Longtime Brookfield bike shop to close after 35 years

Now that he is retiring, Brookfield Cycle and Fitness owner Richard Biebel is finally going to do something he doesn't do much: Ride a bike.

Brookfield Cycle and Fitness recently announced it will close at the end of August, Biebel cited family medical issues as a factor in his decision to close the shop. 

Despite decades of bikes and fitness equipment expertise, Biebel has never been an avid bicyclist.

Although he proudly proclaimed he was a newspaper boy and delivered papers on a bike, he explained that once he turned 16 he was more interested in driving a car. Recently Biebel purchased a bike to start exercising more.  

Biebel first opened a store on Capitol Drive and with the store manager and biking expert Tom Currer moved to Ruby Isle shopping center in 1983. 

Biebel went to school at Schwinn Bikes company for a few weeks to learn about setting up bikes and repairs. The rest of the business he learned on his own. At first, certain repairs took five times longer, but through trial and error he figured things out. 

"Once you've got it, you've got it," Biebel said. 

There's a lot of nostalgia tied up in this store and Biebel got teary eyed talking about it.

He estimated having done 40,000 bike repairs over the past 45 years. The shop has also refurbished hundreds of old bikes, including an 1890 model. Scattered in the storage area of the store are old bikes, parts and tires, and an old desk with green felt that belonged to his father who was an optometrist for 50 years in West Allis. 

Biebel didn't follow his dad's footsteps and his children didn't follow in his. Over the years, he knew of bike store owners who worked with their children. 

"I asked how that went. I was told it was a 10-hour shouting match, seven days a week," he said. 

He said that since there wasn't a lot of money in this line of work, he hoped his children could do better. He also wanted to remain on good terms with his kids.

Biking towards the future

The bike business has changed drastically over the years due to everything becoming high tech. Now bicyclists can choose from a variety of bikes to fit their lifestyles. There are full suspension bikes, road bikes, tandem bikes, comfort bikes and fat bikes with 4-inch tires to get traction in snow and sand. 

"Back in the 1970s, when we had a Schwinn franchise, there were not many bike models," Biebel said. 

The models offered were Continental, Varsity, Paramount and Stingray. 

"There were four different colors and frames. We now have over 400 models of bikes out here," he said. 

The proliferation of the model has changed so much that consumers get confused as to what they are buying, Biebel explained. 

Due to models coming in different sizes; sometimes they need to be custom sized for the customer. Adjustments include the positioning the seat and the stems, which is the pipe connecting the handlebars to the rest of bike. 

Through the many changes in the bicycle industry, the shop has remained in business thanks to loyal customers and friends. 

Word of mouth

From the start, the shop has relied on word of mouth instead of advertisements. Staff gets about 1,600 to 2,000 bike repair requests a year. In the back room of the store there are many bikes on hooks waiting to be repaired. 

"We always felt if you treated people right and gave a fair price for a fair job they would come back," Biebel said.

His philosophy paid off bring back many customers for over 30 years. In hindsight, Biebel said perhaps there should have been more adverting to make up for a customer base eroded by attrition, as patrons aged, moved away or became ill. 

He had a customer in his mid-40s come in this week who bought his first bike from the store when he was 9.

The man bought six bikes from the store over the past few weeks. The man also requested one of the glass showcases from the store. 

"He was pretty shocked we are going out of business," he said. 

As Biebel gets prepared to bike off into the sunset, a scarecrow owl that sits perched behind his sign outside to keep the seagulls away from his shop will be all that is left behind for now.

A Lousiana woman stood mesmerized in front of the sign for Brookfield Cycle and Fitness. She asked if owls are common in these parts. 

Certainly shops with a history like Brookfield Cycle and Fitness are becoming less common everyday.