Bill’s Bike Shop in Camarillo is celebrating 45 years in business — an anniversary most retail stores don’t live to see. Owner Mark Eaton said the shop hasn’t exactly been coasting along and that recent changes in the retail marketplace have impacted the way his store does business. “We changed the focus to service. The internet is affecting bike sales – and everybody else’s sales – so it’s a little more appropriate for us to focus on service and taking care of the customers that we’ve built a reputation with over the last 45 years,” Eaton said. He said that quality service has been a major differentiator that has kept his store alive while others floundered. “I’ve seen at least 10 or 12 (bike shops) open and close in Camarillo since I’ve been here,” Eaton said. Steadily rising rent rates haven’t made things any easier. Bill’s Bike Shop has lived in the same shopping center for all 45 years of its existence. To keep afloat, Eaton has had to cut back on the number of employees. “I pretty much work by myself a lot of the time,” he said. “You gotta keep the overhead to a minimum these days.” Eaton joined Bill’s Bike Shop in the mid-1970s, attracted to the shop’s focus on road racing — founder Bill McGann sponsored the local racing club at the time. As McGann’s energy shifted to his import company Torelli Imports, Eaton took on more responsibility at the shop and eventually bought it outright from McGann. The shop has retained that focus on road riders to this day. It still holds informal group road rides every Saturday and Sunday, drawing 30 to 35 riders at the events. And on Thursday evenings, the shop organizes training races through central Camarillo along Adolfo Road. Between 60 and 70 riders show up for the training. “We have some wonderful places to ride in the area. Obviously, it’s not the biggest population base, but we survive. It’s not like down in L.A. where you get millions of people to draw from. But we have a large contingent of road riders in the area,” said Eaton. He said as long as there are serious riders in the region, his store will have a customer base. “People that want quality bicycles aren’t going to be looking on the internet, thank goodness,” he added. In 1974, Eaton, who grew up in San Pedro, moved to Camarillo, where he raised three children, Michael, Megan and Matthew, now grown. He also has a 3-year-old grandson. Eaton indicated that he won’t be retiring anytime soon. He said that his offspring have no interest in continuing to run the shop. To commemorate his shop’s 45th anniversary, Eaton will offer $45 bicycle tuneups through the end of June.
