Pedal power peddlers

Henderson and Summerlin may have all the bike lanes, but that doesn’t mean they have all the cyclists. It’s only fair that downtown should have its own bike shop, too. And now it does, at the Bonneville Transit Center on the corner of Bonneville Street and Casino Center Boulevard. Owned by the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, the RTC Bike Center shop is operated by the folks behind Las Vegas Cyclery, whose more familiar location is on West Charleston.

The RTC Bike Center shop has all the stuff pedal-pushers dream of — replacement tubes, chain lube, reflective lights. For the clean-fingernail crowd, it’s also staffed with trained mechanics who can do everything from fixing a flat to tuning up your ride.

Jared Fisher, owner of Las Vegas Cyclery, is urging downtown dwellers and bike commuters to stop by and give his boys an assignment. “It’s not super busy,” he says, “and bike shop employees like to be busy.”

Housed in a large, glass facility designed to LEED standards, the RTC Bike Center contains more than just the shop, boasting other amenities to encourage alternative commuting. There’s parking, bike storage and showers for people who might want to, say, ride from Green Valley to their job at a downtown law firm, stow their Trek and freshen up before hopping a bus to work.

“We’ve seen an increase in bikes on our transit vehicles, and we wanted to support that,” says RTC spokesperson Tracy Bower. The RTC Bike Center is open 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. For more info, check out: rtcbikecenter.com