Downtown St. Johns has been without a bike shop for a few months since Weir’s Cyclery moved out of the neighborhood at at the end of last year (they’re now located on N Lombard at Portsmouth) That didn’t seem right to resident Ben Helgren, so he’s decided to take matters into his own hands. Ben plans to open a new bike shop, Block Bikes, on March 9th that he hopes will become the go-to place for bike riders in St. Johns. The new store will open up at the corner of N Burlington and Philadelphia (right off the St. Johns Bridge, map).
Ben, 35, has worked in non-profits for the past nine years (on programs promoting financial literacy and home-buying skills) but he has wanted a job in the bike industry for a while now. He became a certified bicycle mechanic through the United Bicycle Institute last fall and he and his wife planned to move to Billings, Montana where she planned to go to school and Ben planned to work at a bike shop. But plans changed, explained Ben during a phone call this morning.
