Dublin’s oldest bike shop Delaney’s to close due to rising costs

Delaney’s has been in business at the Harold’s Cross Bridge since 1917.

Family-run business Delaney’s Bikes have announced their closure, citing rising costs as one of the reasons. The landmark shop has been in business for over 100 years.

Speaking to RTÉ News, Brian Delaney who has been running the business with his brother Paul for the last 40 years said he was surprised the business had lasted so long.

I don’t think we ever thought it would last this long… being in the family and one generation took over from the next, but I don’t think any of us realised we’d get to 105 years. Not much lasts that long these days, so we must have been doing something right.

Paul said that while they wished they could keep the shop open, it was “not feasible”.

I wish we could keep it going. But it’s just not feasible in the current climate. So, we did our figures, added up what was coming in and what was going out. And we’ve decided to close the door.

While the brothers are close to retirement age, they said that the rising costs of electricity and the bikes themselves solidified their choice to close.

We tackled it as best we could. We did longer opening hours, we cut our wages… It took a lot of time and a lot of thought and a lot of to and fro between me and my brother, Paul said.

Delaney’s will close permanently at the end of this month.

Header image via delaneycycles.ie

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