After 12-year hiatus, bicycle repair shop returns to Newton

For 12 years, since the fall of 1997 when John Hobbs and Carol Sue Stayrook Hobbs closed Great Plains Bicycles, their independent bicycle repair and retail shop, Newton residents have had to fix their own bikes or drive to Wichita for similar services. This fall, that changed.

Yet something looks the same - because Great Plains Bicycles is back, in more compact form. In 1997, the Hobbses had twin daughters in high school and two boys in middle school and “the time demands of family exceeded the time available for running a retail store,” John Hobbs said.

“After running an independent store in Newton for almost six years and after 11-plus years of cycling involvement and working in bicycle retail stores in Wichita, it was time to do something different” — which for him meant taking a job with Wilco, a small manufacturer of airplane parts in Wichita.

But in 2009, Hobbs said, “we have encountered change we can believe in. With the current economic downturn and the collapse of general aviation manufacturing in Wichita, I found myself among the laid-off. I have never been one to sit back and bemoan my circumstances, so I have engaged the process of once again redefining what I want to do for a living.”

Although Hobbs had closed his business, he kept his tools and equipment in a personal bicycle repair shop next to his home at 116 E. 14th St. in Newton. One day recently, he was in the shop working when, he said, “I encountered my ‘Eureka!’ moment.”

Ever since Great Plains Bicycles closed, Hobbs would still be approached by folks who knew he and Carol Sue, who would ask, “Would you please fix my bike?” John Hobbs said, “I had four bikes in my shop at the time of my epiphany. I looked at those bikes and said to myself, ‘You know, I should be making money with this!’

“When I went back to my old records from the ‘90s of when we had the shop and looked at whether or not we could be profitable offering only parts and service, I was convinced this was indeed possible. So we are re-establishing Great Plains Bicycle Repair solely as a professional repair facility.”

There was “some excitement,” he said, when folks found out the Hobbses were once again getting back into the bicycle business. After Great Plains Bicycles closed, Newton never had another bicycle shop. Besides being inconvenient for Newton residents, “this has been a particular hardship for the many cross-country cycling tourists who come through Newton on the Trans-American Bicycle Trail,” Hobbs said, “as well as for the many young families with kids and the college students who had nowhere locally to service their bicycles.”

Defined by local zoning laws as a “home-based business,” Great Plains Bicycle Repair “will be anything but,” Hobbs said. “More than 30 years of bicycle mechanical experience, plus a completely equipped bicycle service shop with specialty tools, will provide a level of professionalism not found in most retailers.”

“Great Plains Bicycle Repair will operate without the traditional retail floor space full of bicycles to sell,” Hobbs added.

Eliminating the retail floor does some significant things, he said — such as cutting overhead costs (heating and cooling, insurance, purchasing and carrying an inventory of new bicycles). “What you find is that the floor space dedicated strictly to service and parts is very profitable floor space indeed. In the bicycle business, the floor space used for just retail is not very productive, simply because the gross margins on individual bicycles are, by history and competition, quite low. When you only can achieve a few decimal points of actual profit beyond your base margin, it may be time to think about doing something different.

“Great Plains Bicycle Repair is pretty much good to go right out of the box,” Hobbs continued. “When we closed the first store, we kept the majority of the tools we had acquired. I was, after all, a mechanic, and what is a mechanic without his tools? We also had the presence of mind to insulate and refinish the stand-alone garage on our property [so it could become] a dedicated repair and service facility. We have added a new computer with bookkeeping software and invoicing capability.”

Hobbs admits there are challenges ahead, such as establishing accounts with suppliers, who are often reluctant to deal with a home-based business, and having a small advertising budget. But he’s confident these can be overcome.

“The fact that we have been working on people’s bikes without even being in the business is telling,” he said. “The fact that even with only word of mouth, we are getting folks who never even knew we existed is even more predictive.

“Our market is really quite simple,” he said. “Anyone who has ever bought a bicycle for any reason has an investment in that bicycle. When it doesn’t work, all they can see is that pile of money just sitting there. It’s sort of like the money you could have saved with Geico. As long as I can provide a repair for that bicycle that does not exceed the perceived value, I have a market.”