Road, mountain, BMX, tandem, recumbent, cross. Observed trials, grinding, downhill, cross country, touring. Racer, mechanic, commuter, environmentalist, champion, coach. You name it. If it has something to do with bikes, at least one of the staff members at Joy Ride Bikes has been there, done that, ridden it, or won it.
Joy Ride is owned by Derik Archibald and his wife, Michelle Kautzmann, along with business partner, Luke Brechwald. The three purchased the shop four years ago and almost immediately made the move to a large warehouse-type space between Pacific Avenue and Lacey Boulevard on Ruddell Road in Lacey.
There are eight staff members at Joy Ride, and if you ask, you’ll discover the biking story each has to tell is as unique as the person telling it. The end result is a shop full of talent and knowledge that crosses just about every known way to use two wheels and a set of cranks.
Archibald didn’t become a serious biker until he was in his early twenties. He got his first “real” mountain bike, and soon a riding buddy asked if he’d like to travel from their home state of Idaho to a race in Utah. “I agreed and went down there, and I won my first Beginner mountain bike race. I kind of got hooked.” That first race was the only time Archibald competed at the Beginner level. He quickly worked his way through the Sport category and only four years later was riding in the Expert class.
Being hooked into a new sport meant he was also hooked into the biking community, and Archibald started hanging out at shops, learning how to build and fix bicycles. Soon he found himself working in bike shops, learning highly valued skills like wheel building. When he and his brother, Brandon, moved to the Olympia area, he was able to find work as a mechanic while working toward his undergraduate degree at The Evergreen State College.
It was Brandon who discovered Joy Ride, then located in a small space in a strip mall off Pacific Avenue. The brothers had become members of local racing team, Olympia Orthopedic Associates. “We went out there to check on team sponsorship opportunities, and it ended up that Joy Ride sponsored the race team.” The team ordered over twenty bikes through the fledgling shop, but the team deal was contingent upon no labor charges. Normally, when a shop orders a bike for a customer, assembly is included in the price, but to secure a team discount, Archibald agreed to build the bikes. After seeing his work, the owner of the shop offered him and job and he started working at Joy Ride part time. A few years later, the opportunity to purchase the shop opened, and he took it.
In addition to mountain biking, Derik Archibald also excels at road and cyclocross racing. For many years, he was one of the highest ranked riders in the state on the road, and he won multiple state championship titles. As for his favorite discipline? “It’s kind of ebbed and flowed over the years…Right now this time (of year) I really love mountain biking, but come summertime I may like road a lot more because it’s a lot more fun to ride in the sun.”
For employee Will Trogden, racing has never been part of the equation. After working a series of jobs that made him increasingly unhappy, Trogden says he had an epiphany. It occurred to him that he should be doing something he actually enjoyed, and one of the things he liked a lot was biking. Trogden has spent over twenty years working in bike shops and started at Joy Ride two days before they opened the doors at the space on Ruddell Road.
“Mostly I like just putzing around on my bike. I like commuting in particular,” he says. He’s done the Seattle to Portland Ride as well as other long distance events, but he insists he’s happy to leave the racing to others. “I’m (in it) mostly for fun and exercise rather than the competitive aspect.”
BMX bikes were the hook for mechanic Aaron Dustan. “I first started riding as a little kid,” he says. “I was just putting boards on hay bales and making jumps. I went a really long period without getting on a bike at all because I was all about skate boarding for a lot of years, then eventually I got back on a BMX bike and did a lot of street riding.”
Like most bike mechanics, Dustan showed an early aptitude for his chosen profession. He has learned mostly by doing. “You just learn and learn as you go,” he says. If you work hard, like Dustan has, you earn a pretty good reputation, and soon people start seeking you out. He is proud that he used to build wheels for BMX legend Gary Ellis on a regular basis. His fellow mechanics admit that they defer to Dustan on most things having to do with BMX bikes. “He’s got a pretty good resume,” they agree.
So does Rich Cast, another Joy Ride mechanic. Cast started wrenching bikes when he was a kid. “I was riding them and breaking them, so I had to learn how to fix them,” he says. He’s been a professional mechanic since 1979. For many years, he was on the NORBA Mountain Bike Circuit as a race mechanic for Specialized Bikes. He also dabbled in the design and manufacturing of bike components, eventually merging his small business with a mountain bike company that specializes in hand built frames.
Last year, Cast was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame as a charter member of the Laguna Rads, a mountain biking club from southern California. He laughs and insists it was really, “A beer drinking club with a biking problem.” But jokes aside, the Laguna Rads were pioneers in the discipline of freeriding.
Too small to be competitive on the regular race circuit, Cast made a name for himself in the sport of Observed Trials. “It’s sort of like an obstacle course on a bicycle, performed like ballet, scored like golf,” he explains. He was good enough to win two national championship titles in the mid-eighties.
Sometimes people get into biking by way of a lifestyle choice. Before landing a sales job at Joy Ride, Dusty Bickford was a volunteer at a number of Bicycle Cooperatives, including the one at The Evergreen State College. There he helped people put together new and used parts to create functional machines. “Most of my bikes are older. I didn’t own my first new bike until I came to the shop,” he says. “For me it’s full utility and daily transportation. I commute to and from work every day, rain, shine or snow.” He’s always got three or four “project” bikes going at home. His latest is a frame that was found rotting in a back yard. He’s determined to bring it back to life.
Like Archibald, mechanic John Flack is also a racer. Also like Arcihbald, he didn’t start racing until he was in his twenties. “I started as a bike commuter, commuting back and forth to school, then somebody invited me mountain biking and it was all over.” He’s been at it for over 20 years and is an Expert level mountain biker and a Category 2 racer on the road and in cyclocross. He’s been on the podium in his age group at the Cyclocross National Championships, but he doesn’t want to be pigeon-holed as a certain type of racer. “I seem to have excelled at cyclocross the most, but I like everything. I like it all.” In fact, Flack just likes biking, period. He sums it all up in just two words: “It’s fun.”
Reflecting the diverse interests of its employees, Joy Ride has a hand in just about every biking activity taking place in the Olympia area. They have maintained their sponsorship of the Olympia Orthopedic Associates bike team while also supporting the GL6 Mountain Bike Team and local junior development team Revel Consulting-Rad Racing Northwest.
Co-owner Luke Brechwald was instrumental in bringing together a group of local high school students last year to form the Olympia Composite Mountain Bike Team and coached them to the state title in the inaugural year of the Washington High School Cycling League.
Shop employees are active in the Friends of Capitol Forest, an organization dedicated to recreation in and stewardship of the Capitol Forest.
Joy Ride has also partnered with the Boys and Girls Club to get more young people out riding. In addition to providing volunteer maintenance on a fleet of about 15 bikes, Archibald, Kautzmann, Brechwald and a team of bike shop regulars serve as ride leaders during the summer months for Boys and Girls Club rides in the Capitol Forest.
Last year Michelle Kautzmann started a weekly road ride for entry level riders. It, like the Tuesday/Thursday basic maintenance clinics are free. Both programs will resume later this spring.
No matter your biking needs, the people at Joy Ride will be able to meet it. They’ve been there, done that, ridden it, or won that. As Rich Cast sums up, “The owners seek out good talent and then permit them to do what they do. And since we’re all interested in the sport and taking care of the customers, it’s a natural.”
Joy Ride Bikes is located at: 1225 Ruddell Rd #D Lacey, WA
Phone: 360-491-9551
http://www.joyridebicycles.com/
To find out about owner Luke Brechwald’s journey in biking, you can read an article featured on Thurston Talk last year:
