It’s been a long and winding road for these married cycling enthusiasts who are peddling adaptive, electric and traditional bikes at their Wolseley shop

VIRTUOUS CYCLES

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/2022/08/10/virtuous-cycles

WHEN the flowers are out, the doors are open. Open to the Wolseley resident bringing their bike for repair. Open to the Treherne family buying their first electric bikes. Open to the person in a wheelchair wanting to test an adaptive bike.

“It’s all about getting people to ride, from whatever health and body situation they have,” said Suzanne Druwé, co-owner of Prairie Velo.

She and Brian Szklarczuk, her husband, have planted their business at 967 Wolseley Ave., formerly known to locals as the Kit Kat building.

Gone are the freezers, linoleum floors and shelves of candy. Now, rows of adaptive, electric and traditional bikes line the 1,800 square-foot space.

Outside, cyclists traverse a bike path. “Cycling is such a simple, core thing that everyone should be allowed to do,” Szklarczuk said.

The pandemic, the rising cost of fuel and a shift towards environmentally friendly practices have put cycling in the spotlight, Prairie Velo’s owners noted.

However, the activity isn’t a recent passion for the couple.

Szklarczuk raced in Europe in the early ’90s as a young adult. He did so with a hearing impairment.

Even when Szklarczuk returned to Winnipeg — pursuing grad school and a career as an economist — cycling was top of mind, he said.

He and Druwé met on a blind date. Their trips abroad required a “cycling component” for Szklarczuk, where he’d go on hours-long rides and then shorter ones with his partner.

The couple visited friends in Sweden around six years ago and were intrigued at how cycling was incorporated in Scandinavian daily life, Druwé said.

“We felt that it was something permanent,” she said. “People were rethinking the way they go about their business.”

The two imagined they could enter the corporate side of cycling back home. Then, Druwé’s employer at the time — a francophone tourism company — asked Szklarczuk to create Manitoba bike tours.

He did. And, he published an article called Prairie Velo Tour 2019 on bikepacking.com.

Readers and tour-goers would ask where to purchase bikes, Szklarczuk said.

“I was sending people to buy bikes everywhere else,” he said. “We realized, ‘Why are we sending people to go shop there when we can do something?’” Their e-commerce site launched in 2019. Szklarczuk said he used European connections to secure foreign bike companies’ stock, including adaptive models.

“Every year it was kind of a slow growth,” Szklarczuk said.

The company transitioned from delivering via a mobile van, to solely online during the pandemic’s early phases, to a storefront venture that began in December of 2020.

Renovations and permitting paused the shop’s opening until last fall, where a nearly non-existent soft launch happened, Szklarczuk said.

Meantime, the couple has distributed electric and adaptive bikes across Canada.

“You put e-assist on bikes and suddenly it changes everything,” Druwé said. “Someone can actually take someone on a wheelchair out and cycle and not kill themselves.”

THE bikes are not cheating, she noted — people use them to battle strong winds in Manitoba’s rolling hills, to exercise despite joint pain, to keep up with a spouse and to replace car use.

“We really wanted (Prairie Velo) to be appealing to a segment of society who doesn’t naturally go into bike shops,” Druwé said.

Adaptive bikes cost thousands of dollars — north of $10,000, depending on the model.

“These are huge purchases for people,” Druwé said.

The rides largely come from overseas, driving up the price, she said. The motor for electric assist adds to the cost.

Some families get funding for adaptive bikes through Jordan’s Principle or the Children’s Rehabilitation Foundation. Charities including the Knights of Columbus and Make-A-Wish also buy bikes, Druwé said.

“We wish they didn’t cost so much, but they do,” she said, adding the products are built to last.

“Many people with disabilities live on limited income… Buying a bike is not often affordable,” said Kaye Grant, operations manager for the Manitoba League of Persons with Disabilities.

There needs to be more affordable ways for folks with disabilities to obtain bikes, like government subsidies, Grant said.

“Handi-Transit isn’t the answer to everything,” she said.

Prairie Velo also sells hand bikes, where users pedal with their arms instead of their legs. The company is beginning to make its own.

“I realized there was a gap in the market for affordable hand bikes and variety,” Szklarczuk said. “That’s where we really started thinking about manufacturing.”

Some parts, including bike frames, will come from South American partners. Much of the constructing will happen in Manitoba, Szklarczuk said.

“This is going to be a huge thing for us this winter,” said Druwé, looking at a hand bike in the works at her Wolseley shop.

“We’re really going to be doing the whole nine yards on these this winter because… there’s a real demand for them.”

The bikes will likely come to market in the spring, Druwé said. They’ll be more affordable than imports, said the entrepreneurs, who hadn’t finalized prices.

There’s an increased need for hand cycles, according to Jaylene Irwin, Manitoba Possible’s supervisor of recreation and leisure. Adaptive bikes in general have gained more popularity in recent years; they were introduced to Manitoba Possible around four years ago, Irwin said.

“There is such a high need (for them),” she said.

Such bikes increase independence, mobility, strength and social connections, Irwin said.

Getting people on bikes for the first time is among the best parts of the job, Szklarczuk and Druwé agreed.

“It’s gratifying knowing that we’re… making a little difference in the world, one set of wheels at a time,” Szklarczuk said.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com