Wade Leckie is closing down his Bad Monkey Bikes after seven-plus years of business in downtown Vancouver. But Leckie will always keep a reminder of the shop close to his heart, or rather, his elbow.
On his right inner forearm, Leckie has a tattoo of the logo for his soon-to-close bike shop. Even once the shop at 1717 Broadway closes its doors on Saturday, it’s not a tattoo Leckie, 41, is going to look at disappointedly.
“It’s a reminder of not being afraid to try something, of not being afraid to fail,” he said. “It’s more than just a logo on my arm.”
Leckie doesn’t think his shop failed, though. He opened in 2008, right at the start of the Great Recession, and managed to keep it open until now. The former ironworker and truck driver had never owned a business before launching the bike shop. He simply wanted to try something new.
Leckie again feels that it’s time to move on and do something different. This time, though, Leckie isn’t sure what the next step is. He hopes he’ll have more time for community work. He has previously volunteered to do mechanical work at charity bike rides. He’d like to do more of that, and work more with some other local nonprofits and biking groups.
He’s built relationships with many local charities. Before alerting the public of his closing, Leckie let a few nonprofits know to see if there was any interest in buying anything at a discounted price. Some took him up on his offer, buying some tires, wheels and spokes. What’s left will be on sale today and Saturday, when Bad Monkey is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Leckie is also selling bicycle tools and other inventory at a 20 to 60 percent discount.
Leckie also had a business reason to close the store, which had seen slower sales this year. He attributes the store’s financial troubles in part to a business decision he made in 2013. The shop had been open about five years, and Leckie thought he had an idea for what types of bikes sold well at his store. So, instead of placing a small order for bikes, like he’d done up to that point, he put in for a large order.
“The last half 2013 and all of ’14 were spent trying to recover from that purchase,” he said. “We had a rough ’14.”
Sales started declining around 2013, as well, and Leckie said 2015 has been his slowest year since opening. But revenues have remained pretty steady, he said, in part due to demand for bike repairs even as sales have gone down.
Leckie said he’s given thought to opening another bike shop, preferably also in downtown Vancouver, next year, but he’d like to do it differently.
“This year was spent trying to get caught up so I could change the business plan and create a different style of bike shop,” he said. “I wasn’t able to get the money in order before winter. Winters are very slow around here, and if I don’t go into the winter with savings, it’s not good.”
Leckie said his hope is to model a shop after Velo Cult Bicycle Shop in Portland, which is part bike shop, part coffeehouse and part pub.
“The idea would be that it’s more a space for cyclists than just a bike store,” he said. “The core customers would be the people who are Vancouver’s bike culture. They’re the commuters, the bike enthusiasts. That is what I want to be a part of.”
Leckie said he’d want the shop to serve coffee and beer, and have TVs where guests could watch bike races. He’d want it to be a place where people met up before or after going on rides, sort of a central location for Vancouver’s biking community.
He said he doesn’t have definite plans to head that direction as of now. First, he needs to finish closing down Bad Monkey. After that, he’s not sure what he’s going to do. If the past is any indicator, it won’t take Leckie too long to open another shop if he decides to. Leckie estimates it took 13 weeks from his first brainstorming session to the opening Bad Monkey.
“I had merchandise being delivered before I even had keys to get in the building,” he said.
Regardless of whether Leckie opens another shop or not, he’s thankful for all the support he received from Clark County residents.
“Eight years is a long time to be open, and the community’s support is what kept us open this long” he said. “This is a positive. There’s no failure here. There’s nothing negative about it.”
