During pandemic, this Fresno bike shop proved why it is essential to the neighborhood
The man in his 50s appears to be homeless. He wheels his old cruiser bike, with duct tape holding the saddle together, through the front door of Dave Street Customs, a bike shop in the Chinatown section of downtown Fresno.
The rear tire is flat.
“Get some air?” the man asks.
Dave De La Torre replies with a nod and gestures to his older brother and co-worker, who grabs an air hose attached to a compressor. Jimmy De La Torre inflates the tire and tightens a couple nuts on the seat and stem. In a few minutes, the man is out the door and pedaling down the street.
The air is free, and so is the service.
“If all I have to do is pull out a wrench, I don’t charge,” Dave De La Torre says.
During the coronavirus pandemic, California Gov. Gavin Newsom ruled bike shops could stay open. Some critics pushed back, claiming bike shops mainly serve privileged fitness hobbyists and therefore don’t meet the standard of “essential businesses.”
Those people have likely never visited an inner city shop like Dave Street Customs, whose customers rely on bikes for their livelihoods — not hitting their mileage goal or target heart rate on some fitness app.
“It’s a great, great help to the community,” says pastor Bruce Hood, the southwest Fresno minister and former police chaplain who helped the shop get its start.
“On this side of town, a lot of people depend on bicycles for transportation. A lot of poor people can’t own a car. They can’t afford one. So to get around they depend on a bike.”
It may seem like everyone in Fresno owns a car (or several). But according to census data, one in eight households do not. In low-income neighborhoods, that figure is considerably higher.
As opposed to bike shops on the north side of town, you won’t find any $150 cycling jerseys or $5,000 road bikes at Dave Street Customs. In fact, you won’t find any new bikes at all.
Every bike in the shop is used and typically sells for less than $100. (The most expensive is a $500 BMX.) De La Torre purchases used bikes or gets them donated. Some are fixed up and rebuilt. Some are stripped down for parts. Others, such as a 1960s-era Hawthorne currently on sale, are left as is, in the hope someone with an interest in vintage bikes will make it their next project.
“We’re like a bicycle thrift store,” De La Torre says.
A passion for used bikes
When Dave Street Customs opened last August, it was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.
De La Torre had recently been laid off from his job at an irrigation pump company, the latest in a series of layoffs, and it made him reassess his future. He had always been passionate about bikes, especially custom low-riders. But growing up the son of farm laborers near Cedar and Belmont avenues, new bikes were unaffordable.
As a result, he acquired used bikes wherever he could — street sweeps, swap meets or bartering — and fixed them up.
“You had crackheads trying to fight you for your bikes every day,” he says. “It was rough.”
De La Torre carried his passion into adulthood and about a decade ago began helping Hood with the ministry’s annual “Say No To Violence” bike show at Fink White Park. Besides free bike repairs, dozens of free bikes (many of them Walmart returns) are given to neighborhood kids.
So when Hood suggested to De La Torre that he set up a bike shop inside a mostly unused building the ministry leases at the corner of Tulare and E streets, De La Torre leaped at the opportunity.
“He opened up the dream for me — let me move in,” De La Torre says. “I brought over a bunch of bikes from the house, and that’s how this started.”
‘People started buying bikes like crazy’
At first, business was slow. Dave Street Customs made $65 during its first month, and De La Torre thought seriously about shutting the doors. But things changed in mid-March, after state and city shelter-in-place orders went into effect.
All of a sudden, more and more people were pedaling throughout Fresno, a lot of their bikes in need of repair. Which is when De La Torre discovered being the only bike shop in downtown or the west side has its advantages.
“Once the COVID kicked in, people started buying bikes and bike parts like crazy,” he says.
Business has picked up to the point where De La Torre was finally able to place a proper sign out front. Over Memorial Day weekend, he drove to Los Angeles to set up an account with a parts wholesaler. The shop is now stocked with new tires and accessories.
Not everything at Dave Street Customs is for sale. On the sidewalk outside the entrance is a cardboard box containing free bike parts that anyone can pick through. Next to it is a kids’ bike that serves as the prize in a weekly Facebook raffle. Winners have driven from as far away as Porterville.
“This has been my dream since I was a kid,” the 45-year-old De La Torre says. “God puts a dream in your head because that’s what you’re meant to do.”
This story was originally published May 30, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
