Name: Adam Rikey

Business name: BikeWorks

Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 5.30pm

Address: 95 Beatrice Street, Oswestry, Shropshire, SY11 1HL

 

When did you open your business and why?

I come from three generations of bike mechanics. My parents had a shop in Ellesmere Port, and we sponsored some local mountain bike riders from Oswestry. That led me down here in 2010 to open BikeWorks when they closed their shop.

I’ve always been interested in bikes. I started road biking when I was a kid, then got into mountain bike riding, and transitioned into road riding about three years ago.

I’m able to channel my interests in to BikeWorks – where we used to do more mountain bike servicing, we now focus predominantly on road bikes, though we work with all types of bikes.

We’re seeing more interest in road cycling at the moment, and more people riding e-bikes than mountain bikes now, too.

A lot of the people who would have been riding regular mountain bikes five years ago are now all on e-mountain bikes.

 

Why did you choose this area?

I followed the team my parent’s sponsored down here. The team grew, and we ended up with ten riders in the end.

We kept the team going for two or three years, but people started to drift away, and I eventually wanted Sunday’s off rather than traipsing through muddy fields, so we decided to knock it on its head.

Oswestry is a great place for road and mountain bike riding.

 

Tell us about your business

Since Covid and the global bike shortage, we have transitioned pretty much completely over to servicing.

We still sell bikes when we can get them, but because supplies have been so bad for the last 24 months, we’ve shifted our focus towards repairs and servicing.

The shortage is still ongoing. We’re hearing we are going to see 2022 model year bikes in the next couple of months, but it’s still pretty vague at the moment.

 

What has been your proudest moment?

Staying open despite everything!

 

Any strange requests?

None so far!