Briggate bike shop riding high after first year in business

Johnny Varley, pictured above, opened his Cyclopedia bike shop at 19 Briggate on July 3rd 2020 and has successfully steered the business through a challenging first year.

He has benefited from the surge, during lockdown, in the popularity of cycling but has had to be constantly resourceful: huge demand has disrupted supply chains and made bikes, spares and accessories hard to come by. Nationwide, customers ordering a bike today might have to wait six months for delivery. Mr Varley says that half the enquiries he receives are about electric bikes.  

Unsettled in his job as a technical manager in the construction industry, in Leeds, Mr Varley took a step back and reflected on where his life and career were going. At the same time, the shop in Briggate, previously occupied by Ayrton Interiors, was on the market. Mr Varley seized the opportunity, quit the building industry and opened his own cycle business. He remembered valuable insights from the days he worked after school at a bike shop in Wetherby, the town where he was brought up. He now lives in Silsden.