Stevens Point bicycle shops see bikes on backorder, deal with limited supply

STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAW) - Backorders on bicycles have made it difficult for Stevens Point bike shops to get their hands on bikes.

“Whole front window. Both sides would be seven or eight bikes on a side. Both sides,” Campus Cycle owner Carl Knuese said.

The floor at Campus Cycle is looking bare compared to what it normally looks like. Plenty of space is available on both showroom floors.

“I had a gentleman order a bike before Christmas, beginning of December, for his wife,” Knuese said, “And they said it would be available in January of 22.”

Bicycle supply has been limited since March of last year, but he says this time is especially worse.

“Right now, this is probably the least amount of inventory I’ve had in 47 years,” Knuese said.

In August, they put in an order for over 100 bikes. Knuese says only about 20 percent have arrived.

“I don’t know if it could get much worse, to be honest with you. It’s a nightmare,” he said.

Down the street at Point Area Bike Service, they’ve been able to plan ahead and manage their supply.

“We’ve made significant strides in reserving bikes. So a good portion of our inventory we know are coming in. We’re just waiting on ETAs,” owner John Pawlak said.

They’ve adjusted to more pre-orders of bikes versus selling them straight of the floor.

“We’re just not receiving those orders in one lumps some in the wintertime for us to build them up and put them on our showroom for spring,” he said.

While that required some more planning ahead and reserving bikes, they’ve been able to get small amounts of bikes throughout the late winter and spring.

“With those pre-orders, we were reserved a certain amount of bikes,” Pawlak said.

But that’s still not stopping backorders. Those are at least 100 days out, maybe even more, according to Campus Cycle.

“That puts us near mid to end of summer and that’s not a good situation. But we’ll make do,” Knuese said.

Point Area Bike Services says it should take about a couple of years for the supply to return to normal, but they have some larger orders this summer which should help with that supply. Knuese says he doesn’t see the situation getting much worse from here.