Rafael Abad, the oldest bicycle shop in Spain, has turned 100 years old but the succession of this family business is not guaranteed beyond the current third generation. Martin Abbot he is the manager and grandson of the founder, “the original Rafael Abad”, as he refers to his grandfather. Martin He is passionate about his work and the history that this family business accumulates behind it. He smiles at her every time he recalls one of the many anecdotes that he recounts from memory between his mother’s notes. Pink, which still frequents this historic establishment in the old town of Valencia. “It is a very exciting sector, a very beautiful world. I have to get the relief, to see if there is luck and someone wants to continue. I do not have children, so …”, she reflects with some melancholy.
Rafael Abad is one of those few historical businesses that resist on the banks of the Turia, a direct witness to the last century of the city. However, its origin is in Teruel. From there departed the first of the Abbot heading to Valencia when he was only 9 years old. He did it alone, without parents or any other relatives, and he went to work in a grocery store. Thanks to his “ingenuity” he soon rented his own premises. “Incredible, huh? What a hard life, those were other times”, he reflects Martin in a parenthesis.
His grandfather stayed on that ground floor until he saved enough to buy the property from which his grandson lives today. On the floor of the entrance a sign reads “Rafael Abad 1922”, certifying the year of birth of the business and giving way to the original Nolla mosaic that extends across the floor of the store.
But in those days the bicycle market was very small. “It was the means of transport for the poor and my grandfather used to say that you can’t live off the bike,” he contextualizes Martin. Thus, he began selling from sewing machines to phonographs, through car parts, motorcycles and of course, bicycles. The manager explains that the bike and the motorcycle then had very similar characteristics: “Before they were very close. The Mobilette in fact comes from the GAC -mythical bicycle house now defunct- and Derbi -famous motorcycle builder- is an acronym that means ‘bicycle derivatives'”.
That’s the way it is, Raphael Abad he didn’t focus exclusively on bikes until almost the 1980s. “That’s when the ‘mountain bike’ boom started and we had to choose,” he recalls Martin. Then the second was already in charge of the business Raphael Abadfather of Martin and his four brothers. She curiously she married tight pink, daughter of the family that owns another of the most important motorcycle and bicycle houses in Valencia. “The tight They went to the motorcycle and Abbotto the bikes,” he says.
As a result of that explosion, the Abbot They saw how numerous competition began to emerge. Martin He compares it to video stores in the 90s. “There was a video store on every corner but the market couldn’t grow anymore, so many went under. And the same thing has happened here, so many have opened that there is an oversupply. Before the pandemic Many already fell because there is no cake for so many,” he adds.
The health crisis has opened a new golden age for cycling, especially in a city like Valencia, flat and with an extensive bike lane. However, stores like Rafael Abad have seen that opportunity pass them by. “There has been a lot of demand but no production. Everything comes from China and there have been many bottlenecks, there has been no way to take advantage of it because we have delivered bikes with a one-year deadline. We have lost a lot of sales,” he laments.
Related news
Despite being a traditional business, the last Abad in the front looks ahead to new technologies. “It seems like bikes are the same now as they were 100 years ago, but materials and components are always evolving, it’s exciting,” he says. Martin about the electric bike, which will undoubtedly be the best-selling model in the short term.
Los Abad are proud to be a historic trade, but Martin points out that not all are advantages. Orbea, with whom they have worked since the beginning of the Basque company, has stopped supplying them, alleging a “reduction of their commercial network”. “I called the current boss, Jon Fernandez, and gave me long. We have very good volumes, but we are no longer interested in the classic stores. It must be that we do not give the image, it is seen that we are rubbish for them”, laments Martin, who adds resignedly that it is “the sign of the times, but we have the guarantee of our trajectory”. And he closed the talk with a warning to Orbea: “You lose your soul”.