“Actually, it’s kind of a funny story. One of our best customers here is from Tacoma,” Cameron said. “We started talking, and it turns out he remembers buying bike parts from us out of our basement when we were little kids.”@@sketchy@@
“I have always been into bikes,” Cameron said. “I was building my own bikes and I had friends who were into bikes, so I started building bikes for them. One thing led to another, and I was building bikes to sell on Craigslist. I realized I could work on my own schedule and still make enough money to get by. Before I knew it, my whole house was a bike shop, and my whole yard was full of bikes.”
Cameron graduated from the University in 2009 with a degree in landscape architecture, but after his graduation, he decided it wasn’t necessarily what he wanted to do with his life.
“I really liked the program, and I did a lot at the University, but I’m not really excited about the professional practice of it,” Cameron said. “You can do really cool things with computers, but I just don’t get the same satisfaction as I do when I build something with my hands.”
Reid, who spent the better part of the last 10 years traveling around the country and building bikes, moved to Eugene in 2008 to collaborate with his brother to start a shop of their own.
“There was a bike shop that went out of business in Bend, so we met in the middle and picked everything up and brought it back to Eugene and (Reid) ended up sticking around,” Cameron said.
Together, the brothers started renting out garage space where they fixed and built bikes in their spare time. They then started a pedicab (pedal-powered cab)@@http://www.pedicab.com/@@ business, taxiing college students around town.
“Pedicabs were a lot of fun, and we met a lot of really cool people. (I) wish we could still do them,” Cameron said. “But we had to sell the pedicabs to focus on the bike shop.”
1010 Cycles stands out among other bike shops because of its commitment to quality and custom bikes. They also offer some of the lowest repair rates in town.
“The main thing that sets us apart from other bike shops is that we are a used-bike shop. We don’t do any new bikes,” Cameron said. “But we use new parts. Most of our bikes start with a quality, vintage frame built back up with either nice, vintage parts or a mix of new and used stuff.”
The brothers believe what’s important is not finding a bike that fits you, but rather creating a bike made for you. “We like to work with customers and get the feel for what they want out of a bike and build it to suit,” Cameron said. “Where as, if you go into other bike shops, it’s kind of like, ‘Well, this is what we’ve got.’”
Although the brothers don’t know if they will expand their bike shop or maintain the current location, they both feel strongly about continuing to build bikes for people who value quality and classic style.
“This first year has really been nonstop, trying to set stuff up and get everything really dialed in. This next year will be a lot of fun for us to focus on some new projects,” Cameron said. “Eugene is always going to be a great place for bikes.”