Rider Sales welcomes all

For 30 years, Rider Sales in Washington has sold and serviced all kinds of bikes for all kinds of people. Plenty of things have changed in that time — like brake technology, metals used in bike frames, and the dawn of electric bicycles — but the mission remains the same.

"I enjoy helping people have fun, that’s the number one thing,“ Owner Rodney Stogdill said. ”When we first opened up, one of our main mottoes was, ‘Don’t forget to have fun.’ And that’s yet our motto.“

Most towns of Washington’s size don’t have a bike shop of their own. For Stogdill, the store is something between a passion project and a spark of entrepreneurial inspiration, filling a gap in a market where no bike shop had been open in at least five years.

The clientele is diverse.

Bike shoppers include people seeking exercise, or wanting recreation; people unable to drive, and others unable to walk. Nonetheless, Stogdill said everyone had the same ultimate goal as they came through the doors of his shop on the corner of Iowa Avenue and Third Street.

”It’s our job to put them on a bike that’s going to be able to work well, at the price point that works for them,“ he said. “There’s a lot of different types of bikes, and there’s a lot of different types of bike riders … we’re here for everybody.”

That clientele only grows as technology and times change. Most recently, the advent of electric bicycles has revolutionized the market.

“With the electric assist bicycle, it’s a game-changer, those who used to ride can continue to ride with a little assistance,” Stogdill said. “They’re fun, and it helps people ride that couldn’t ride before … it opens the door to a lot of different people.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com