HARTFORD — Growing up in western Massachusetts, James Allen would often take his BMX bike out on long rides with his friends and they’d explore the paths that crisscrossed their small town.
Biking was Allen’s “ticket to wherever I wanted to go,” he said.
Back at home, the group would loosen and retighten their bikes’ various bolts, mimicking the adults they observed tinkering with their cars.
Now 45, Allen’s love for biking has stuck with him, and over the years he’s learned to do a lot more than mess about with the odd screw.
After working part-time at Drummond Custom Cycles, a bike shop in Enfield whose owner recently announced his retirement and the store’s closure, Allen decided to start his own business.
Running his own shop gives him a chance to “give more” to the area’s cycling community and get his hands dirty, he said.
Upper Valley Bike Company opened last September in a modest, roughly 300-square-foot space at 160 Palmer Court on the border of Hartford and Norwich.
Rather than setting up a fully-kitted bike store, Allen, a Norwich resident, has opted to focus on custom fittings and helping cyclists find the bike that fits their needs, and their body.
People of all skill and interest levels are welcome, but the store is generally geared towards those who are serious about riding and have the means to invest in it.
Several services are available at the shop, including a bike consultation, where customers can make an appointment with Allen who will evaluate their ride, from the brakes to the wheels and cockpit, and see what needs work.
He also offers a sizing service, in which clients have their measurements taken and undergo an evaluation on a Size Cycle, an adjustable frame that helps cyclists figure out which fit works best for them.
Then there’s the Comprehensive Bike Fit for $350, where Allen will spend up to four hours with a client discussing their cycling history, their mobility and taking their measurements.
Allen’s in-depth fittings appealed to customer Matt Regan, who’s always struggled to find bikes that fit his long legs and short torso.
Regan knew Allen from his Drummond days, so when he was recently looking to update his ride in advance of his 10th Leadville Trail 100 MTB, a 100-mile race that goes through the Rocky Mountains, he reached out to Allen for help.
Over the course of two weeks, Allen took Regan’s measurements and talked through his history with cycling.
“He went out of his way to find out about me and my needs,” Regan, who lives in New London, said.
After the consultation was done, the first bike Regan tried fit him like a glove, a first for him.
“The time that he took was the difference,” Regan said.
A common pitfall that bike shops can fall into is ordering too much stock which then languishes on the shelves once new models hit the market.
A version of this happened after the COVID-19 pandemic, Allen said. Bike shops bulked up their inventory to meet customer demand while more people were taking up riding, but after the pandemic ended business owners were left with a lot of stock they couldn’t move.
To avoid this, Allen focuses on custom orders, rather than building a vast inventory.
The companies he works with range from the manufacturer Factor, whose carbon fiber bikes sell for $7,000 to $50,000, to FiftyOne Bikes, an Irish company peddling road and gravel bikes in the $3,000 to $10,000 range.
A lot of the back-end knowledge Allen has such as coordinating shipments, he picked up while working at Drummond, where he was first a customer.
Before that, around 2018, he had a brief stint working for the U.S. Forest Service, after moving to the area from Massachusetts to be with his wife, a gynecological oncologist at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
The couple have a 5-year-old son together and they recently adopted a baby girl.
While Allen learned a lot at Drummond, it was difficult to fit in the hours around his son’s care.
Running Upper Valley Bike Company, open 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Mondays through Wednesdays, or whenever Allen is in the shop, has made it easier to balance work with parenting duties.
Business has been solid, with over 35 clients coming to Allen since October, including some repeat customers.
It helps that Allen has built-in clientele from his participation in the Upper Valley Cycling Club, a biking group that formed in 2020.
“It’s amazing,” he said of the area’s cycling community.
Sometimes as many as 50 people turn out for the club’s Wednesday evening rides, Allen said.
While Drummond is closing, Allen’s shop and Ranch Camp, a bike and burrito business that opened in Woodstock last fall, offer cyclists new hubs to get fitted and meet people who share their enthusiasm for the past-time. There’s also long-established shops such as Omer and Bob’s in Lebanon.
“I want to get someone on a bike,” Allen said. “I love when people are pumped about it.”
