New Pittsfield Mountain Bike Shop Holds Grand Opening
Steffen Root opened Berkshire Bike and Board's second location last Wednesday and is holding a grand opening on Saturday. |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Steffen Root doesn't just sell bicycles, he sells the sport of mountain biking.
Root is an avid mountain biker and when a new bike store opened in Great Barrington back in 1995, he worked there on his breaks from college. Four years later, he bought Berkshire Bike and Board and since then it has grown so much that he's opened a second location in Pittsfield.
"I wasn't planning on staying [in the Berkshires] but I go lucky and had my dream job fall into my lap," Root said on Friday, just nine days after opening the doors to the new East Street location.
When the previous owners moved away in 1999, they offered first rights to buy the business to Root and his co-worker David Clark. They took over and have been slowly building their customer base. In 2007, business had grown so much that they constructed their own building and moved out of a leased space in the Price Chopper Plaza.
Meanwhile that customer base included a lot of residents from Pittsfield and points north. With October Mountain and Pittsfield State Forest, the mountain biking community had taken a foothold in the central part of the county.
"We knew we wanted to be closer to a lot of our customers," Root said, adding that many of them would drive all the way to Great Barrington instead of visiting closer bike shops. "There is a really good mountain biking scene here."
They offer lifetime tune-ups to help keep people riding, do full-service repairs to any type of bike and are offering a package deal for one-time cost, they'll repair flat tires for lifetime. They sell bicycles and accessories as well as BMX bikes and skateboards.
Beyond that, they organize community bike rides both in the mountains and on the road.
For the last year and a half, the owners looked at various locations on North Street but each one had some type of glitch — there wasn't enough parking or no place to try out the bikes or just too small. So, the idea was somewhat shelved as they waited for the right opportunity.
"We don't want to sell you a bike. We want to sell you cycling," Root said.
Then at the end of last year, they got a call from the owners of Greylock Outdoors asking if they'd like to take over their location. Greylock Outdoors was closing down and the East Street location had everything Berkshire Bike and Board wanted. The 3,000 square foot space came at the right rent cost, had exactly the right amount of space and is very visible.
"We are right in the middle of it all," Root said.
Starting in January, they worked with Keith Girouard of the Small Business Development Center, who offered guidance with financing and other logistics and reached out to Giant Bicycles to help redesign the location. They signed the lease in March and began renovating.
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A YouTube video of Jeff Lenosky, who will be performing two shows on Saturday. |
On Saturday, Mayor Daniel Bianchi and Girouard were to cut the ribbon for the grand opening of the new store.
But it is not just a ribbon cutting. The store is putting on an array of demonstrations including professional stunt biker Jeff Lenosky, who will perform two shows, and raffling off a bicycle.
"It's a party. We're always looking to have a good time and interact with our customers," Root said.
They've already begun organizing the community rides but are still sorting out some details in order to avoid conflicting with the already existing bike clubs. They offer everything the Great Barrington store does but Root says they'll continue to adapt the store to the demands.
The store will be open from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. on week days and from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Sunday.
Tags: bicycling, grand opening, new business,
