Sun sets on cycling shop: Bike & Hike to close after 49 years in Rock Island

Steve DePron, owner of Bike & Hike, 3913 14th Ave, stands for a portrait outside the shop, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, in Rock Island. The bike shop announced it is closing in July after 49 years in business.

Steve DePron, owner of Bike & Hike, 3913 14th Ave, stands for a portrait inside the shop, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, in Rock Island. The bike shop announced it is closing in July after 49 years in business.

Shown is Bike & Hike, 3913 14th Ave, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, in Rock Island.

A look at Bike & Hike, 3913 14th Ave, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, in Rock Island. The bike shop announced it is closing in July after 49 years in business.

Steve DePron, owner of Bike & Hike, talks about operating the shop for the last 49 years, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, in Rock Island.

A look at Bike & Hike, 3913 14th Ave, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, in Rock Island. The bike shop announced it is closing in July after 49 years in business.

It was 1974 and Steve DePron was 19 years old. He kept his hair long, wore bell bottom jeans and had just returned to the Quad-Cities after traveling for a year. He stumbled into a shop called Bike & Hike. He stayed for the next 49 years.

On July 29, after nearly five decades of business in Rock Island, DePron is closing the doors for good. But there's a lot more to the story about the 19-year-old who bought a bike business.

The way DePron tells it, he stumbled into the shop at 3913 14th Avenue. Then, it was a hiking and outdoors shop, but the owners wanted to get into the bicycle business as well. With DePron's background as a motorcycle mechanic at Hawkeye Honda, now Hawkeye Motorworks, he was the perfect fit.

His pay was $150 a week. Adjusting for inflation, that's $923.01 in 2023. Taking the job was a no-brainer, he said.

"Oh man, I'm rich," he said of his feelings at the time about the offer. "I go, what do you do (as manager)? And they go, 'Once a week you wash the windows; once a week you wash the floor.' And I'm going, 'Wait a minute. I'm the manager.' "

Six months later he bought the store and his entrepreneur journey began. Over time, DePron built the store up. He opened a distributing company and had a mail-order company and five stores. BMX, bicycle motocross, hit its peak and DePron was happy to serve those customers as well.

"We were rocking and rolling, and the money was coming in pretty good," he said.

After a few years, DePron decided to make adjustments and scaled it back to the one shop in Rock Island to spend more time with family. But that doesn't mean business ever slowed.

"According to my accountant, we have sold about 95,000 bikes in the history of the shop," he said.

The decision to close was not one he made lightly. In fact, he'd stay open if he could.

"The bike shop would continue to go for the next 50 years if I could simply find a manager. Therein lies the problem," he said.

The shop is old school — there are no QR codes or point-of-sale system. Although the building may look small, DePron has bikes stored in every attic, garage, nook and cranny in the shop. On an average day, it could store 800 bikes and a separate shed is in the back of the property for tire storage.

As of Tuesday, he was down to 213 bikes.

In addition to bikes, the shop sells clothing, accessories and anything else someone might need for a successful ride. All that is on sale until the store closes for good next month. In the back of the shop is an area for repair. In a metal filing system on the hallway wall are handwritten repair slips — a tribute to DePron's old-school ways.

The hallway connects back to the front of the store where bikes line the front room. Tuesday, so did customers who dropped in to snag a deal and others who just wanted to offer their congratulations on a long ride. Those people, DePron said, are who he's going to miss.

"The only thing I'm going to miss is the people," he said. "The people are the best part."

In this file photo, Steve DePron, owner of Bike & Hike, stands amidst his collection of hundreds of antique toys and bicycles in his Rock Island shop.

In this Friday, Nov. 22, 2002, file photo, Steve DePron, owner of Bike & Hike, looks over some of his collection of hundreds of antique toys and bicycles at his Rock Island shop.

In this Wednesday, April 22, 2015 file photo, Steve Depron, owner of Bike & Hike, poses in his shop on Wednesday April 22, 2015. Depron is a winner of an award from River Action for his work on the Ride the River bike event.

In this Friday, June 1, 2001 file photo, Chase Martin of Silvis checks out a comfort bike, the Giant Sedona LX, as Phil Maess, sales and serviceman with Bike & Hike in Rock Island, describes the features.

In this Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2005, file photo, Phil Maess, an employee with Bike & Hike in Rock Island for seven years, puts the final turns on a bike in the Bikes for Brains campaign in the shop.

In this Monday, Dec. 14, 2015, file photo, Kazmeir Martin-Carter, 4, of East Moline, rides out of the Martin Luther King Center on his new bike courtesy of "Bikes for Brains" an initiative by the Rock Island County Regional Office of Education, Bike & Hike, and Queens Parlour. 150 bikes and helmets where handed out to Quad City area children eligible through Head Start , the Early Childhood Centers, and The Project, and Aids charity.

In this Wednesday, April 22, 2015, file photo, Steve DePron, left, helps John Lamb assemble a bike at DePron's Bike & Hike shop in Rock Island. DePron received an Eddy Award from River Action Inc. on in 2015 for his work with the annual Ride the River Father's Day bicycling event.

A look at Bike & Hike, 3913 14th Ave, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, in Rock Island. The bike shop announced it is closing in July after 49 years in business.

Shown is Bike & Hike, 3913 14th Ave, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, in Rock Island.

A look at Bike & Hike, 3913 14th Ave, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, in Rock Island. The bike shop announced it is closing in July after 49 years in business.

Steve DePron, owner of Bike & Hike, talks about operating the shop for the last 49 years, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, in Rock Island.

A look at Bike & Hike, 3913 14th Ave, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, in Rock Island. The bike shop announced it is closing in July after 49 years in business.

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