A fixture of downtown Albany is riding off into the sunset, as the Downtube Bicycle Works prepares to close.
Near the busy intersection of Madison Avenue and Lark Street, across from historic Washington Park, the Downtube has served cyclists of all ages here since 1980.
Wearing a red Merino bike jersey with his store’s name on the front, and the numbers 1972 to 2024 on the back, longtime owner Robert Fullem is reflecting on the business he first started out of a nearby apartment.
“I started the business in 1972. And much I'm sure to the consternation of the building inspector, if he was aware of it, I started it in my two-room apartment on Lancaster Street in Albany,” said Fullem.
Now, more than five decades later, Fullem is closing the store. The Downtube, he says, isn’t suffering financially. But Fullem is turning 80 in October and he wants to spend more time with his family. He has a home and a 2-year-old granddaughter in Tuscon.
The Downtube saw success in a “bike boom” in the 1970’s. Fullem was an avid biker well before he opened the store. Even now, Fullem tries to ride 3,000 miles a year.
“Back in the 70’s, when I worked at the Department of Civil Service, I would bike to work even in the winter, I would bike in the snow on my racing bike on what's called sew-up tires, which are very skinny little tires. And I wore a full outfit for winter cycling. And I had goggles and I bike out there on Western Avenue in and out to my home in downtown Albany,” said Fullem.
The Downtube, which has been a WAMC underwriter, does more than sell bikes and helmets – in addition to repairs and even custom builds, the business “fits” bikes to its riders.
Becky Puritz is the shop’s sales manager and bicycle fitter. She started here in 2011, left after about four years for Washington D.C., and returned in 2021.
“The fittings that I do are sometimes two to five hours long, depending. We're just kind of tailoring the bike to the rider’s body. And, certainly, the sizings that we do, which is what we're talking about when we're talking about getting somebody on the right size correctly, getting it set up, 10 or 15 minutes, that is a special thing about a small bike shop. Absolutely,” said Puritz.
Puritz says she hasn’t figured out her next move.
Downtube manager Drew Felch, who has been here since leaving an office job about five years ago, says he’s looking beyond the bicycle business.
“It's been an amazing experience, but it's also a challenging one,” said Felch. “Running a retail business through COVID was a real trial-by-fire. I’ve seen the shop, now, through inventory crises, staff turnover…”
In addition to COVID, the Downtube survived a 2015 fire that nearly destroyed the building. Fullem invested nearly a million dollars into the structure, opening a café next door and apartments upstairs. The Downtube has kept up with trends in the cycling world too – from the racing bike craze of 50 years ago to today’s e-bikes.
And throughout that time, the store has gained many loyal customers – like Jeff Marden, who swung by as a “closing sale” sign hung in the front window.
“I have a bike now that's about 35, 38 years old, and I'm still riding it. I rebuilt it and crashed it so many times, and now it's like trying to find the carburetor for your ’68 Camaro. I gotta find some old retro pieces and they always work it out for me, now. So, it's progressed over the years in a beautiful way,” said Marden.
Fullem says it’s the city and its people that have kept him in the downtown area.
“And I liked being able to leave here and walk to the bank with the bank deposit, stop at Kathy's Waffle Store for a waffle in the morning, come back, work all day. I felt a part of the community and I wouldn't have felt that, frankly, in a strip mall,” said Fullem.
As he turns away from the business he started 52 years ago, Fullem says he’s had some “very serious” interest in the building, but left it at that.
But even as he looks forward to spending more time biking in Arizona, Fullem is still betting on the city.
“I've got great hopes for the future of Albany I think this place is…on the cusp of greater opportunities,” said Fullem.
