A-1 Cycle on Main Street

What can you say about A-1 Cycle? It was truly a Main Street institution. From what I've been able to figure out the shop had been around at 3743 Main Street since the 1980's. With its old school storefront the business was unpretentious both inside and out. Kind of unusual when bike shops have become a hip kind of deal. Here's a photo of the storefront taken in the fall of 2017.

The shop was run by a father and son team. John Quon and his son Rob. The Vancouver Sun did a story about the shop back in 2016. Check out the piece here. At that time the elder Mr.Quon was 85 years old and seemed to be showing no signs of slowing down. But a recent walk up Main Street revealed the shop has closed up and all the windows are covered from the inside. Times are changing on Main Street and maybe Mr.Quon decided to ride into the sunset so to speak and enjoy some retirement. The bike business seems to be very competitive and I'm sure with City taxes profits might have been getting slim. But the store's closing is just one of many on Main Street in 2019 where a long established business suddenly shutters its operations. Other closures further North on Main Street include Bill's Glass, Kea Foods, Kam's Bakery and Restaurant, and the Nice Cafe in the heart of Mount Pleasant. Here's a shot of the empty storefront in Decemeber of 2019.

Whatever business takes over A-1's old space I'm sure it will be a bit more upscale (ie paying more rent) to fit in with the boutiques, cafe's, and eateries that make up today's Main Street.