The pandemic closed a small Miami bike shop. Now a spike in bike sales may save it.

When Marcelo Penengo learned the spreading coronavirus pandemic meant he would have to shut down Elite Cycling, the small bike store he owns and operates on South Dixie Highway just north of The Falls, his first reaction was stark: “I thought it was game over.”

Open since 2006, Elite had a storied start. It was founded by star Olympic ice skaters Jennifer Rodriguez and K.C. Boutiette, who cross-trained on bikes. The shop has since established a top-notch reputation and a loyal following, with high marks on Yelp for friendliness and expertise — not least because the affable Penengo is almost always in the shop.

A lifelong competitive athlete, he left a career in “corporate cubicle” tech for the chance to run someone else’s bike shop and found he had a knack for it. He bought Elite eight years ago, broadening its offerings to a full range of bicycles, including casual hybrids, kids’ BMX bikes and $10,000-plus carbon-fiber road-racing sleds.

But for a business with notoriously small margins, the March shutdown order by Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, which classified bike shops as nonessential businesses, felt like a death sentence. Penengo said he went into “panic mode.” Worried about liability and employees’ and customers’ well-being if he flouted the order — as some other bike shops are doing — he decided to comply.

“I was worried about my guys,” Penengo said.

Penengo furloughed his sales people and mechanics, five people in all, then locked up and went home, leaving only Elite’s online shop open to take orders. He toyed with canceling a big order for hybrids and kids’ bicycles he had just placed with bike maker Specialized, but on a hunch decided not to.

Then, as the quarantine stretched into a second week, Penengo noticed a small phenomenon: People were ordering bikes. Lots of bikes. In particular, beach cruisers he normally doesn’t stock many of, and the kids’ and hybrid bikes he had just ordered a bunch of. Cooped up at home with kids, with organized sports canceled and with auto traffic eerily light, families have been looking to get out on bikes, many for the first time in years, he said.

“People are looking to it as a form of exercise, a form of mental health. This is a relief for them,” Penengo said. “It is mostly families with kids. They’re looking to get out and just be active. They feel safer as well with less traffic. We have older adult customers telling us, ‘I haven’t ridden a bike since I was a teenager.’ ”

Those in-demand entry-level bikes, costing from $300 to $500, bring in razor-thin profits, Penengo said. But it was something, enough for him to go back into the shop with a couple of employees to fill orders and assemble bikes for curbside pickup only — while wearing masks at all times and maintaining social distancing.

No customers can come in the shop, and there is no repair or maintenance service. That’s a big hit to Elite’s bottom line, Penengo said, because that drives 20 percent of revenue — enough to pay the salaries of two full-time mechanics. His highly rated repair service is also the main lure for repeat customers.

“We get a lot of first-time customers who try us first as a service. That’s how we connect with them. It brings new customers in and keeps them coming in,” Penengo said.

But Penengo had to decline customers looking to rehab dusty bikes that had not been ridden in years, losing them to stores that have remained open for servicing in violation of Gimenez’s order. Without service, and with sales and rentals of the high-end mountain and road bikes that brought in bigger profits about gone, he was worried about paying his business bills. His two main suppliers and his landlord, though, agreed to let him put off payments for a bit.

Then came another break: His application for a $41,500 federal payroll protection loan was approved. That meant he could bring his three full-timers back for at least eight weeks. But he still needs a plan to keep the business going now that demand for new bikes appears to be slowing.

He’s still hoping Gimenez will reconsider and classify bike shops as essential, like Broward County did, given that many more people appear to be riding for recreation and even transportation as they avoid public transit.

But he’s ready for the next step. Starting May 15, if Gimenez has not eased restrictions by then, Elite will start accepting bikes for service by appointment, with drop-off and returns outside the store. His employees were eager to work and comfortable with the precautions the shop will take, Penengo said.

“We all sat down and had a Zoom meeting and we decided we are going to start taking repairs,” he said.

Penengo hopes that will give Elite enough momentum to ride out the pandemic.

“A lot of shops took chances and have never shut down,” Penengo said. “But now that I have the PPP, I have some room. That’s a huge relief. The business feels more stable in the last few weeks, so we’ll see.”

This story was originally published May 11, 2020 at 6:00 AM.