WORKSHOP STORY: EP#3 BICICLETAS JUANMA

At Bicicletas Juanma there is always something to buy. 
If you are traveling through Valencia in Spain, you can’t help but to pass by the shop of Juanma and Mari Ángeles Vizcaino in the municipality of Alfafar, located in the Spanish Mediterranean basin.
Juanma’s passion for cycling comes from his heritage. 

Early in the 1950s Juanma’s grandfather, who was a great cycling fan, had a bicycle repair shop in Yecla (Murcia). Over the years the family moved to Valencia in search of new and better opportunities and it was there that his grandfather founded the furniture factory, “Muebles Vizcaino”. There Juanma’s father began to develop professionally while he combined it with competing as a professional cyclist and later as director of an amateur team. As director, he was responsible with launching great Spanish professionals riders such as Vicente Belda, Francisco Giner, Jesús Guzmán, Antonio Llopis, Carlos Greus and more. Even the Spanish cycling legend Miguel Indurain passed through the store one day, grabbing the shop a spot on regional television.
With the economic crisis in Spain in the 1980s, the furniture factory went bankrupt and it was in 1982 - Juanma was 8 years old - when his father opened the “Bicicletas Juanma” store in the Alfafar, close to Valencia.
At the age of 10, Juanma was already beginning his first steps as a mechanic in his father's workshop, helping him repair bicycles. Meantime he competed in races until 25 years old, when he started running the store with his parents.

After Juanma got married, his wife Mari Ángeles joined the profession, sharing the management with him. Over the years the business grew and they had to move to a larger location, but only 500m away from the previous store opened by his father. Currently the company is managed by Juanma and his wife and 4 employees, including mechanics and shop assistants. They have always sold FSA and Vision components from carbon cranks, wheels, bottom brackets, stems, seatposts ... which are so well accepted by their customers.

THE COVID-19 LESSON
If there has been a clearly different year in the history of Bicicletas Juanma, that has been the year of 2020. With the health crisis due to COVID-19 and the state of alarm decreed by the Spanish Government, they were forced to close the store without knowing when they could reopen their business activity. A few weeks before, without knowing what was coming, they had made a significant investment to supply themselves in excess of material, so their uncertainty was compounded by not knowing how they could meet those payments after the closing.
With the reopening of their business and the strong demand thereafter, the large supply of material they had purchased benefited them and it has been one of their most prosperous years. Something similar happened to Juanma’s family with the last real-estate crisis when they had just invested in the new premises. Clients at the time told them that they were crazy, but the truth is that with the economic crises, they have come out stronger!