The Shop

Soon after I move to Chatham, I was trying to find people to ride my bike with. I checked out several of the bike shops looking for group rides and good service and was turned off for one reason or another, just didn't quite have what I was looking for. One day after school I was driving my convertible, top down, shades on, and was on my way to Wheelfast Bicycle in Chatham. I had already made my rounds of the Springfield stores on previous days. I pulled into the parking lot and got out of the car. Unbeknownst to me, Matt, the owner of the shop, had seen me pull up and turned to his employee at the time and said, "Look at this guy, he is too cool for school!" The funny part of that is that he didn't even know I was a teacher. I ended up talking to him for a while, set up a time to meet at the shop for a group ride and the rest is history (he didn't even judge me when I showed up for the first rides wearing a camelbak and had reflectors on my bike). We started riding bicycles together a couple days a week. He introduced me to people that also rode bikes. Took me to a World Series game to see the St. Louis Cardinals (who won the World Series in 2006!), was an usher in Natalie and I's wedding (the most sober and responsible one), and he and his wife Shannon and baby Cooper are close friends of ours.

The Bike Shop........ A place where people go to get bikes worked on. A place where people go to buy stuff for bicycles. A place where people go to ask for advice. A place that people use as an excuse to stop at and talk cycling or other life issues while on a bike ride. A place where one would go to see friends. A place where people go to rant and complain about things. A place that people go to brag about how fast they are. A place where people can go and feel comfortable and know that the service they receive will be the best possible!

Wheelfast Bicycle Co.
A place that for the past 3 years that I have been in Springfield IL, has been kind of like a 2nd home for Natalie and I. From the first day I walked into this place I knew that it was different from the other stores. There was no pushiness, I felt very comfortable, and Matt was very easy to talk to. It was obvious that I was a newbie to cycling, yet that made no difference to him and he still treated me the same that day as he does now that I ride about 7000+ miles a year. He treats everyone that walks in the doors to the shop like they are the most important person at that given moment. This is a necessity I believe to run a successful business, and Matt does an excellent job at making everyone feel important. I have been to bigger shops, been to more famous shops, been to shops that also double as cafe's, but nothing compares.
Service: Wheelfast has the best service of any bike store I have ever been to. Not only will they get it done as quickly as possible, but it will be done right. I like a shop that has same day service, or one day service. This is how you keep customers happy. It is awesome for the racers and competitive cyclists because I could say, "hey, Friday is my off day could you work on my bike that day?" and it was never an issue. But any regular Joe off the street could bring a bike in and it will be done that day or the next as long as parts are available. I have never been in another shop where service is the biggest priority and is done as well as it is here. It's the kind of place where people go to when they have issues with their current shops that they are going to and after one visit to Wheelfast they will never want to buy or shop or frequent another shop for their bicycling needs!

Now.... We have moved to Colorado. Yeah, it was hard to leave our friends, yeah it was hard to leave our families, yeah it was difficult to leave what we were familiar with. But this was our dream and now was the right time to follow it. The one thing that we didn't even think about when leaving was how much we were going to miss OUR bike store! Yeah, after so long it began to feel like it really was our store. Anything we needed, Matt could and would provide, good service, good prices, good suggestions! Now that we have a new bike shop down the street, how do we balance building new relationships with them and maintaining our loyalties to the other shop? We will obviously have issues with our bikes, (bikes always have issues) and we can't just run down to chatham to have them fixed. So we will have to go down to Mountain Pedaler. Well when issues arise it is nice to know that you have a relationship built with that shop so you can be confident that they will get your bike done ASAP and ready for you to ride again. Charlie is the guy that runs the shop here in Eagle, and he is a super nice guy and super friendly, and has let us use his tools already when we have needed them. But it will be hard for him to provide for us what Matt has done for us.

Now looking at it, building a new working relationship with our new bike shop may be one of the most difficult things we will have to do here, since we have such a high standard for this new shop to meet. Friends we will go visit, they will come visit. Family will come visit, we will go visit. Matt may even come visit and we will keep in touch. But even if he comes he cannot bring the shop with him.......

Thank you Matt and Jake! We are very appreciative!