Spokane-area bike shop peddles off into the sun set

A neighborhood bike shop, known for its quality service and several locations, will close Saturday at its original store in Spokane Valley.

The Bike Hub opened in 2009 by previous owner Chris Andreasen at 12505 E. Sprague Ave., and later expanded to downtown Spokane, the South Hill and Liberty Lake.

The downtown location, at 1403 W. First Ave., closed a couple years ago. The South Hill location, at 817 S. Perry St., STE C, closed about a month ago and the Liberty Lake location operated for about two years at 2210 N. Madison Road, before it, too, closed.

“I can confirm we are closing,” co-owner Jason Berger said. Saturday “is our last day.”

The store on East Sprague will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and is offering discounted prices for all bicycles and parts, according to its website.

“We’ve definitely had a lot of people coming through, paying their respects and thanking us,” Berger said. “We imagine (Saturday) will probably turn into a little gathering.”

The business, which thrived during the outdoor resurgence that came as a side effect of the COVID-19 shutdown, has failed to maintain the momentum of sales since that boom.

“We closed the South Hill shop about a month ago. We consolidated everything into the Valley location with hopes that traffic would pick back up,” he said. “But it hasn’t.”

Andreasen, the founder, sold some time ago to a group of owners led by John Abernathy. Part -owners also include Berger, Josh Tofsrud and Jon Amend.

“It’s super hard for us,” Berger said. “It’s all we’ve done. It’s all we know.

“None of us know exactly what we are doing next. We love it and we love our customers. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to it all.”