Humble Beginnings
In 2018, we opened the Cycle Sierra Nevada shop on the main street of Velez de Benaudalla. Prior to opening this location, we operated our bike rental service out the garage attached to our home. Following in the footsteps of Gates, Musk, and Jobs, we decided to move our operation out of the garage and into somewhere with a little more space… Our vision was not only to have a place to store bikes, but to create a space where our guests and friends wanted to spend time before and after a ride, so that’s exactly what we created.
El Local
The shop started off as an empty unit which allowed us to bring our vision to life. We designed all of the furniture, work benches, fixtures and fittings and had them made in a local workshop. The design of the shop is largely down to Cormac’s Norwegian architect wife, Maria. The clean design language is coupled with prioritising a shared space with the centrepiece being a large communal table where we often find guests reminiscing how the struggle of the climb was worth the enjoyment of the descent during their post ride beverage.
The shop is where we operate our bike rental service and is fully equipped with a professional workshop with every type of tool that you could ever dream of, a built-in bike wash area, and enough storage for as many as 70 rental bikes. We keep a range of rental road bikes, mountain bikes, and e-bikes here in the shop, all of which are top quality BMC bikes.
During the season, we will start and finish all of our group rides in the shop. We meet half an hour before the ride to enjoy a coffee together and go over the route planned for the day. Post ride, we enjoy one of the most enjoyable times that cycling brings, looking back on a hard, yet satisfying day. The suffering is never enjoyable at the time, but when you can sit down with a drink and the people that you experienced the ride and the rollercoaster of emotions with for a debrief, it’s always a special moment.
Cycling Café
When opening the shop, we wanted to be able to offer more than just rental bikes and a place to sit, we wanted to offer the best coffee in town. We are coffee lovers here at Cycle Sierra Nevada so we went all in on our coffee setup and opened Andalucia’s first cycling café. Our Rocket espresso machine is probably the most used tool in the shop.
Bike Shop
Although we spend a lot of time enjoying ourselves talking about cycling and drinking coffee, we do actually do some bike repair work too… We have a full time, highly experienced bike mechanic, Ruben. We offer our bike repair services to both our guests and the public alike. The shop is also an official BMC and Shimano retailer, we sell a wide variety of nutrition for pre, during, and post ride, and our kit and casual clothes are also offered for sale in the shop. Our used BMC rental fleet of road and mountain bikes is for sale, but if you are looking for a new BMC bike, we will also be able to order that to the shop.
If you are passing through, please make sure to stop in for a coffee and a chat!