Moment Bicycles in Liberty Station has everything to serve cycling aficionados every time they’re out on a ride.
“We were the first tenant on this end over here (former Naval base), noted J.T. Lyons, owner of the all-purpose bike shop at 2816 Historic Decatur Road, Suite 135.
An engineer-turned-cycling entrepreneur, Lyons, who previously had a bike shop on Rosecrans Street, just celebrated his business’s 10-year anniversary.
More than the bike shop’s address has changed over time.
“We started out very much as a specialty store just doing triathlon and road-specific cycling,” Lyons said. “But now we cater to everyone, including just people who ride on a regular basis.”
A cycling enthusiast whose business started as a hobby, Lyons became more involved in cycling retail because “I felt, going to a lot of bike shops, that I wasn’t being taken care of quite as well as I should be,” he said.
How did Lyons respond to that?
“So we created a better way to buy a bike,” he noted.
How’s that?
“The traditional way of buying a bike is you come in, talk to a salesperson, much like buying a car, and they show you the different makes and try to fit you into one of them,” Lyons said. “But a lot has changed over the past 15 years or so with different brands having different (dimension) standards.”
Lyons turned the traditional bike sales model around, inventing a way to take the individual’s dimensions first, then customize the bike they purchase to fit them.
“We start with what we call a dynamic-fit bike, which we can optimize (with the aid of CAD computer technology) to synchronize and customize your bike, figuring out where you’re most comfortable,” Lyons said adding the bike-fitting process “takes a couple of hours.”
“It’s a significantly different experience than our competition,” Lyons added. “As far as I know, there’s no bike shop on the planet that does this.”
Beyond better serving the customer, Lyons noted customization serves a larger purpose.
“We’re selling cycling, not bikes,” he said. “If we don’t do a great job getting that person dialed in, they’re going to ride the bike about a month and then give it up. We’re trying to get them to say about their bike ride, ‘This is the most fun I’ve every had. I’m going to keep riding my bike the rest of my life.”
Lyons noted San Diego’s current mayor and police chief are both customers. But he added he’s interested in serving everyone in the community from children to professional and competitive riders. And Moment Bicycles price range reflects that.
“We have $80 bikes for kids up to a $15,000 bike designed specifically for the Iron Man Triathlete,” he said adding Moment Bicycles also caters to electric bikes, which “are changing the entire bike industry as electric-assist bikes are getting more people on bikes.”
Lyons pointed out his shop’s goal is to “get people engaged with bicycles,” adding “our job is to help them find the solution to what it is they want to do.” MOMENT BICYCLES Where: 2816 Historic Decatur Road, Suite 135. Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Info: www.momentbicycles.com, 619-523-2453.