I connected with Velet founder Hakan Kayabasi and was immediately impressed by his passion for building community and delivering quality products and services at fair prices. His approach really aligns with what I'm trying to do with Bike Dope: high-quality products, reasonable prices and something made for everyone who loves getting outside and doing stuff.
And Velet isn't exactly your typical bike shop.
Coffee. Bikes. Skis. Community.
Velet is tucked away on the east end of Calgary's Beltline, with a back-alley entrance at 206 11th Avenue SE. It's the kind of place you could easily ride past without knowing it was there — which is part of what makes finding it so great.
Step through the door and you immediately realize this place is different.
Coffee. Bicycles. Skis. Old race bibs. Couches. Local products. A workshop tucked behind the café.
Love it.
Velet combines a specialty coffee shop with a full bike, ski and snowboard service shop. You can grab a coffee while your bike gets worked on, bring your skis in for a tune, hang out with friends or just settle into one of the couches for a while. Velet also hosts community events and meetups, making the café as much a gathering place as it is a business.
There's a reason for the slightly rebellious feel, too. Velet means “rascal” or “rebel” in Turkish — a pretty fitting name for a place that isn't particularly interested in following the standard bike-shop or coffee-shop formula.
Built by someone who actually loves this stuff
Hakan comes from the ski world. He grew up skiing in Turkey, later moved to Canada to study ski resort management in Nelson, B.C., and spent years working in the industry before eventually creating Velet.
That background is obvious when you walk into the shop. This doesn't feel like somebody looked at a spreadsheet and decided that combining bikes, skis and espresso represented an untapped market opportunity.
It feels like somebody built the place they wanted to hang out in.
Community is a big part of that. Velet has hosted film nights, events and local artists, and Hakan has made supporting other independent businesses part of what the shop is about. There's also a real emphasis on keeping outdoor sports accessible, with reasonably priced service and an interest in helping people get into cycling and skiing without needing the fanciest equipment on the market.
That really resonates with me.
Why Velet + Bike Dope makes sense
Bike Dope is still very much the new kid on the block.
I'm building this brand in Calgary, and I'd much rather grow it alongside independent shops and people who genuinely care about cycling and their local community than simply chase shelf space.
That's what makes having Velet as my first retail partner particularly special.
There are a lot of similarities between what Hakan is building with Velet and what I'm trying to build with Bike Dope: good products, fair prices, no unnecessary pretension and a genuine love for the sports and people we're serving.
So I'm thrilled that the first place you can walk into and buy Bike Dope — other than directly from me — is a shop like this.
Go find this place
And I do mean find it.
Velet is at #105, 206 11 Avenue SE, with the entrance in the back alley. Ride around back, look for the door and head inside.
BONUS! Velet offers bike-friendly parking, as in you can bring your expensive ride in the door with you so it stays safe and sound.
Grab a coffee. Check out the bikes. Check out the skis. Have something delicious. Say hi to Hakan. And while you're there, you can now grab some Bike Dope too.