All images are courtesy of SB Rides Facebook page
by Ariel Roberson, ShrevePossible
I met with Gregory Powell unexpectedly at Rhino Coffee in downtown Shreveport. I listened and learned what makes his organization, Social Bike Rides, special, from themed bike rides to an up and coming bike shop.
Gregory Powell: The bike shop is actually some old family-owned property. My grandfather built the original building in the mid ’50s. It was a gas station. And so my dad took over the building when he came to town. It was his doctor’s office, but not the gas station. It was another building. And so my dad retired, and the building was abandoned for 15 years.
I really wanted it. I didn’t know exactly what the purpose was going to be. But then I realized that it might be perfect for a bicycle shop. So I purchased the building, because it was no longer owned by the family. It was actually owned by a nonprofit. I purchased the building from the nonprofit and have slowly been rehabbing the building.
It’s got some issues, but we actually fixed up the exterior of the building. So the building looks good from the outside. But it’s not a functioning building. It’s pretty much just warehouse space right now. But as we build and grow the business, it will eventually be a bicycle shop. So if you hear me talking about the bicycle shop, we’re talking about our warehouse right now. That’s my building.
I don’t really have a timeline for opening. But the goal is to be operational, be able to get an occupancy license, sometime this summer. It’s got to have new plumbing done. We’ve got to run new electrical wiring and things of that nature, because it’s a 70-year-old building. So it needs a lot of work.
There’s certain equipment that you need, but you just need a basic space so that you can assemble bicycles and do repairs. So it’s not really too much to it. It’s about 1,000 square feet, so it’s not huge. It will be a small shop, but we would have some space to house some bicycles that we’ll be able to sell in the meantime.
All images are courtesy of SB Rides Facebook page
Social Bike Rides was something that I saw in New Orleans. I went to school in New Orleans, and I was back in town for homecoming back in 2017. And some gentleman who actually graduated from the same university that I graduated from had started up a bicycle company. It was just something that they wanted to do on Tuesday night. They just bought some bicycles, and they started riding as a group on Tuesdays just to have fun. And then more and more people started joining in with them it just turned into this big thing. And I saw what they were doing in New Orleans. And I thought, “Man, that would be so cool to do in Shreveport.” People tend to say, “Oh, there’s nothing to do.”
The whole theme idea started maybe about two years ago, with the brunch rides and the nighttime rides. That’s kind of where the themes came from, just trying to show people what Shreveport and Bossier has to offer. There are some establishments that a lot of people don’t know about. The bicycle tours take people into areas that maybe they are not as familiar with. We get some phone calls from the tourism bureau. I’m a member of the tourism bureau and I support their initiatives. Even though most of my clientele really aren’t tourists, they’re people that may be from Shreveport, that maybe live away.
But a lot of times people aren’t searching the internet for things to do. SB rides has significant brand awareness on the internet. Mostly on social media. Like Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok. That’s the biggie through social media. But we do have a website because everything pushes you through the website. It’s 100% word of mouth.
All images are courtesy of SB Rides Facebook page
In addition to great taste in coffee, Powell has a unique way of bringing people together to experience Shreveport Bossier. Find out more about the adventure that is SB Rides and how to join at https://socialbikerides.com. Also, there is a GoFundMe page raising money for the bike shop. Visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/allendale-bicycle-shop-fundraiser to learn more and contribute.
