Shop Stop: LA Fly Rides
It’s not a shop, it’s a lifestyle
LA FLY RIDES
LA Fly Rides opened for business about 10 years ago as an e-bike tour company. Given that Los Angeles is definitely a travel destination, Ike and Megan Fazzio figured what better way to explore the sprawling
city than on an e-bike!
While the tour business was doing great, customers started to want to buy the bikes. They started selling bikes with hub motors about six years ago, then three years ago they switched to selling mostly mid-drive bikes from the likes of Bulls, Haibike, Riese & Müller, Specialized, Pivot, Cube and more. They just signed up with Mondraker, so those will be available later this year. The bikes they sell now are the same ones they use for bike tours.
LOCATIONS
They have two shops currently—one in Los Angeles and one in Poway, near San Diego, California. The Los Angeles location is in Hollywood, near Griffith Park, a huge park with miles of roads and bike paths, as well as plenty of hills to climb. The Poway location is right at a trailhead, so you can demo a bike the way you’ll ultimately actually be riding. Or, you can buy a bike and take it for a ride before even going to your car. On any given day, you may find any of the employees on that trail as well. The employees not only work together, but they ride and play together. To them, it’s not a company as much as a lifestyle.
TEAM BUILDING
The company is focused on their passion to get people on e-bikes, but also to maintain an outstanding team.
To that end, once a year they take a team retreat for a few days to relax, ride together, and work on how they can mesh as a team and be ready to help get more people into the e-bike lifestyle.
During the pandemic, the shop is only open via appointment. However, having customer limits in the store has proven a bonus, as it provides more quality one-on-one time with customers to get engaged with the details of the bikes on the floor. This way, there’s less time pressure as well, so they’ve decided to stay with the appointment process for the time being.
“The employees not only work together, but they ride and play together. To them, it’s not a company as much as a lifestyle.”
Now the experience is that you go, for example, on an hour-long test ride, then you can get an hour-long bike-fit appointment that ensures the perfect fit, and also gives you the ins and outs of ownership and battery care, maintenance tips, and what services and care the shop provides.
They have a Facebook group for customers and other e-bike lifestyle aficionados called eBike Life Lounge, and their YouTube channel (Fly Rides Electric Bikes) is chock-full of tips for comfort, fit, maintenance, theft prevention and more, and they have advice for buying the right e-bike, reviews and riding skills.