Let The Ride Begin

Hill City native shares his passion for bringing the community together through biking.

By: Megan L. Horst  |  Photos By: Ashlee Glen

For Jeremy Ramsey, owner of The Bike Porch, opening the shop was a part of a larger dream. A dream to provide people with a way to connect through enjoying nature and bikes. He hopes the shop gives people an opportunity and a place to come together to ride bikes and learn about bikes. Before he opened the shop, he enjoyed riding bikes himself and started several community ride events that have brought riders together over the past five years.  

“It’s definitely a passion to share what I love,” Ramsey said. 

The shop, located on Burnbridge Road in Forest, also sponsors several rides from the store throughout the week. Although the shop is less than a year old, Ramsey said bikes are not new to him or his team. 

“I have one guy [on staff] who was at a previous bike shop for 49 years, and we worked together,” Ramsey said. “I used to manage another bike shop for nine years.” 

They have two other mechanics who are also knowledgeable about bikes and have 20 years of experience. 

“When you walk in our shop, you’re talking to a rider,” Ramsey said. “We all ride bikes—we’re all in love with bicycles.” 

Their shop offers a variety of services, including bike repair and the sale of new and used bikes. 

“Bikes have gotten expensive, just like everything else,” he said. “We want people to have quality bikes. So if you can have a bike that’s 10 years old, that’s way more quality than what you can pick up in a box store; we feel like you’ll have a better experience.” 

He hopes everyone who wants to ride will have that opportunity. Whether you buy a new, used, or consigned bike from them, he explained that they not only sell you a bike, but they also offer their expertise.

They sell a variety of bike styles from kids’ bikes to mountain bikes, road bikes, hybrid bikes, and electric bikes.

“In the last three years, the market has flipped with recreational bikes,” he said. “I would say seven out of 10 recreational bikes we sell are e-bikes.” He attributes this growing trend to the older population, largely due to retirees wanting to get back into riding bikes.

He explained that this is a great area with so many trails, perfect for biking, including Blackwater Creek, Percival’s Island in Lynchburg, and others in Roanoke and Farmville.

“A lot of folks are buying these e-bikes and going to check out these trails, and instead of being able to ride five miles now, they are having the same workout, but they’re being able to see the whole trail,” Ramsey said. An e-bike is equipped with an electric motor to assist the rider with pedaling.

“E-bikes are cool because you can get whatever you want,” Ramsey said. “There are different assist modes in them, so you can have zero assist and ride it normally…up to a turbo on them.” Ramsey is confident in the bikes the shop sells, even the used ones, and they offer a 90-day guarantee.
In addition to a wide selection of adult bikes, the shop also offers bikes for children.

“One of our number one goals is to get kids on bikes, and quality bikes,” Ramsey said. His concern with bikes purchased from major box stores is not only the quality of the materials used, but they are often not put together correctly.

“Bikes can be a lot of fun, but they can also be dangerous,” he said. “I always recommend, if you buy a bike from a box store, bring it in, let us check it out.” Most of the kids’ bikes he sells are used, since kids outgrow their bikes so quickly.

“A lot of times I provide a bike that is more affordable than a box store bike, and higher quality,” Ramsey said. Driven by a passion for making bikes accessible to everyone, they created a Kids Bike Fund.

“In the past seven months, we’ve averaged giving away one bike per month,” he said. The giveaways are not always exclusively children’s bikes.

“During Christmas, we gave away two bikes,” he said. One bike was donated by a customer, and the other by Ramsey, allowing them to give bikes to two families for Christmas.

“It makes my day when we can put people on bikes,” Ramsey said. He believes that everyone needs to take a break from technology for at least an hour a day to “unplug” and enjoy exercise and
the outdoors.

“We want to create community,” he said. “We want people to want to ride bikes and hang out.”  

The Bike Store is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.