will have a grand opening tonight.
(Photos: Crank Bicycles)
Southeast Portland will welcome a new bike shop to the Laurelhurst Neighborhood tonight when Crank Bicycles throws open its doors for a grand opening party. Crank is the new shop opened by business partners Chris Harbert and Justin Tutor, the duo formerly behind the Kinetic Performance bike shop in downtown Portland. (You might recall our story of a break-in at Kinetic last May.)
Needing more space and wanting to fill a need for a bike shop in their own neighborhood (they live just a few blocks from the new shop), Chris and Justin decided to close Kinetic and renovate an old storefront on SE Ash Street. Their new shop is at 2725 SE Ash Street, one block west of the popular north-south bikeway on SE 28th and one block south of the SE Ankeny bike boulevard.
Chris and Justin have spent almost three months getting the shop ready and they’ve chronicled the project on their blog. Crank will be a full-service shop, offering new bikes, parts, repair, clothing, and custom bike fitting services. The product mix will feature lots of urban commuting gear from brands like Sheila Moon, Ortlieb, Bern, and Fuji Bikes. Chris and Justin are also avid cyclocross racers so I’d expect to see some knobby tires as well.
Hours are Monday through Saturday 9:00am to 6:00pm. Stop by and check out Crank next time you’re in the neighborhood and join them from 7:00 to 10:00pm tonight for the big party (plenty of indoor bike parking).
Learn more about the shop on their blog or at CrankPDX.com (new website). You can also follow them on Twitter.
From one LBS owner to another(two), congratulations and I wish you much success!! Chris, we’ve come a long way from being stand buddies back at the hellmouth, eh?
Best of luck to you two! I’m looking forward to checking out your new space in person after looking at the photos on your blog. You’ve certainly put a lot of work into it.
In addition to ‘cross Chris and I both enjoy racing road and track. We’ve both worked on nearly every type of bike made and will be carrying an even more diverse selection in the months to come!
It will be a sea of skinny jeans!
Took photos while I was there, I’ve uploaded them to flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ufobike/sets/72157625573870692/