One of Vancouver's preeminent bicycle retailers is not shy about the fact that he's started "moonlighting on the side" to get him through the economic slowdown.

In his only remaining store—Simon's Bike Shop, at 608 Robson Street—the North Shore's Simon Coutts has two piles of business cards on display. One is for the shop. The other is from Macdonald Realty, where Coutts now plies his trade as a realtor.

"Where I got that moonlighting from was, I was watching CNN and on comes that pilot from the Hudson, whatever his name was," Coutts told the Georgia Straight, referring to overnight hero Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger. "They [CNN] had a little thing about airline safety. He said, ”˜I make $38,000 U.S. a year flying the plane. To feed my family and do all the stuff I've got to do,' he said, ”˜I actually do carpentry on the side at night, on my days off.' I thought, ”˜What is a guy who lands that plane and has been a pilot for however many years doing?' I thought he'd easily be making 100 to 250K a year. He's not."

Coutts has plugged away on Robson Street since 1986, repairing and selling bikes and other accessories. He sold the six other stores he owned over the years. Like Sullenberger, Coutts is not making $200,000 a year doing what he loves, and he said the imminent recession will likely mean this is not his best year.

"You would think cycling would be recession-proof," Coutts continues. "Believe it or not, for us to get more sales, we need the gas prices higher. Remember when the gas prices were at a buck fifty? People were actually thinking about getting out of their cars and riding more then, I think. I had a great spike in sales when the gas price was at a buck fifty. People were leaving the car at home or only insuring one car. Right now—and I look at the numbers daily, even though it's a slow part of the season—I'm seeing tons of people bringing in bikes and fixing the old ones before they turn around and purchase a new one."

Paul Dragan, onetime triathlete and long-time owner of the Reckless chain of bike stores in Vancouver and Victoria, was a little more optimistic when asked if this could be a good year if the economy continues to stagger.

"We think so," Dragan said by phone from his Yaletown store. "That's been the industry feeling ever since September, in spite of the economy. That's what I would call North America–wide."

Dragan, who is preparing to enter his second term on the city's bicycle advisory committee, attributes his optimism to his belief in a "general consensus that bikes are moving into the mainstream of transportation in North America". This, Dragan said, has led to the rise of the commuter bike in urban centres.

"I'm not talking about downhill bikes or road-racing bikes," Dragan said. "I'm talking about bikes that you and I would use to get back and forth to work. That's been the growth in the industry in the past year or so. It was predicated, if you like, by the rise in fuel costs and congestion in the urban centres. It's also being fuelled by personal inactivity and things like that. So there's a solution that gets you from A to B, and it also gets you some exercise in the process of doing it."

Dragan is also happy with municipal spending on cycling in large cities such as Toronto and Vancouver. However, on the economic front, he refrains from all-out optimism and adopts a retailer's wait-and-see approach.

"Our sales are down since the economy has tanked, because our sales always go down in the winter," he said. "So we can't say that our sales are down because of the economy. We just say, seasonally, our winter was like it normally is. Now that things are getting better, we are seeing increased activity. I was talking to one of the main guys at Norco in December, and they have budgeted and purchased for growth this year."

Like Coutts, Dragan believes that people are "eliminating one car from their activities".

Long-time downtown-based cyclist John Whistler, director of the West End Residents Association, told the Straight he sees opportunity for lower-end bike stores like Our Community Bikes on Main Street. Whistler is also on the board of Pedal, the nonprofit society that operates OCB.

"We as an organization are feeling, and I hate to say it, that these are great times," Whistler said by phone.

Whistler confirmed that "sales are picking up" at OCB, which also has sliding-scale options for people to come in and repair, or partly repair, their own bikes and learn how to be self-sufficient.

"We have seen it in the past, but in times of recession, our business goes up," Whistler added. "More people ride bikes, and in particular what happens is, somebody who, say, is not an experienced cyclist has a car, [and] they decide to get rid of their car and get a bike. But they don't know where to go. So they come to Our Community Bikes to buy a cheap bike or something like that, and we encounter those types of people. And that business picks up."

That news might please Coutts's mechanics, who will be kept busy this summer doing repairs. However, his new bikes may need some coaxing out the door if people really hold on to their cash. If the numbers don't add up, Coutts should keep both piles of business cards well stocked.