After roughly a decade in its current Olathe storefront, Bikes for the Likes of Us is entering a new chapter.
The locally-owned bike shop currently at 108 S. Clairborne Road, will pedal down Santa Fe Street to a new home in downtown Olathe in the coming weeks.
Owner Darby Pool said he hopes to open the store in its new downtown digs by Dec. 1 — in time for holiday sales.
Bikes for the Likes of Us is moving to 105 S. Kansas Ave.
- The store will occupy a space in a multi-tenant building on the southwest corner of Park Street and Kansas Avenue.
- There, it will neighbor incoming coffee shop Hermetheus Coffee.
- Once it opens, the store will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday; and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. The shop is closed on Sunday and Wednesday.
Bikes for the Likes of Us began in Missouri
The shop features bikes of various brands and sizes, specializing primarily in “gravel-friendly” mountain and BMX bikes.
Pool said Bikes for the Likes of Us caters to both beginners and seasoned riders of all ages.
In addition to purchasing new bikes, customers can also bring their own bikes to Bikes for the Likes of Us for maintenance and repairs.
Pool purchased the bike shop from its original owners in Raytown, Missouri, 38 years ago, before later moving it across state lines.
After learning to race bikes at 12 years old, Pool said he’d wanted to be in the business of selling them for a long time and worked for other bike shops before he acquired the shop of his own.
“I’ve been doing this a long time, and we’re all about the customer service,” Pool said. “That’s kind of a lost art these days.”
Downtown Olathe businesses are growing
Relocating Bikes for the Likes of Us to downtown Olathe — or at all — wasn’t necessarily part of Pool’s plan for the store.
“I always thought I was going to retire here,” he said. “This location was right off the highway, and I have people that come in from Ottawa, Paola, and a lot of southern towns right off the highway.”
But with impending upgrades to the Santa Fe and Interstate 35 corridor and the expected impacts on the Town Square shopping center, he said, the time for a move felt right.
Bikes for the Likes of Us will join a growing number of new additions to the area — with several new restaurants planned, in addition to the shop’s new neighbor, Hermetheus Coffee.
Ultimately, he said, the rejuvenation of the downtown area could bring in a new batch of customers for him. Plus, with its proximity to Johnson County Square, he said the new store will be better equipped to allow customers to test out their new bikes outdoors.
“(Downtown) has the park, and they have all of those Wednesday and Friday night events during the spring and summer,” he said. “Those things can kind of feed off of each other. I think it’s going to bring in more people that don’t necessarily live in Olathe.”
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