SASKATOON -- The owner of Doug’s Spoke and Sport says they're experiencing a shortage of bikes from their suppliers - and they aren’t the only ones.

Jason Woytowich said he has talked with other shops in the city and the shortage is affecting everyone, even some people he knows with shops in Alberta and B.C.

“Mid-summer most years we would start to see next year’s product, and last year with everybody doing so well, we used up most of that product, so now were just waiting for the next stock to come in,” Woytowich said.

Woytowich said suppliers are carefully distributing the bikes they have, making sure one shop doesn’t get a large chunk of the supply, leaving other shops waiting on orders.

According to Woytowich, it’s not all bad news. The shops are seeing a lot of customers and making sales, but many purchases will be orders for bikes that could take a while to arrive.

“It’s just a waiting game now, we can’t make the ships to get here any faster, were just waiting for the bikes to show up,” Woytowich said.

On a typical year without a pandemic, Woytowich said they would have around 1,000 bikes ordered for the beginning of the year. This year they ordered around 150.

“In the fall our suppliers realized there would be a shortage this spring because we used a lot of what we should have had this spring, last summer, because the bike frenzy was on,” Woytowich said.

Woytowich said he thinks the shortage could carry on for a couple of years while the suppliers try and catch up to the demand, which he believes is directly related to COVID-19 and people wanting to get outside after being indoors for so long.

Connor Eremko, who lives in Saskatoon, said the pandemic has given him more reasons than ever to enjoy the outdoors and hop on his bike.

“It’s made me bike even more than I did before, just because you are so limited to what you can go out and do as far as being in public.

“It allows you to get out and do something rather than just sitting at home.”

Eremko said he bought his bike in 2019 before the shortage hit the bike industry, but a friend of his wasn’t so lucky.

“He purchased a bike at the end of last summer, kind of going into winter, and he is still waiting on it,” said Eremko.