bike

My mom will be happy when she finds out I wore my bicycle helmet. She probably won't be so happy when she finds out I didn't wear pants.

I went to the Chicago leg of the World Naked Bike Ride, folks. And I had a blast.

As Chicago's annual hibernation continues with no thaw in sight, automobiles look positively sensible and bicycles seem more seasonal than ever.

So how could a small neighborhood bike shop survive the city's deep freeze 14  times, building a million-dollar business?

The answers, according to Chris Stodder and his wife Justyna Frank, co-founders and owners of Rapid Transit Cycle Shop, are simple: Don't plan on immediate success, and work for the loyalty of Chicago's small but growing number of year-round bikers.

"If you write a business plan then you probably won't start a business," Stodder said in the back of his 1900 W. North Ave. shop, which straddles Bucktown and Wicker Park. "Any business plan is going to show you how difficult it's going to be and how little financial sense it makes."

Stodder and Frank, without either a plan or management experience, nevertheless opened the shop in 1994, well aware of how risky the venture was. Winter tends to mock those with enough moxie to run a year-round bike shop. Days can pass without a single sale.

Rapid Transit's sales during winter months have usually dropped to one-fifth of those during peak summer months, Frank said. Since wages can't be adjusted, that translates into seasonal lay-offs or requests for voluntary leave. The current off-season has whittled last summer's full-time staff of 18 down to six, each guaranteed at least 30 hours of work per week through the winter, supplemented by part-timers.

"This time of year is pretty bleak," said Frank, 42. "Whatever resources we've accumulated by this time we've usually spent. The padding is gone."

So Rapid Transit survives by asking vendors to defer bills and by attracting cyclists to the shop with pre-season sales and service specials, said Stodder, a Hyde Park native. This winter the shop offers a "deluxe winter tuneup special" for $150.

An earlier effort to economize by shortening hours was reversed a few years ago, when Stodder realized consistent hours were crucial for maintaining the loyalty of year-round cyclists. That's the customer base the couple had in mind when they founded the business.

"I wanted to start a shop that would treat (commuter cyclists) like bread and butter," said Stodder, 42. "That's why the bike shop is in this neighborhood."

The couple's continuing focus on the shop's original mission seems to have finally paid off: Sales so far this winter are running two to three times above last winter's, he said.

Rob Sadowsky, who pedals through Rapid Transit's neighborhood everyday during his commute from Logan Square to the Loop, says he returns to the shop because of its unusual focus on recumbent and folding bikes.

"They treat bicycling as not just a sport. It's not about the gear to make you fast, it's about commuting," said Sadowsky, who's the executive director of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation.

But the season's surge in sales may have less to do with Stodder's efforts to attract winter customers and more to do with the increasing number of year-round bikers in Chicago, according to Sadowsky. His organization does not have statistics detailing how many cyclists brave the city's cold, but he believes year-round bike commuting is growing rapidly as the trend becomes more visible.

Frank believes that although winter will always be tough for bike shops, Rapid Transit is well positioned to take advantage of the year-round riding trend.

"The fact that we've always been a commuter shop means that we get those customers in the winter," she said. "We get the loyalty of commuter bikers."

The shop's annual revenues have multiplied more than six times, from slightly above $200,000 in 1994 to about $1.25 million last year, the best ever. Annual revenue growth during the last two years has been 15 percent.

Changes in Wicker Park and Bucktown have helped.

The neighborhoods have gentrified heavily since Rapid Transit opened -- Stodder and his wife were priced out of the area and moved to Sauganash -- but, contrary to what Stodder expected, the area's increasing affluence has been good for business.

"There's plenty of middle- and upper-income people who choose for philosophical or practical or spiritual reasons to bike to work," he said. "It's not just lower-income people."

The mix of customer incomes has helped to stabilize the year-round business. In 2002 the shop doubled in size by knocking through its western wall to incorporate the ground floor of a neighboring building.

The expanded shop contains approximately 100 bicycles. Walls and ceiling are coated with touring, hybrid and mountain bikes, along with recumbent bikes priced from $950 to $3500 and compact folding models, $425 to $1200, which can be easily taken onto buses and trains. Attachable trailers and strollers are available for parents biking with small children, and the store also offers cyclists a full menu of spare parts and riding gear as well as repair services covering everything from flat tires to complete bike builds.

Despite this array of offerings, Stodder says the core mission of Rapid  Transit -- to serve the needs of commuting bikers -- has remained the same since it opened.

Chris Brunn, a year-round bike commuter who has patronized Rapid Transit since he moved to Wicker Park in 2004, said that although its prices are occasionally higher than other bike shops, Rapid Transit's customer orientation draws him back.

"It's important to support the local shop, because they're there for you," Brunn said, recalling how the store said he could return a new bike when it was unable to find special parts for it. "Their service really does it for me."

In fact, the business has become so stable that the owners now leave its day-to-day operations to the employees, while they mix management matters with home-schooling their two young children. Stodder manages cash flow and negotiates with vendors and bankers, while Frank deals with accounting and publicity, manages the shop's Web site and maintains an affiliated blog at www.chicagobikeblog.com.

Sam Van Dellen, a bike mechanic at Rapid Transit since 2004, said the Stodders cede an unusual degree of control over the shop to its staff.

"We have a lot of input into who gets hired," he said. "So it ends up that everyone's friends. It's like being in a family."

When Stodder does check on the business, he usually makes the eight-mile commute from Sauganash by bike. Even in winter.