Venerable Spin Cycle to close

After 16 years, The Spin Cycle, perhaps the Triangle' cycling community's biggest advocate, is closing. A liquidation sale will begin tomorrow; Kevin Coggins, who owns the store with wife Phoebe, says he will keep the shop open until they've sold enough merchandise to pay employees and meet numerous other financial obligations.

Triangle cyclists will miss Kevin Coggins everpresent grin, present even this evening after announcing that The Spin Cycle was closing.

"I ran the store honestly, I ran it the best I knew how," Kevin said this evening as regulars poured into the Cary store to offer condolences. Kevin sent an email out to store customers announcing the closure this afternoon around 3. "We had about 80 emails within the first hour," said store manager Lee Walker. Many, he said, were from former customers who have moved out of state.

The Spin Cycle began life as a satellite store of Raleigh-based Flythe Cyclery. The Coggins bought the store and changed its name to The Spin Cycle in the mid-1990s. They operated a second store in North Raleigh during the late 1990s.

The Spin Cycle was known as a huge advocate of cycling in the Triangle. It is perhaps best known for its annual Firecracker 100 ride on the Fourth of July. That ride began in the early 1990s as a handful of friends looking for a way to celebrate Independence Day; it grew into one one of the Triangle's biggest rides, attracting upwards of 1,000 riders in recent years. Also popular is its 37-mile New Year's Day ride and it's Thanksgiving Day ride, which began this year (with a little goading from this corner). The store supported various other rides in the region, sponsored after work rides in warm weather months and helped out with various MS Society rides in the area, including the grandaddy, the MS 150 in New Bern.

The store's liquidation sale begins Saturday morning at 10 a.m. and will run at least through Monday. Accessories will be 50 percent off and all bikes will be 30 percent to 40 percent off. Road bike rentals will be sold for $500 each and mountain bike rentals will go for $1,500. Longtime fans of the store shouldn't feel ghoulish about benefitting from the store's demise, says assistant store manager Cindy Jones. Jones and several part time employees are now volunteering at the store; she said money from the liquidation sale will go toward making sure the remaining employees get paid.

In his message to customers, Kevin wrote: "On behalf of Matt, Lee, Cindy, Nate, Steve, Steven, Cathy, Karl, Vicki, Cathy, Meredith, Thaddeus, Phoebe and me, we hope we get to see you this weekend one last time. Again, thank you for everything... it was a great ride!!!! k."

Coggins is president of the Downtown Raleigh Merchant's Association. Ironically, he's heading up a soon-to-launch campaign touting the virtues of buying from local merchants.

Spinning tales

I bought all three of my current bikes from The Spin Cycle, the first, a Trek 820 mountain bike, in 1994. "I've worked on that bike a few times," ace wrench Matt Lodder said as we chatted earlier this evening.

"You've worked on that bike a few times after I tried to work on it," I clarified.

Spin Cycle mechanic Matt Lodder managed to keep my Trek 820 despite my own best efforts to "fix" it. 

"That too," he laughed. Never once did he charge me to fix my mistakes.

Very early in my road biking career Phoebe Coggins pulled up next to me on a group ride. She started talking about the virtues of Little Debbie creme-filled oatmeal cookies as a nutritious mid-ride snack. I thanked her for the advice (advice I follow to this day, btw.) A pause ensued. Then, in a lowered voice, she said, "You know, when you're wearing bike shorts you really don't need to wear underwear, too." I have since followed that bit of sage, if embarrassing, advice as well.

My third Spin Cycle bike is a Trek Fuel 80. I had it for a year, broke the frame, Trek and The Spin Cycle replaced it within a month. A year later, the frame broke again. Again, The Spin Cycye stripped it of its components and sent the frame to Trek for replacement. A month passed. No bike. Kevin loaned me a rental for the inconvenience. Two months passed, no bike. Trek said they were behind because of an aluminum shortage. I wrote a snippy column wondering what good is a warranty anyway. Unbeknownst to me, Kevin and Matt were putting the screws to Trek to replace the frame — NOW. "The guy's been waiting over two months to get his ride back," they argued. Trek, still apparently low on aluminum, made good — with a carbon fiber replacement frame.

OK, those are my top three Spin Cycle stories. You no doubt have TSC stories of your own. Write and share. Let's have a wake of words in honor of our friends at The Spin Cycle.