Not just a bike shop, Vélo Champ is a mainstay, a hangout, a place to be. The little family-owned shop in Seminole Heights offers a premium range of performance road, cyclocross and track bikes, as well as functional townie and commuter bikes, but over the past four years it’s also become a neighborhood staple and a hub of the bicycle communIty.
According to co-owner Jordan Miller, who runs the store with parents Doug and Sue Miller, Vélo Champ will host live music shows in 2015 and celebrate its anniversary with a big event. Miller, a self-professed “cat herder,” also coordinates the Riverfront CX cyclocross race event each year and organizes Tampa’s monthly Pub Bike Ride, which used to be sponsored by Pabst and now carries the logo of Cigar City Brewing. (See the “Bike Events, Trails and Shops” guide for details about this month’s ride.)
Vélo Champ’s success has helped bring more business to the Main Street-like strip of quaint storefronts at Hanna and Central avenues, a pedestrian-friendly block that begged for renewal. Located across from the historic Seminole Heights United Methodist Church, its neighbors include Health Mutt and Mike’s Bakery.
“We had a fairly lengthy and costly build-out of this space,” Miller says. “[The strip] was empty for so long.” With the exception of a short-lived bookstore, nothing brought foot traffic to the corner.
“Now it’s busy,” Miller beams. “I believe we made a significant contribution to that. Are we solely responsible? Of course not, but we took a chance before anyone else wanted to take a chance. And I think it’s proven to be a good thing.”
Customers ask Miller how much of his business is service and how much is sales. He maintains that you can’t separate the two. “We just quoted a guy on a hand-built Italian road bike,” he says. “You can’t take the service away from that sale, if you want to call it that. That, to me, is the way it should be. We’re not selling a commodity; we’re not selling a toaster at Best Buy.”
Miller prides the store on selling what you can’t get anywhere else. “If you want to see a Bullet Cargo Bike, you’re not going to put your hands on one anywhere else in the state of Florida but here.” Miller also customized a delivery bike for local coffeehouse Buddy Brew.
“We take a very consultative approach to how we do business. I just had a woman drive from Fort Walton Beach to buy a Dutch cargo trike,” Miller shares. “She needed a bike to transport three kids.”
Financing isn’t offered, but Miller says the shop accepts credit cards and works with customers on a case-by-case basis.
Running a business in a neighborhood in transition can be challenging. In 2012, the shop was robbed. Now Jordan says he stashes away some of the more expensive bikes to keep from enticing criminals. Undeterred, his love of biking will always keep him on task.
“I’ve commuted all over, and Tampa has gotten better,” he says. “There’s more of an apparent community, and that’s underrepresented in comparison to the bad press that you read about Tampa.”
This article appears in Jan 1-7, 2015.