Two area bicycle shops are putting the pedal to the mettle.
One shop — All-Around Cyclery in Hudson — is brand new, with an owner who has worked at small bicycle shops for 19 years.
The other — Blimp City Bike & Hike — is more than 6 years old and is expanding, with an upcoming move to a former bank branch. The new site is just across Merriman Road from the current store in Akron’s Merriman Valley.
Brent Forrer, owner of the new All-Around Cyclery in Hudson, is betting all his experience will pay off.
“I’ve been doing this for somebody else for so long, why not do it for myself?” Forrer said of opening his own place. Plus, after the birth of his third child last year, he wanted to trim his commute from his home in West Akron.
Forrer, an avid mountain biker, most recently worked at Spin in Lakewood, a high-end shop where he was service manager, in charge of maintenance and repairs, as well as building new bikes.
For now, Forrer’s Hudson shop is a one-man operation in a storefront at 46 Ravenna St., in the Evaporator Works collection of small shops. A big reason he chose Hudson, Forrer said, is because it’s in a cycling haven, close to the Summit Metro Parks Bike & Hike Trail, as well as the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail and several new mountain bike trails.
And he’s familiar with the area. His wife, Sarah, is co-owner of Main Street Cupcakes in Hudson, which celebrated its ninth anniversary earlier this week. Sarah owns the shop with her sister, Kimberly Martin.
Like Blimp City Bike & Hike, Forrer’s All-Around Cyclery offers maintenance and repair of bicycles, from mountain bikes to high-end race bikes — something big-box stores don’t offer.
All-Around Cyclery’s service and repair area takes up a big chunk of the 1,300-square-foot shop.
Also like Blimp City and other specialty bicycle shops, All-Around Cyclery doesn’t offer mass-market bicycles, also called department-store bikes. Forrer and other specialty shops offer brands and styles, with middle-market and higher prices, not found at mass merchants. In 2013, the latest year for which data are available, there were about 4,000 speciality shops across the country, according to the National Bicycle Dealers Association.
Forrer’s current inventory is small; February is typically one of the slowest months for bicycle sales, he explained. He has Niner off-road bikes and Linus bikes that he calls “lifestyle” bicycles, designed for cruising around town and riding on trails.
Forrer wants to cater to the diverse family of bicyclists, he said, including racers and mountain bikers.
“For around town trips, why not take a bike,” time permitting, of course, he said. “You get exercise. You’re outside.”
Already, he has organized Sunday morning group bike rides. (Meet-up locations are posted on the store’s Facebook site.)
Banking on move
At Blimp City Bike & Hike, co-owner Andy Bixenstine said the plan is to be operating in the former FirstMerit bank branch at 1675 Merriman Road in early March. He owns the store with his stepfather, Michael Purdy.
The new location will give Blimp City significantly more space, including a 3,300-square-foot retail area.
Additionally, Bixenstine noted, “the towpath basically arcs around the property,” putting towpath-riding cyclists even closer to the store.
Bixenstine said he’s not worried about the competition, noting the area boasts a few other specialty bike shops in addition to Blimp City and All-Around Cyclery.
Each bike brand has its own sales territory, he noted.
Speciality bike shops tend to draw from the local community, he said. “The community surrounding the Merriman Valley is a prime supporter of the Merriman shop ... cycling is growing in our area.”
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com.
