Black Friday may still dominate the post-Thanksgiving news cycle, but a growing backlash has inspired holidays like Small Business Saturday and smaller, industry-specific events that encourage shoppers to support local merchants. But there hasn't been a specific day celebrating the local bike shop.

That is, until now. Joe Nocella, owner of Brooklyn's 718 Cyclery, was holding a staff meeting a few months ago when his employees pointed something out: The music industry has Record Store Day to promote small businesses in the field. Why can't cycling do the same?

"Unlike record shops, people still absolutely need bike shops," Nocella said. "People need to come in for repairs and have interactions with staff. But the cycling industry could still use a day for shops, and I'm hoping more shops will sign on and get involved."

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Nocella set a date, December 9, and started planning what his store would do for the first Bike Shop Day. Participation would be "open-source," meaning any shop can celebrate the day in any style it wants, no buy-in required (unlike Small Business Saturday). All it needs is some type of related event—a demo, a party, a sale, whatever works— to get the shop on Nocella's listing.

For 718 Cyclery, that meant reaching out to the shop's vendors, like Surly Bikes and QBP, to score swag for the first customers in the door, plus raffles all day long, bike demos, a pancake breakfast, live music, and a Saturday night party.

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Currently only two other shops have joined the list of participating stores, though Nocella said he's been getting a lot of feedback from the cycling industry. "It's taken off like we never imagined it would," he said.

If the event goes well, Nocella plans to aim bigger for 2018.

"The music industry has people make special one-off records for Record Store Day that you can only get in a record shop, so using that model would be great," he said. "Once the dust settles on this one, we're going to be strategizing a lot for next year."

Interested bike retailers can email info@718c.com to learn how to participate.

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