Camas Bike & Sport is a community retail bicycle shop that recently moved to a bright new location on Sixth Avenue in the heart of downtown Camas. Pete Clagett purchased the business in 2019 from the original owner, who started it in 2009. Clagett’s business partner Jeff Cary runs the shop on a daily basis, while Clagett focuses on community development, social media and collaboration with other Camas-area businesses. The business operates with a small team of four full-time employees and two part-time seasonal employees.
The shop sells new bikes, including e-bikes, made by a variety of reputable companies such as Specialized, Norco, Intense, Salsa, Rocky Mountain and Haro. They also service all brands and types of bikes, also selling bike components, gear and apparel. All of their products in the store are selected based on their years of expertise in the bike industry. The shop has built a solid reputation for quality and customer service over the years and Clagett said that he thinks the new location will be great for business.
“This has been a great move as it is a purpose-built bike shop environment designed to be a welcoming place to get customers’ questions and all cycling needs and wants fulfilled,” he said. “We also have an outdoor patio, which we used to host our new location ‘grand opening’ and it will evolve to be a community gathering space. We are growing revenues from our very busy service department while developing a smart merchandising model of ‘good, better and best’ products that we personally curate.”
Clagett took over the business right before the pandemic began, which he said was definitely a challenge.
“It’s been a challenge,” he said. “However, our community has been so amazingly supportive. Our team has not only been working long hours to meet/exceed customer expectations, they’ve also been creative in how we adjust to COVID protocols, allowing us to be open throughout the pandemic. So, we’ve focused on being the best, trusted, local bike shop for the cycling community, refining our curation of products. Working through the supply chain issues have been challenging but are now getting better. We have a lot of new bikes and gear.”
When it comes to the future, Clagett is thrilled about what’s on the horizon. In addition to the new location, Camas Bike & Sport is building a custom bike fitting studio that will provide high-tech, motion-capture analysis fittings for enthusiast and racer customers that are looking for a higher-performance edge.
Camas Bike & Sport is located at 303 NE Sixth Ave., in Camas.
