Well this REALLY sucks…

B-LINE’s last day of operations is April 30th, 2024

We made it 6.5 years and we’re pretty proud of what we’ve done. A ‘banker’ got an idea for a bike park, and with help from many awesome humans we made it a reality, and a second home for many Calgarians. I wish I knew how many people learned to backflip here, or learned how to pump, or learned how to pedal, or learned how to make friend? (I bet it’s more than 10!)

Did we do everything perfect? Of course not. This was my first business venture and there is, and was, a steep learning curve. Looking back there are a few things we would change, but overall there is not much that we’d want to do different.

Huge thanks to everybody that has walked in the door; we’ll be selling your info to various mailing lists!

But seriously… Thanks to everybody that helped make B-LINE a special place. We hope you have made some great friends and memories that will last a lifetime. Thanks to the people who helped me along the way, and thanks to the people that warned me not to do it. Thanks to our suppliers for keeping us stocked, and helping out with prizes for the jams and contests. Thanks to our members and thanks to our regulars.

Again, we’ve anticipated the FAQ and here they are:

Yes. April 30th is our last planned day of operations.

Those things only have value while B-LINE is open so I strongly suggest that you get using them now.

We are no longer selling memberships or month passes. Only day passes.

Members: We will take monthly dues for April and that will be the last time. You’ll want to grab your bike by Sunday April 28th (if your bike is hanging on hook, you can keep the hook!)

You’ll be able to book a birthday party up until April 28th. No parties on April 29 or 30th.

We’ll run one last Adult Progression Club for April.

If you had a booking in May or June, we will be contacting you and we can either refund the deposit, or put it on a gift card.

The problem might be that Indoor Bike Parks are a very hard business model to sustain for a variety of reasons including the large area needed, insurance, and weather to name a few.

  • Rising costs and Inflation: Rent and Op Costs (aka CAM or Common Area Maintenance costs), combined, make up the monthly rent cheque that we’re obligated to pay to the landlord. Rent is negotiated and op costs are variable. In our first year our op costs were $13k per month and now they are $37K. We thought they’d rise to $18k/month after 10 years, not to $37k in 6 and our business plan had zero room for this unexpected increase.
  • Lack of memberships: We probably needed about 500 members to be viable in this current market, and as of writing we have 177. In March 2017 we had 250 members including paid in full and paid monthly members and I thought we were GOLDEN as we hit this target way ahead of schedule. By June we were down to 220 because about 25% of the paid monthly members went delinquent, or wouldn’t pay to ride in the summer. And then we had an endless summer and folks could ride dirt and pavement until early December. We’ve teetered between 160 and 200 since. I thought in a city of 1.3 million that that 500 members was an attainable target.
  • Covid screwed us real good: I can’t reiterate this enough… it cost us money to be closed in our prime time, and then we had restrictions that dampened business and caused many of our customers (10-15%) to stop coming because of the rules that we were forced to follow. All this while our rent, opcosts, and insurance kept going up, along with other costs.
  • Global warming is screwing us too!: Getting folks to ride real bikes, not spin bikes, inside when the weather is good is really hard. A short winter followed by a never ending summer hurts huge.

PICKLEBALL!!! The Not-For-Profit Sportsplex next door will be taking over the space, and renting it out to various groups. From what I understand there will be a basket ball court, volley ball court, and table tennis. Maybe more.

I think the difference is that most people don’t have a ping pong table in their house, so they need a place to go, whereas most people have a bike in their house, and can go ride outside instead of at B-LINE.

We need your support now more than ever. We’d like to go out with a ‘bang’, and at least a few bucks in our pocket.

Come ride and buy all our retail stock please! It’s all on sale.

Yes they could if they wanted. They let me know that council can do whatever it wants. BUT… it would set a ‘dangerous’ precedent, and they don’t want to do that. They did wish me good luck tho, and said ‘bummer’.

It is a very hard pill to swallow that the ‘market’ wants another basketball court, a pickleball court, and more table tennis instead of B-LINE.

March 8th, 2024 – As a last ditch effort to save B-LINE we offered to donate B-LINE to the City of Calgary if they could just take over the lease, and run it like they do ice rinks, swimming pools and golf courses. But the city can’t really move that fast and would have needed 2 years to plan something like that. They did say it’s a bummer that Calgary will lose B-LINE and wished me good luck.

Go Flames Go!

I know?! It doesn’t seem right.

Everything in now ON sale and many things are now FOR sale! Here’s a list of things that you can buy with pick up on May 1st, unless otherwise stated.

  • Rental Bikes – All of them! Prices TBD.
  • Picnic tables – Take home your favorite one! $100 each
  • Big Bike Racks – They hold lots of bikes
  • Grind boxes – we have 4. Ask $$ when you’re here.
  • The Podium from Lloyd’s – We might auction this off.
  • A bandsaw – Don’t need this anymore. Pick up anytime. $250
  • FMB Banners – Anyone? $100 for 2.
  • Firewood – We will have bunches starting on May 2nd.
  • Free Foam Blocks – Do you want a piece of B-LINE history? Bring your own bags!
  • Resi Material and Foam – Cheap!
  • Want a ramp? Ask us and if you can pick up May 1st-5th we can talk $.

That’s a great question. I dove into this venture without a ‘Plan B’. I’ll need a month off to mourn, and then we’ll see what jobs are out there for a 50 year old humorous newsletter writer that likes doing social media, but has no particular set of skills.

Anyone reading this hiring?

EVERYTHING MUST GO!

The last remaining Bikes are now 30% off, and all other retail merchandise is now 40% off. You don’t have to take the full discount if you don’t want to. If any of the local bike shops want to beef up their BMX inventory, CALL ME!

Rental bikes, and some portable features can be paid for now, with pick up on May 1-5. There’s a list at the front desk as to what is still available:

  • Norco DJ’s $1000
  • WTP BMX $600
  • SPawn Kotori $900
  • Spawn Gremlin $325
  • Picnic Table $100

If you want something that is not yet listed, please MAKE AN OFFER with a price, so I can just say yes or no.. I already have decision fatigue and I don’t want to price every last thing at B-LINE.

WE NEED VOLUNTEERS ON MAY 1-20. Lots…

If you want to help with takedown, we’ll be looking for lots of volunteers starting at 9am on May 1st. We will be working from 9am-9pm every day from May 1st – 20th, so there are lots of volunteer opportunities.

Volunteers:

  • Need to be 16+
  • Must have steel toe shoes and work gloves
  • Should know the difference between a drill and a compact driver but that’s not 100% necessary.
  • Bring your own compact driver if you have one.
  • Might get fed pizza.

Send an email to info@blinebikepark.com with the subject “I like to unscrew” if you can volunteer. Let us know what days and times you can work.

This ‘Save B-LINE’ Video was awesome, but didn’t work