Ryder Bikes opens new store in University Park

Ryder Bike's mechanic Matt Holland smiles as he test rides a Trek Pure comfort bike around the store after some mechanical adjustments in the Cortez Road store. The owners, who have a shop in Sarasota, have opened a new store on University Parkway. File Photo by TIFFANY TOMPKINS-CONDIE/Bradenton Herald

Ryder Bikes’ new location in the Market at University Town Center is now open.

Ryder Bikes, with locations at 1905 Cortez Road and in Burns Square in Sarasota, opened its third location on Friday at 5275 University Parkway, Unit 135. The locally owned shop documented the space's transformation into a bike store on its Facebook page, and after a mad dash, managed to open on Black Friday.

The full-service bike shop carries high-end road, hybrid and casual cruiser bikes, clothing and accessories and also organizes rides. The first store opened in 1972 in Bradenton and was acquired in 2007 by current owners Paul and Karen Tobio. Ryder was named one of America’s Best Bike Shops in 2013 rated by the National Bicycle Dealers Association.

When I first spoke with Paul Tobio in July when the lease was signed, he shared that he wanted to be in the University Park/Lakewood Ranch area for awhile:

"When we bought the store on Cortez Road in March of 2007, we actually live in Lakewood Ranch and our thought was opening a store in Lakewood Ranch," he said.
Instead they found an available site in Sarasota, two years after opening their Bradenton store.
Over that time, Tobio analyzed his customer's data and saw a good percentage of his customer base was driving from East Manatee to both his Sarasota store in the Burns Square neighborhood and to the Bradenton store at 1905 Cortez Road. The time to go ahead with the new store was right, he said.

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2013/07/03/4593759/ryder-bikes-coming-to-university.html#storylink=cpy

Hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays.

For information, call 941-351-0000 or visit www.ryderbikes.com and Facebook.com/RyderBikesUniversityPark.