Good Day Uncut: Zummo Bike

Philadelphia, we are uncut. Without Annette today, we're out here in Berwyn. The mic is on. It's just that people just tried to call me right now. Great job, everybody. In Berwyn, right now, guys, at a place that's very, very special. On the corner. Guys, it is Zumo Bike, and it is not your average bike shop, and not by any stretch of the imagination. Can it do the things that the average bike shop can? Absolutely, but a whole lot more, and that's where we get to you, Elijah Salas. Thanks so much for, thanks for having me, Elijah, I appreciate it. You're like a kid yourself, but everybody says you're in charge around here. Tell me a little bit about that. I do my best, I do my best. I've been working at Zumo Bike for about six years now. I've been a mechanic, a mentor, and now a manager, and I've been helping run the show. That's fantastic. There's bikes all over everywhere, as I suppose they should be. What is it that you all do out here? We refurbish bicycles and sell them. We get bikes in that are donated. Maybe you have a bike in your garage that you don't ride anymore, and we take it and we fix it up and resell it. Resell it, recycle the bike, as it were. Maybe too many bikes going into landfills these days. I don't know. 100%. We want to be carbon neutral. We want to be conscious of the environment. You don't need to buy a new bike. We have great options that are refurbished and pre-loved. Yeah, and no question about it, guys, and the mix is wild. It goes every way from Sunday. There's a Giant right here, a French Motobike Cane, other Giants as well, a Raleigh USA bike, the Frames, Bianchi, which is, I think, still Italian, as far as I know, a Haro. That was always the bike to have when I was a kid if you wanted to go BMX riding, and they are still in the game, clearly. But I saw a ton of young people in there, Elijah. Are you all just working with kids in here? Yes, so the bikes are just a vehicle. What we really do is workforce development. Tell me more. So we get all these kids in here. First, they volunteer. They learn the skills, how to manage, how to solve problems, how to think like a bike mechanic, and how to think logically, and then they get paid. And what we're trying to do is grow these young guys up so that when they're 16, 17, 18, going to higher education, they can work a real job and they can make some real money. We want them to be as marketable as possible for real business guys. Beautiful stuff. Yeah, show me around, if you will. I know you got people for me to meet. Come on in, Hank, come on in. Yeah, we got a ton of great people. You guys are gonna meet today, and we're super excited. Snacks and water's out on the front porch, too. Yeah, come on in. As we go on in. It's pure bike shop, everybody. There's frames hanging everywhere, tires up in the sky, using every part of the space just in order to get the job done in here. So we've got everything in here. You know, we're a one-stop shop, and coming along with a one-stop shop, we've got great salespeople here. So I want you to meet Joann. Okay, Joann. Pass the microphone to Joann. Joann, you are in charge, Elijah says you're in charge of sales right now. You can just hold that up high if you want to. That's fine. It's your choice. Got it. Selling bikes. How old a guy are you? I'm 14. All right, so how do you sell somebody a bike, especially a used bike? I mean, it's gonna get down, I suppose, to what it is they're looking for, right? Yeah, so when they come in, I say, hi, nice to meet you. I'm Joann. Okay. And I say, what kind of bike are you looking for? Where are you gonna ride? And I show them some of the options. Like, they say, I wanna go on gravel, dirt. I show them a mountain bike. If they wanna ride on a trail, or just for comfort, I show them a hybrid. Sure, do you ever run into people that don't know what they want? I'm sure if they do know what they want, it maybe makes it easier, but the prices are super fair here, too. Here's a Diamondback, 150 bucks. 225, that's another, I guess, one of the blessings, guys, is, look, are you trying to save a couple of bucks? You can go six, seven hundred dollars and up on a new bike these days. You can pay as much as you want for one, but maybe why? You know, why spend more if you don't have to? Keep in mind, sometimes they say, I wanna use bike for cheap. I show them one of the 150 options, but sometimes I show them some new ones when they say, I don't care about the money. I just want a durable bike that's lightly used, and I show them some of the new ones we get from donations from companies. Now, you would know, I guess, about your inventory fairly well, because if you work in here every day, and you ride here. I do. Tell me about that a little bit. It's like 40 minutes, 40 minutes ride. I got my bike actually here. I built it, I worked on it, and I got it. And if anything goes wrong with it, you just put it up on the rack over there and fix it, right? For sure. And you know how to fix it at this point? I do, I know how to fix most of it. That's pretty cool. Joanne, we're gonna get back to you. Thank you for this. No problem. What's the thing that you think other young people most need to know about what's special about Zumo? You're here at 14, you've learned how to fix bikes, and now you're selling them. That's a lot of knowledge and a lot of experience for a young guy. That's a good thing. It's great. I would say Zumo Bike is an amazing place. You get many opportunities. I got an opportunity to get a scholarship for crew. Oh, wow. I do crew, I've been doing it for a year now, and it was just a random guy that came in, said, I want a bike, and then he started working, and then he just invited me into crew. That's amazing, so now you're rowing as well. I am, yeah. Look at this, all right, good job. All right, so Elijah is showing us around. Hand him the microphone back. We gotta pass the mic whenever we do it. I will make note of the fact that Charlie is here. He's their multimedia guy. Charlie and I are doing the church of shooting each other right now. Charlie shoots me while I shoot Charlie. Bing, bang, boom, bang, video for everybody. But that is part of what you all do, though, is to keep things relevant around here, and do a ton of social media with this much young energy in here. Yeah, Charles does interviews. You know, we had a mural painter come in the other week. He actually stayed at the shop. Is that the mural across the street over there? Oh, that's a new piece of work. It looks great. It looks unbelievable, actually. What's up? They got a jazz club over there? Yeah, it's like a little music joint. Not bad, it's gorgeous. It's amazing. Okay. So we're moving on a little bit deeper into the shop. Look, go ahead, take me, sure. A little bit about our process. You know, we get these bikes in, and they can be in any shape. Right. And the young guys, they'll diagnose them. You know, look at this bike right here. You know, it's missing its cranks. Right. So we need cranks. Yes, sir. And the young guys know that. They know where to look for the parts. They know how to diagnose this and fix this themselves. Well, because a crank shaft, there's going to be a hundred different kinds, a hundred different sizes, right? Exactly. Every crank's not going to work on that. A hundred percent. You got to know which size, you got to know which style, and which parts to put back on the bike. And that's what we do here. You know, we get bikes like this all the time. We fix them up and we sell them. All right. Sounds good. Guys, listen, this is Zimmo Bike Shop on the corner of Lancaster and Main in Berwyn. It's an extraordinary place, and we're only beginning to scratch the surface on exactly how young energy across the board in here. And there's bikes up on the rack in order to get fixed, because Berwyn knows that no matter what else is going on in here, they can absolutely get all fixed here. And if it's no good anymore, they can donate it here. Zimmo Bikes out here in Berwyn, guys. We'll be right back in two minutes. All right, guys. And we are back in Berwyn at Zimmo Bike Shop. You're looking at Hasani's, the hand of Hasani, I should say. He's working over an old Raleigh frame. It's a kind of a family bike, what they used to call a girl's frame, I guess, but he's beginning to clean it up. It looks like the beginning of the process here. Elijah, I mean, he's only here two days. You can remember back when you were here two days. I don't know what you were like at that point. I was learning. You know, that's what all these guys are doing. We're all learning. This is the start of the restoration process. You know, he's going through, he's cleaning it up, and he's looking at all the parts, and, Main, do you repeat? I don't know. I'm gonna clean it up so that we can begin to see what it is that it needs, and give it a test. Yeah, all right. So, Zimmo Bike Shop, I believe that our, so this is where the guys come to learn. They develop their skills. You can meet them. Thank you. Hey. What's your car number? I have a hundred and a half. How long have you been here? I've been here. Not too long. I'll bring you along. I was supposed to thank you. Yeah, so, we went around the whole neighborhood. We opened up every night, and when we can, we try to go out mountain biking. It's at a place, Harmony Hill in Downingtown. Oh, yeah. We try to get out there whenever we can. Good stuff. All right, so, what do you like best about your experience here so far? Are you a little bit further ahead on bikes than you were when you came here the first time? Definitely. When I came here, I didn't know anything about bikes. I like, all I knew is lefty, loosey, righty, tighty. Well, that's pretty good. Yeah. I tell you, some people never learn that. So, yeah. So, are you the bike guru amongst all your friends, though? You got your friends? Is your garage filling up with your friends' bikes when things jump the chain or whatever? Yeah, yeah. They come to me for tune-ups if needed. That's all right. You can tell them, listen, Ben's Bike Service. Ben's Neighborhood Bike Service. Five bucks will get you back on the sprocket. How about that? Yeah. Here, Ben, pass me that mic. All right, and who's the other young man? I want to talk with him real quick as well. This is Gil. My name's Gil, yeah. Gil, how's it been going so far? Tell me about this. Tell me about Zimmo. What's been your experience here so far? So, my experience has been great. Learned a lot since before. Like he said, I only knew righty, tighty, lefty, loosey. Right. I learned way more. Gear work, I know, brakes, all that stuff. Good stuff. All right, well, I appreciate you, Gil. And long and fast, may you ride, my good man. What is that, an 18 speed? Look, maybe a 21 speed. There's a ton of sprockets on that thing, man. I can't even begin to get into that. There you go. Dad's like, it's probably a one by an 11. I don't know what he's talking about, and that's okay. All these young people do. Elijah, it's funny, too, because the old lefty, loosey, righty, tighty rule does not actually always even apply on bikes. You got some lefty, tighty on some pedals and some other accurate. We do, we do. We get into some bottom bracket parts and they're reverse threaded. Yeah. These guys aren't giving themselves enough credit. You know, these guys can bleed hydraulic brakes. They can deal with all the most advanced shifting on the market. I'm 100% serious. Hydraulic brakes predate me. I'm either calipers or, God forbid, a disc brake. And I don't even like the disc brakes that much. These guys are crushing it. They're learning a ton. All right, so where are we headed now? We're heading down the line. We're going through our, still our main four racks for all these guys' refurbished bikes. Sure. They're using household products like Brillo pads to get all the rust off. Yep. That's Morgan in the back there. Hey Morgan, how are you? I'm good. Morgan, can you hang onto that with your dry hand for a second? And Morgan, you've been here for a minute, right? Yeah, for like half a year. What about your soul? What about who you are likes being here doing this kind of work? What is it that you love about the bikes so far? Maybe it's just the way you interact with them. Maybe it's the joy of doing something, fixing something, making it better than it was when you got it in the first place. I don't know. I don't really ride bikes often, but I really like fixing them because it has nothing to do with riding, but it's a way to be a better person. Good job, Morgan. You did it. Thanks so much. There she is. Peter, it's so good to get in here with you. Nicely. That's a great thing. I want to introduce you to that other person. All right. How are you? Good. Are you 15 or something? Everybody, everybody. Good to see you. Good to see you, man. How are you? So I'm actually 19. Second year at Temple. Hey, good to meet you. I put a new trim on, a new grip. This just. Absolutely. That's specifically for bootcamp. I really like it. You know, you can tune up, you can drop, shift in, system, anything you need. You can put on a new bike. All you have to do is buy, and that's how they do it. They're online. Hopefully these buddies, this team, they know how to do it. Now, are you riding a bike? I'm a student at Michigan State University outside of the city, but are you riding a lot? I will tell you, I'm on a gravel bike right now. But when I get back to campus. Is that the best way to ride in the city, in a gravel bike? Absolutely. You're right. What I'm starting to learn here, guys, before we go to another break, is that a simple bike is not just Harley. It's not just Ed. It's a lot of young people, but it's also all of these different bikes. It's the empowerment of teaching young people how to work on bikes, plus the empowerment of having a bike shop that sells bikes. They're not just out in the middle of Perth. They're really well to do. They get a lot of good donations coming in. It's a cover all for bicycles, guys. There's everything going on here. It is a massive shop. I probably need the whole talk about just because you've got decent grip on exactly what you do. Have you been able to see anything like it was a bicycle shop? Honestly, I haven't. We're a very special community shop. We're a family. We treat people, and we treat them right. Oh, the other day, I was speaking to a motorist. I'm trying to ride the wheel. It's sort of an asset, right? I've heard from him. I've heard, well, maybe there's an aspect that people kind of ignore. Models, people can be young or young. Only a lot of decent bikes are. We'd love to see. We would love to see young people this model that's doing well, accessible, and take that and make it a big event. Oh, I agree. We would love to see that. It's a scary process. I've never seen one that lasted a long time. Before we go to a quick break, Elijah, go ahead and throw out on social media this place. This is Zumo Bikes, the corner of Main and Lancaster here in Berwyn. How can people check you out? How can people get ahold of you all if they want to come shop in business hours, anything you want to put out? That's a great question. So you can find us online at zumobike.com. You can find us on Facebook at Zumo Bike. I think we're on Instagram too. We're trying to post a little bit more. You guys are made for Instagram. You guys should post a ton on Instagram. Yeah. The best way you guys can get in contact with us is just check us out. We're right across the street from Berwyn train station. We're at 654 Lancaster Avenue. Come by, see the people. We're open five days a week. We're open Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. We're open from 10 to six. Basically all those days. Saturday's a nine to five day. Come check us out. Say hi. Shoot us an email. Check out the website and read our stories. We would love for you guys to do that. Yup. And you can even just drop on in guys and do a little bit of window shop and look at the bikes here. I'm already doing a little bit of this and there are a lot of really good options. I may be a custom here sometime sooner than I think guys. Give me two minutes. We'll be right back out here to Berwyn with more of this magical, wonderful hybrid bike shop that does so many more things than a bike shop. We'll be right back. All right, everybody back out here in Berwyn at zumobike.com. Zumobike, the corner of Lancaster and Main Streets. The old heads around here tell me there's nothing more zumo than seeing a big trailer full of bikes come pulling up. Each one of these bikes, there's a Pusch right there. That's a German bike. You don't see those much around here that much. Every single one of them has grips on it, derailers, brakes, handles. There's even a parking space for a great big weird bike that people sit in right out, nevermind, that's a handicapped space. Elijah, I'm losing my mind. What's going on? No worries. But again, so many bikes out here. You guys are swimming in them. A ton, we're swimming in them. We even have another location with more bikes. You know, we're looking for people to come buy these bikes up. And part of that buying process is restoring them. Right. Now you're gonna meet Jareth, who does a lot of the detail work. She does a lot of paint work and she loves to talk about it. All right, Jareth, so how do you find yourself in that particular corner of paint work and detail work? Maybe there's an artist inside of you trying to come out. Yeah, so I like to like draw, paint, and do types of art. And for painting, I like, like obviously I gotta do like brush strokes to make it look smooth and all that. So you're actually painting some of these bikes and painting what, chip marks and stuff? Yeah. Do you guys wind up getting factory paint in order to, or you just kind of get what you have? Get what we have. Yeah, sure. Give me a good example. Are any of these bikes around here ones that you've worked on? No, but like for example, over here, this bike, it's a little chipped. So maybe there could be like white paint to cover it up or anything to make it look at least brand new, like if it's not used. Well, and the other thing too, is they're all gonna want it with price tags on them. You guys are gonna repair them all until they're at least usable and functional bikes again. And at that point, if it's gonna go on the rack with a price tag on it, you all want it to look as good as it can, right? So it sells. I mean, no one wants to buy a dirty bike, right? Yeah. Fair enough. All right, now who's this back here, Jareth? Is this somebody that you created back here? What kind of bike is that? That's not a bike. This is just a skeleton. Oh, my bad. All right. Look at a little crazy hanky. Make it funny this way around the bike shop. Yeah. Well, you guys see, Brewer pad's heavily in use inside already. Yeah. I'm sure he was using one already. Yeah, this is like the most important thing for detailing is to like make all the bikes clean and make it look brand new. Like if it was never used. Beautiful job, Jareth. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. And it's a pleasure to meet you. We'll see you out here in Berwyn. Elijah, what's the next thing we got to hit? Because my last word, I guess, we got to go downstairs too, right? Yeah, so just real briefly, Charlie's going to tell you about how we list all our bikes on eBay. You know, he's our in-house video guy. I love that. Charlie, you're about to get a whole lot busier, actually. So, I mean, that's actually a pretty busy job. You put every single bike on eBay? Not, I mean, we're working through all of them. We have, we put them on Facebook. Right. We have on this iPad, this Google Sheet system that we use to catalog all of our bikes. Okay, this is your job. How old are you? I'm 13. Seriously? Yeah, turning 14 later this year. All right. So I photograph all the bikes with my camera. Oh, it's twin travel. That's a great bike, actually. Yeah. Yeah, it's a beauty. And then I- Reminds me of the old Latour. My buddy James had one of those anyway. So I photograph them with my camera and then I put them into the system, the Google Sheet. And then later I go home, I clock in and I post them on Facebook using the information I already put in. And we just keep it in our log so we can update it and renew it if we need to or we can take it off if we need to. That's remarkable, Charles. Thank you so much. And I appreciate it. Take me to where we have to go next, but Elijah, on the way, tell me though, what I'm really taking away from so much of this that really knocks me out. Oh, we're going down to Bilko's. Watch a little broken down hang, make his way down to Bilko's stairs. This ought to be pretty good. While you're going though, tell me what I'm really seeing here. A big part of what I'm seeing is young people being super duper responsible more than anything else. I mean, you've got a 13 year old who's taking care of shooting video for you all and he's putting bikes up on eBay. I don't know how old the young lady that we just spoke with is, but she's getting bikes ready to be sold. And down here we've got bikes being sold. What's up? Is this the youngest customer? Hi, how are you? Let's talk to you for a second. What's your name? Emily. Emily? It's a pleasure to meet you, Emily. Are you looking for a bike? What kind of a bike are you looking for? Do you know? That one. You, whoa, son of a gun. Emily, now you're a pretty big girl. Is that bike going to be big enough for you? It's definitely cool enough. Tell me what you like about it. Cause it's pink and I wanted a seat of those. It's pink and you wanted a seat like that? What's the seat for? Because for dolls. You can put your doll on the back and ride her around the neighborhood. That makes good sense. Excellent. Now, who is this with you, Emily? Is that your dad or your granddad? Dad, no. Well, granddad. All right. I worked here for a couple of years. You did? And this is a great reason to come to Zumo because kids like her outgrow these bikes. Sure. And so you need a bigger one and you're looking for something to do with the old one and there's a great place to donate it. Couple of years later, she can bring it right on back and find herself another one, right? Sure could. Not bad. In fact, it might not take two years the way she's growing. I was going to say, it might be another two or three years she'll be in here fixing derailleurs and cleaning bikes as well. Emily, would you like to work here? No. Not really? I guess. You never know. How old are you? What are you, six? Five. You'll be six before long though. You're a really big girl. It's nice to meet you, Emily. You're a lot of fun and I'm glad I got a chance to talk to you. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Aw, she's so courteous and so cute. The future of bikes. Emily, everybody. And by the way, look, if you're a little girl, show me a bike that you're going to get that's going to top that. That is the True Princess. You got all of them on there. Tassels on the handlebars and a seat for your dolly. Guys, give me just one more quick commercial break and we'll be out here to sum things up with Zumo Bike in Berwyn. They're a wonderful place, guys. You should come pay them a visit. We'll be right back. Thank you so much, guys, from Zumo Bikes out here at Berwyn and Lancaster and Main Street, guys. We say goodbye. Lots of great Fox 29 content coming at you. See you for another Live of Tomorrow. Be safe.