Bike Business Boom: El Tour de Tucson brings in extra customers to local businesses

CATALINA FOOTHILLS, Ariz. (KGUN) — As he turned the pedals and fixed the gears, the service manager at Cyclefit Solutions Sean Goff worked on one of the many bicycles he’s tuning up for El Tour de Tucson.

“Business starts picking up as soon as the heat cools down,” Goff said.

More customers start cycling into the Foothills bike shop after the summer when more people are cycling and more people return back to Tucson.

This week Goff is seeing about seven or eight people a day for sales and service, which is about double the amount he’s used to seeing in a typical week.

That’s why the shop orders extra parts to prepare for more customers like tires, tubes, sealant, and bar tape. It’s all for services from fixing flats to putting in new tires.

“Just double checking that everything is going to be safe and reliable for the ride,” Goff said.

Sales are also going up lately after a slow summer. He said even though there are a lot of riders from Tucson in the middle of summer, business picks up when it gets colder in other parts of the country and visitors come to Tucson.

“Making less money just because a lot of people are out of town and it’s just the Tucson locals that are here,” Goff said. “Ramping up probably about a month ago and then really starting to really pick up now one week before.”

This year El Tour de Tucson said they’re expecting over nine thousand riders and runners in their bicycling and 5K events.

The chef partner of Charro Steak and del Rey in downtown Gary Hickey said he traditionally starts to see more customers coming in three days before the event.

“They’ll start doing some training. You’ll obviously see them on the roads and then they’ll stop in and have some dinner,” Hickey said.

In past years, he also said it has helped that his business is located close to the starting point, so many participants get to see his restaurant.

“So you really know that we got through summer and now it’s time to start making some money,” he said.

The last two years Visit Tucson Sports said over two thousand riders were from out of state each year.

“They have trainers, they have their family, they have everybody that comes with them. It’s a large amount of tourism and Tucson loves it,” Hickey said.