Prelude
We started out as Velo Culture in 2006 but shortened the name to Velo Cult in the summer of ‘08. We just felt it was a catchier name and easier for shirts and other design oriented things. Velo Culture is French for Bike Culture and bike culture is what we’re about.
About
The story of Velo Cult, where do I start. My name is Sky and I am the proprietor. I started racing on the Velodrome when I was 9 years old. Right after that I started racing road bikes, mountain bikes, cyclo-cross bikes, downhill, single speed and a host of other forms of bike racing. I did that through my mid 20’s pretty much full time and I loved every bit of it. I loved riding, racing and kicking ass. Being a racer the only cool job to have was working at a bike shop so that’s what I did. I started working in shops when I was 15 years old and really never stopped. I started as the wrench and then started working as the head tech and soon started managing bike stores (maybe 10 different shops in all). I can’t say I liked a single one of them to be honest. I did not like the way there were run, the way they treated customers, the way they looked, the way they treated their employee’s etc. It got to a point where I decided I had to be my own boss in which time I started an internet based business restoring and selling bikes online. This was a very fun and challenging time as it was exciting to control my own destiny.
After a few years of this it became apparent that I needed to expand out of my garage. I found a small place to operate out of in La Jolla just north of San Diego. Initially the idea was to run my on-line business in the shop and maybe sell a few accessories to kids in the neighborhood. Well, as it turns out the bike dorks loved this little tucked away shop full of vintage lugged steel bikes. The shop became much more popular than I expected it to. I tried to run this shop like I’ve always wanted to see a shop run. Two years into this shop the decision was made that La Jolla was just too far from the heart of the bike culture we represented and our space was severely limited. We moved to our dream location in South Park, San Diego very close to downtown. With this new space we set into motion all the fun neat things we’ve always wanted to do. Now we have a shop that primarily focuses on providing the best steel bikes, products and accessories available to our loyal customers. Velo Cult mainly represents commuters, tourists, randonneur riders and other subcultures of the cycling community. These specific genres of cycling are generally ignored by bike shops so we took them under our wing. We have introduced a discount program for cyclists who use their bike for shopping and various local business’s have joined us in providing discounts to those cyclists who cycle to their business to purchase goods. More details can be found at SD Bike Commuter.
Our shop was built up in a way that showed permanence with custom counters, display cabinets, a sound system, a large projector for movie nights and a layout that shows we aren’t your typical bike shop. Ever notice how temporary and generic looking most bike shops are? Regular events are held at the shop and you can find out more information on upcoming events on our Facebook page.
This brings us to this web site. We felt that the culture, products and style that we brought to San Diego could be expanded to the rest of the country. We have managed over the years to pull together a nice collection of bikes and where better to display them than our website. We hope to help spread bike culture far and wide.
I myself represent a lot of different genres in cycling and my employee’s share that same passion. We don’t fall into the idea that you can only be a road rider or a mountain bike rider or that a normally spandex clad guy can’t enjoy a ride on a classy city bike on his way to the coffee shop. We love bikes and we ride them all from vintage mountain bikes to modern race bikes.
