91-year-old Mineola bike shop not impacted by LIRR strike just yet

Roughly 20 minutes into the opening of Mineola Bicycle, Fitness & Mower by Jericho Turnpike, a 91-year-old shop roughly 0.8 miles from the LIRR Mineola station, manager Barry Dworkin, 47, told Newsday he has not seen an uptick in business due to the LIRR strike.  

“We’ve seen stuff like that before over the years, where people use bikes to start commuting. Some stuff was before I was here, like the gas shortage in the '70s, we had a huge spike in bike sales, and COVID, that was crazy, but we haven’t seen anything yet with the strike,” Dworkin said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dworkin said bike sales at his shop increased markedly.

“We had a line around the shop for three months straight every day, 75 bikes sold every day,” Dworkin said, noting that most people buying during that time were not using them for commuting to work, but rather for recreational activities, since many places were closed at the time.

Dworkin did not rule out the possibility that bicycle sales could increase if the strike drags on, adding he hadn’t anticipated as many sales during the COVID-19 pandemic, only to see a drastic change one month into it.

“Stuff like that happens very quick. ... If it continues this week, probably after five days, we’d probably see an uptick,” Dworkin said, laughing as he added, “We’ll take what we can get.”