BROOKINGS Biking enthusiasts in and around Brookings have a new option for rides, repairs, maintenance and accessories with the recent opening of DO Bike & Fitness.
The full-service bicycle shop can be found at 1738 Sixth St. in the Brickwood Plaza and it has an esteemed pedigree, having sprung forth from Dakota Outdoors, a decades-long Aberdeen mainstay that recently renamed itself DO Bike & Fitness.
Weve always been Dakota Outdoors in Aberdeen for the last 40-some years, so thats what DO comes from the DO Bike & Fitness, owner and general manager Erik Dean said in a recent interview with the Brookings Register. We carry bicycles, electric, standard bicycles. Brands like Trek, Electra, Salsa, Santa Cruz, Borealis. We do fitness equipment, and were going to bring a little bit of fitness equipment down here to Brookings as well. Mainly Life Fitness, True Fitness and Landice is what we carry.
Brookings is the first expansion for the business. Dean said theyd been looking at opening a location in the city for the last four to five years before an opportunity finally came up this year when they found some right-sized not too big, not too small real estate to move into.
(Its a) great location in the Brickwood Plaza here across from Buffalo Wild Wings, Dean said. Its a different location than Brookings has had for bike shops theyve always been on Main Street. This is just more accessible, high visibility (and its) in a lot of retail area that people like to shop in. Hopefully easier for people (with) parking and traffic to get to than what it was on Main Street.
He said a big part of the decision to open in Brookings was driven by a single name.
Bringing the Trek name back to Brookings. Its been gone for some years now, Dean said. Robb Rasmussen with Sioux River Cyclery was here for a lot of years and did really well with the community. Its a very good biking community, and so we want to continue what he set up and keep going from there and give the customers here in town a good source for excellent bikes and service.
When asked about trends in the biking world, Dean immediately focused on e-bikes.
Really, the emergence of e-bikes over the last five, six years every year they get more and more popular, he noted. Once you ride one, you realize why. Its a theyre incredible; they change everything about biking.
Dean said e-bikes have an electric assist and that there are Class 1, Class 2 and Class 3 versions, with each one offering varying levels of assistance, power output and battery size:
- A Class 1 bike has electric assist as well up to 20 mph you choose the level of assistance you want, or no assistance at all.
- Class 2s have a throttle, so theres no need to pedal but you can, if you wish, with an assist of up to 20 mph.
- A Class 3 bike has an electric assist up to 28 mph.
Theyll give you assistance to that speed, Dean said. You can always go faster than that by leg power, of course.
While sales and service potential were certainly factors in opening up shop in Brookings, as they would be with any business, there was another consideration as well: Brookings itself.
Ive always liked Brookings. Ever since high school Ive liked Brookings. Its a college town with SDSU. The town is extremely nice. Its growing. Obviously, SDSUs grown leaps and bounds over the years, he said. Its a good biking community. With what Robb Rasmussen did over the years creating that lifestyle of biking here in Brookings, working with the city and trails and everything else, its been amazing. So, I think its just the perfect fit for us to come into Brookings and hopefully help the community out with quality offerings that theyve been missing for some time.
If youre looking to establish contact with DO Bike & Fitness in Brookings, its easy-peasy: Their website is dobikeandfitness.com. Email is also an option at [email protected]. The phone number is 605-692-2022 and, on social media, theyre on Facebook, where Dakota Outdoors is found and is being expanded to include Brookings.
Were the full-service bike shop that stands behind (its) work and we sell quality products from Trek and Electra, mainly, Dean explained. We got a variety of bikes for anybody family, kids, up to the racing cyclist.
Parts, tools and accessories are available as well, along with maintenance options for bikes, including annual tune-ups and overhauls.
Everything you need to bike, he said.
Contact Mondell Keck at [email protected].
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