How Bike Shops like the Assos-Store in Belgium Runs Group Rides With Cyql
A Belgian cycling store shares how organizing group rides with Cyql turned customers into ambassadors and cut hours of admin work every week.
Assos Story
It all started with a pair of cycling shorts. Svajune, Wijnand’s wife, was preparing to ride Milan-San Remo, a 295km route for which she needed a proper pair of shorts. When they visited a local store, her size was out of stock. She wanted to order them online, but the store stopped selling Assos. That moment changed everything, they saw an opportunity and took over the shop’s entire Assos stock, a few months later they heard that Trentino Bikerwear was also closing down, so they took over their stock as well and built a simple user-friendly website.
Soon, people started asking if they could come try on the clothes in person. Svajune and Wijnand then partnered with the local shop Fietsen Bastjins as a shop-in-shop concept. Within two years the shop had become too small so they built their own Assos Boutique which quickly achieved Assos ProShop status.
The Best Bike Shops Don´t Just Sell Bikes
For most bike shops, the relationship with a customer ends at the checkout. You sell a jersey, they ride off and you hope they come back. But Assos, a premium cycling store located on the Belgium-Netherlands border, decided to take a different approach.
They started organizing group rides, the goal wasn´t to get more sales, but purely as a way to share their love for cycling with other people. As Wijnand said: “We love cycling ourselves, so for us it’s about sharing a mutual passion. These people are our (potential) ambassadors.”
The Rides: Where Community Happens
From April through September, the Assos-Store team runs a weekly Tuesday evening ride, a 60 km route starting from the Assos store, ridden at approximately 32–34 km/h. It’s social, it’s fun and the pace picks up just a little for the last 8 km while always staying considerate of one another.
Once a year, they go bigger. The Assos Ride, organized in collaboration with Assos Switzerland, covers 80–100 km. In 2026, it will take place on Saturday, June 20. And depending on conditions, an Assos Gravel Ride may follow in September.
And what happens during these rides? You are building the community in the most natural way possible, people get to know you and that builds trust and reliability which later on drives revenue. It´s a great way to get to know your customers, get feedback and new ideas of what people need in their day-to-day cycling life. It´s also one of the reasons why more and more bike shops organise group rides, so if you are thinking about organizing cycling rides for bike shops, Cyql is a great place to start.
Why Assos-Store Never Pitches Products on a Ride
What makes the Assos-Store rides work isn’t aggressive promotion, it’s the opposite. The team deliberately keeps things relaxed, with no product pitches during the ride itself. Instead, it’s about good company, food, drinks and the shared love of being on a bike.
The result? Conversations about clothing and gear happen naturally, between riders themselves. Customers share experiences with each other. Trust builds organically. And that trust translates directly back to the store. “Fun, meeting like-minded people, great atmosphere. We notice that our personal approach is appreciated.”
The Problem No One Talks About: The Admin Behind the Ride
Running a group ride sounds simple. But ask any shop owner who has tried it, and you’ll hear the same story: organizing is a full-time job in itself. Before Cyql, the Assos-Store team was managing emails, WhatsApp and manually tracking for every single ride. Now Cyql takes care of everything in one app.
“With the Cyql app you can centralize all of that. At the very last moment you can see in the app who’s coming, and for which group.” Wijnand said.
The Cyql Features That Save Hours Every Ride
When asked what they’d recommend to other bike shops, the Assos-Store team pointed to two specific Cyql features:
- Group splitting (A/B rides) – which easily divide riders into pace groups before the day,
- Built-in liability waiver – where you are able to set up a participation-at-own-risk waiver directly in the app.
What´s more, the Cyql discovery map allows users to discover local rides and bike shops which is a great way to find new local cyclists who might not know your shop yet. Brands like Assos already succesfully use this kind of community visibility to connect with local cyclists in a natural way.
Turn Your Customers Into Your Biggest Fans
Group rides are the best marketing tool a bike shop never knew it had. Assos-Store proved it. Cyql makes it effortless. Ready to turn your customers into ambassadors? Start your first ride today on Cyql.