Bikers shift area business activity into extra gear

“We’re definitely doing pretty good.”

Large herds of two-wheeled travelers helped provide some much-needed traffic at businesses here this past week. Now local stores and restaurants are just hoping that business continues through the Fourth of July and the rest of summer.

Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce events and Visitors Center manager Scott Still says overall response to Fat Tire Bike Week has been positive. “A lot of people have told me that business in the north end of the valley certainly picked up,” Still says. The Visitors Center at the Four-way Stop has been consistently busy over the past two weeks, he adds.
In addition, with nearly 500 people racing in this year’s Wildflower Rush, not including families and support crew, and more than 1,500 people in the Bicycle Tour of Colorado, there were plenty of people strolling around the ski resort base area and down Elk Avenue. The Wildflower Rush was held June 18-21, the Bicycle Tour of Colorado rolled into town June 24-26, and Fat Tire Bike Week took place June 24-28.
The tastes and spending habits of road riders, racers, and fat tire enthusiasts seem to differ as much as their riding styles.
Businesses in Mt. Crested Butte saw both fat tire and skinny tire patrons.
Django’s co-owner Chris Ladoulis says the Bicycle Tour of Colorado provided a jump-start to business this summer and things have been ramping up ever since. “We’re definitely doing pretty good,” he says. “We saw more action from the Bike Tour of Colorado than from the other events.”
Ladoulis expects some businesses did better than others with the Wildflower Rush attendees. He says many of the racers were younger, and may have spent their evenings enjoying the nightlife in downtown Crested Butte. Ladoulis is looking forward to the business boost the Live in Mt. Crested Butte free music series should provide every Wednesday afternoon. Django’s celebrated one year in business last Wednesday.
Over at the Avalanche Bar and Grill, co-owner Maggie McCarty says the week of bike festivities “was really good for us.”
McCarty says the Avalanche opened early this year to accommodate the Wildflower Rush. “It was great business for that early in the summer,” she says.
The Avalanche also hosted the party for the Fat Tire Bike Week volunteers, which provided an added boost, McCarty says.
McCarty says there seems to be a larger number of tourists from other parts of the state visiting this year. She says a lot of people have also been asking about CBMR’s new Adventure Center, which is being constructed next to the restaurant.
At Colorado Boarder, “CB bikes” manager Jeff Westling says the Wildflower Rush was awesome, particularly because the Boarder is one of the few stores that caters to downhill bikers. Westling says the Bicycle Tour of Colorado also provided some good business, but the Fat Tire Bike Week attendees were pretty independent. “The Wildflower Rush was definitely a lot bigger than Fat Tire Bike Week for me,” he says, and during the Bicycle Tour of Colorado, “a handful of roadies came up here and were checking out the big bikes.”
Westling suspects many of the people who came for Fat Tire Bike Week brought their own bikes and were more focused on cross-country trails elsewhere in the valley.
A similar mix of business was felt in the town of Crested Butte.
On Elk Avenue, Mabuhay owner Blake Woodward says he wasn’t expecting much business from the Wildflower Rush participants. Also, Woodward says, “Fat Tire Bike Week doesn’t usually affect my business too much, but this year that group was pretty good.”
Woodward says the biggest boost came from the Bicycle Tour of Colorado. “That helped a lot. It’s been an awful off-season,” he says. “I’m just keeping my nose above water and hoping there’s no big waves… I need traffic. Everybody who has a business in this town does a good job, but if you don’t have people walking down the street, you don’t have business. “
Woodward is excited to have plans to expand the Momo eatery this summer, a locals’ favorite that he runs with Karma Sherpa.
At Marchitelli’s Gourmet Noodle on Third Street, sous chef Shane Becker says traffic at the restaurant has been steady all week, particularly during the last two nights of Fat Tire Bike Week. “Regarding Fat Tire, we got two slamming days off of it, which was beautiful. It really helped us get ready for the Fourth [of July],” Becker says. “But it was short lived, I can tell you that.”
Becker says business at the restaurant has tapered off since last week. “It did drop down, but it didn’t nose-dive. In the next two to three days we’ll hopefully go right back up to slamming and hopefully stay that way.”