A Full Service Shop - Where It's Needed

In back, working on a bike. 

The National University, known affectionately as La Nacho, is Colombia's largest university and a Mecca for cyclists. But for many years, there were no bike services nearby - either on or off of campus.

That's changed now with some informal repair stands by the main entrances, but mostly by Bicita, a small and efficient place near the university's Teusaquillo entrance.

I visited Bicita years ago, when it was very rudimentary. The other day, they had a dozen that had been repaired or were awaiting repair parked outside. Inside, they sell drinks and pastries and a nice selection of cycling clothing and gear. The small repair shop is in back.

For a people with such entrepeneurial spirit, it's strange that it's taken so long for cycling services to appear here.

Bike jerseys.

Lots of bike gear for sale.

Blog by Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Bikes and Tinto

Bikes, coffee, tea, cigarettes and something more...

I passed this tiny bike repair shop in Bogotá's Palermo neighborhood. As the sign says, they repair bikes and also sell coffee, tea and other drinks. Inside, about four bikes hung from the right wall, in back stood a work bench and crowded against the left wall two tiny tables for sipping coffe and tea. The good-natured owner said he'd been in business for eight years and that things were going well. When I told him about Bogotá Bike Tours renting bikes for 15,000 pesos for four hours, he laughed hard and said that back in the 1970s he'd rented bikes for five centavos per hour. That seems too cheap even for way back then. Today, the smallest Colombian coin in circulation is 50 pesos.

(Ignore any possible conflict between cycling and smoking.)

This blog written by Mike Ceaser of Bogotá Bike Tours