Back in the Day

Green Mountain Cyclery was born in July of 1989 on the way home from a Vermont mountain bike race. That is the day I decided to drop my job and dive into the deep end of the pool. After all, Jennifer, my wife of 13 years, then girlfriend, was tired of my complaining about how none of the local shops knew anything about mountain bikes and I could do it better. It was put up or shut up time. We traveled to the bicycle trade show in Atlantic City in the fall of that year, and by December had rented a 350 square foot store front in Akron, PA. Green Mountain Cyclery opened for business in January of 1990, and I never looked back. My name is Mike, and I am the proud owner of Green Mountain Cyclery, Inc. I hope you enjoy our brief history of the shop and those that have contributed to and driven our “World dominated by two wheels”.

1989-1990: I opened my doors with a bunch of mountain bikes from Kona, Marin, and Raleigh, and a bunch of really trick parts. In those days it was all about the parts. Frames were steel, and shocks and clipless pedals were just on the horizon. We began our first team (pic) that year, and I am amazed that 18 years later I still ride with 8 out of the original 12 members and am proud to call them my closest friends. Oh, and we dominated the regional mountain racing scene pretty quickly. I also ran my first mountain bike race, “The Rage in the Bush”. I also met a kid named Floyd Landis and his dad when they bought him his first mountain bike. He later won junior nationals in 1993 and became a close friend.

1991-1994: In 1991 we moved to our present location in Ephrata, renting about half of the building. To us that was the big time. We had real room, or so we thought at the time. That summer I hired my first employee, who by the way is still with us today part time, Brent Kametz. That is the summer of the first Big Timber mountain bike race, a race I ran for 10 wonderful years, and became the race to attend every year. It was old school, with trials, time trials and cross country over a whole weekend. Our team continued to grow and dominate the mountain bike scene winning one class at the 24 Hours of Canaan and finishing 2nd in another.

1995-1996: This was a huge turning point in the life of the shop. I got married, and we bought the building the shop is in, and moved upstairs. Oh and we had a huge blizzard too. What a way to start off… The team continued, members came and went, but the core stayed the same. We continued to rack up wins at many major races, and the shop grew.

1997-2000: We grew into so much more than just mountain bikes during this period. We fielded the fastest bmx team in the region during this time as well as winning a lot of the local road races. We also became more involved in the local riding scene helping with a lot of charity rides. In 1998 we hired our first full time employee fresh out of Barnett’s Bicycle Institute. Brandon Schreiber will be with us for 10 years this year. At 12:45pm on May 6th of 1998 the first new team member Laird showed up to ride with the crew. He won his first bike race 5 years later.