Two new electric bicycle shops under the same brand and ownership opened in Southwest Florida, and they are banking on a business that’s trending upward.
Pedego Electric Bikes opened its Fort Myers store at 2059 Altamont Ave. It also opened its North Naples store at 9853 Tamiami Trail N., Unit 110, off U.S. 41 south of Immokalee Road and north of Mercato shopping center.
Skip and Lisa Badolato own the region’s rights to sell the brand. They spent most of the past year running their business from a recreational vehicle provided by Pedego and then a storage unit after Hurricane Ian wrecked their original Fort Myers store last year off West First Street.
“Hurricane journey,” Lisa Badolato said. “Sept. 28, 2022, we had four feet of water in our store. And we lost pretty much everything.
“We lost probably 75 to 80 bikes, including all of the batteries. Pedego helped us tremendously.”
Pedego replaced the batteries and work with existing customers to purchase discounted bicycles, she said.
“Pedego, again taking care of us the way that they do, they sent us a Pedego RV,” Badolato said. “It’s a 40-foot, Class A RV. They sent that to us from California at no cost to us. We worked out of there probably a month after the storm. We helped a lot of people who wanted to get back on the road with their bikes.”
The bikes range from $1,995 up to $6,000 and more. The factory-built versions roll up to 20 mph, and the batteries range from 20 to 80 miles per charge.
Lisa Badolato said there’s a trend of some couples downsizing their transportation from two cars to one car and one e-bike.
“My husband and I are the perfect example,” she said. “We’ve got one car between the two of us. We had two cars, when we first got down here in Florida, and we decided it was just easier to have one car, and one of us would ride the bike to work.”
This year, about 40 million electric bicycles are expected to be sold, making it a $20 billion business, according to Ebicycles, a website that monitors industry trends.
Being able to take advantage of an upward trending business became much easier upon opening the two stores, Badolato said, especially after facing the turbulence of the storm’s aftermath.
“It’s very emotional,” she said. “I’m really excited and overwhelmed by the amount of time and effort it took to get here. It’s been a really long journey. It’s been really tough. We signed this lease back in May. It took us that long to get this place open, dealing with permits and so forth.”
