Our Story

It wasn’t long ago that I was in the cor­po­rate rat race. As a sales rep for a high end kitchen man­u­fac­turer, I often spent nights away from home and missed out on fam­ily activ­i­ties and just as impor­tantly, bike rid­ing. Whether it was mid-life cri­sis or just plain burnout, this fall seemed like the per­fect time to make a change.

Open­ing a bike shop has always been a dream of mine. I’ve been an avid bicy­clist since I pur­chased my first Schwinn Con­ti­nen­tal in 8th grade. My pas­sion for bikes was fur­ther fueled by a cross-country bicy­cle trip I took while in college.

A buddy and I packed up and flew to San Fran­cisco and dipped our rear wheels in the Pacific Ocean. Then we began the trip of a life­time back. Totally self-contained we car­ried all our gear in panniers.

We faced some chal­lenges like head­winds in Kansas, The Rocky Moun­tains, and find­ing a place to bed down for the night. But it was an expe­ri­ence I’ll never for­get. And it solid­i­fied my pas­sion for biking.

After col­lege I got mar­ried and oper­ated a small bicy­cle repair busi­ness out of my base­ment. My wife, Jackie, and I had five chil­dren. I con­tin­ued to bike when I could, often to work and back.

Recently, the oppor­tu­nity of serv­ing Wooster and the sur­round­ing area as a full ser­vice bike shop became a pos­si­bil­ity. Yes, it is a dif­fi­cult eco­nomic sea­son but in many ways, it’s the per­fect cli­mate to intro­duce peo­ple to the fab­u­lous world of bike riding.

Bik­ing is green—no car­bon emis­sions and no gas guz­zling. It’s cheap—the one time pur­chase of a bike is often far less than the cost of a one-year health club mem­ber­ship. Bik­ing is healthy for you and can be a great form of trans­porta­tion. Our chal­lenge to you is to find a way to use your car less and Ride On the bike.