and diverse off-road biking clientele; road bikes by Cannondale and Volagi; Raleigh and Redline cross-bikes and the stylish Electra cruisers. An entire corner of the store is devoted to women-specific gear and apparel. And in a testament to how popular Santa Cruz is becoming as an ecotourism and mountain biking destination, Bicycle Trip’s bike rental business is booming, with a carefully maintained fleet of mountain bikes, road bikes and cruisers for rent by the day or week. (Scroll down for more detailed information on rentals.)

Read the Rather Amazing History of Bicycle Trip

Just as technology has changed the manufacture of bicycles, it’s changed the Bicycle Trip experience too. Today riders of all levels can walk into the shop’s Fit Studio, set up on their own bikes with the Retül system and get an advanced, laser-precise reading on bike fit. A session with Dave Liotta or Aaron Jacobs, two among a handful of Retül Certified Fitters in the greater Bay Area, can enhance performance now and save injury later. Serious athletes can also avail themselves of advanced services like power output and metabolic threshold testing.

Learn more about Bicycle Trip’s Fit Services here.
Read Why Bike Fit Matters.

But it’s not all high performance and obsession. The shop maintains a friendly, bikes-for-all attitude on the floor, with dozens of kids’ bikes and cruisers lined up outside the door every day in a rainbow of colors. Among the lights, water bottles and helmets on the walls and kiosks are fun accessories like bells, baskets and rainbow spoke lights.

Co-owner and longtime store manager Jacobs, who joined the shop’s ownership team in January 2014, says staff gets a say in what lands on the shop floor, so the Bicycle Trippers—employees of "the friendliest bike shop in town," as the tagline says—know the goods and can point you to the right stuff.

"A lot of people feel like they’re part of the Bike Trip family," Jacobs says. "We ride with a lot of our customers and really encourage them with the stuff we’re using and riding. I’ve had people come in and tell us they really feel the enthusiasm of the staff.”


A Community Bike Shop

Part of that comes from the shop's ethos of community spiritedness. That began with co-owner Berri Michel, who bought the shop with her husband Mark in 1987, explains Jacobs. "Her goal was supporting youth and community and offering a workplace for people. She’s always been really concerned about people and community."

One of Berri Michel’s most visible contributions to cycling in Santa Cruz has been getting bike lanes installed on Soquel Avenue between Ocean and Seabright, and launching Project Bike Trip, which teaches high school kids how to work on bikes.

“I just thought we'd teach the kids to love bikes,” Michel said in a 2006 interview. “And then, maybe a few years down the line, when they were driving around getting sick of congestion and gas prices and all that, they'd remember how much they loved their bikes back in high school and maybe get back on them.”


Women’s Riding in Santa Cruz

Bicycle Trip has been a solid supporter of women's road and mountain biking in Santa Cruz. The Velo Femme all-women road rides, initiated by former staffer Campbell Steers, have been happening since 2012 on a weekly or monthly basis, depending on season and ride leader availability.

Now Velo Femme is hitting the dirt, too, as Bicycle Trip staffer Alyse Weyman (shown here fitting a safe and happy cyclist) starts a monthly women’s-only mountain bike ride. Says Weyman: “I didn't have a lot of women to ride with when I first got into mountain biking, and I didn't realize that motivations are often different for us ladies … we are built differently, conditioned by society differently and relate differently within respective gender groups.”

Santa Cruz Bike Rentals

For visitors to Santa Cruz, two wheels are the way to go, whether the goal is to tool around on West Cliff Drive, zoom up scenic Highway 1 or explore the trails of Wilder Ranch or Upper UCSC. Bicycle Trip’s expanded rental department has bikes for every scenario, and as proof that they want to keep you rolling, they throw in every third day for free. And they’ll give you a week’s rental for the price of four days.

For casual exploration of Santa Cruz streets, there are comfy Electra cruisers and Townies ($30-$40/day, $60-$80/3 days, $120-$160/week). Giant Revel hardtails keep it real—and fun—on the trails for a modest price ($40/day, $80/3 days, $160/week), while full-suspension Giant Lust and Anthem (27.5”) models offer high performance on trails ($75/day, $150/3 days, $300/week). The fleet’s stealth model, the high-performance, endurance-oriented Volagi Liscio (above), eats up miles on the pavement or trail ($75/day, $150/3 days, $300/week).

All this happiness, and they’ll even deliver. Just click the link above or call (831) 427-2580. It's the Bicycle Trip way.

"I’ve been here for 15 years," Jacobs told Hilltromper in November 2013, on the shop’s 40th anniversary. "Bike Trip's going great. It’s amazing to be part of something that has so much history."

Photos by Chip Scheuer