Home-Based Bike repair shop awarded Langlade County business grant

In a region riddled with biking trails, Manda and Charlie Morrison – co-owners of Charlie’s Bike Shop in Antigo – said community members in Langlade County found themselves without a qualified bike mechanic.

Growing up in a family with a passion for bikes, Charlie said, “We always went for bike rides.”

Charlie Morrison, co-owner and mechanic of Charlie’s Bike Shop, said he’s always had an interest in fixing bikes.

“It’s always been part of the family,” he said.

Charlie said he first got into bike repair after a trip to his hometown’s bike shop with his mother.

“We were getting our bikes tuned up and the owner there was like, ‘Yeah, well, it’s going to be a week or two. We’re kind of backed up, and could use some help,’” he said. “And my mom goes, ‘Well, my son could use a job.’”

At the time, Charlie was still in high school, but between classes, he said he learned everything he could from the local repairman.

Into his young adulthood and choosing to forego higher education, Charlie said he began pursuing professional opportunities in biking, bike repair, and other seasonal sports like snowboarding and skiing – working in shops nationwide.

Along the way, Charlie said he met his wife – and now business partner – Manda, and had three children.

Unsurprisingly, Charlie and Manda said all five Morrisons love to ride bikes and in North Central Wisconsin there’s no shortage of trails – but Manda said their family again noticed a shortage of qualified repairmen.

21st-century market research

Prior to opening the bike shop in 2022 with Manda – who he calls “the brains behind the operation” – Charlie said he would take tools to the local park in his spare time to tune up kids’ bikes.

“I’d put a tool in my pocket and go there, and just tweak handlebars, get things tightened,” he said. “It’s my passion to help kids and people keep their bikes running.”

Manda and Charlie Morrison, co-owners of Charlie’s Bike Shop.

Manda said the Morrisons decided to turn that passion into action, especially after she discovered how much the community needed a bike repair shop with an experienced mechanic.

In 2010, Manda said she earned her Masters in Business Administration from the American InterContinental University – a degree that she said would prove very useful in the coming years.

Then – as the duo was considering opening a new bike repair shop – Manda said she enrolled in the Langlade County Economic Development Corporation (EDC)’s Entrepreneurial Training Program (ETP).

As part of the program, Manda said she wrote a formal business plan and conducted market research to gain a sense of the community’s desire for a new bike repair shop before jumping head-first into the business.

Through social media, Manda said she surveyed roughly 300 people in the Langlade County area and found they “were having to drive at least 40 miles to get to the nearest bike shop, and so a lot of people just weren’t even repairing their bikes.”

From there, she said, Charlie’s Bike Shop was born.

Full circle service

The Morrisons said they’ll not only repair a bike – they’ll also pick it up, which Manda said her market research revealed was an additional need in the community.

“We discovered that people (also) needed a way to transport bikes,” she said. “Most people don’t have a vehicle or a bike rack that makes it easy for them. So we recognized that adding Charlie’s Bike Haul to Charlie’s Bike Shop was going to be a smart add-on.”

The bike haul started small, according to the shop’s Facebook page – using a rack capable of holding four bikes, charging $25 round-trip and limiting the pick-up range to within five miles of downtown Antigo.

Manda said they operated with those limitations for several months until the shop was awarded the ETP Business Start Up Grant through further work with the Langlade County EDC.

Using those grant funds, she said they were able to increase the capacity of Charlie’s Bike Haul this past summer – buying a rack with seven spaces, a truck, and a tailgate pad to transport their customers’ bikes.

Shortly after, Manda said they began offering the service free of charge to those within Antigo city limits and expanded the service to surrounding areas for a small fee.

‘Every Kid on a Bike’

For the last three summers, Manda and Charlie said they have established themselves as the go-to people for bike repairs in the Antigo region – but the couple said there’s another name they’re trying to make for themselves in the community.

“We have a program called ‘Every Kid on a Bike,’” Manda said. “We take bikes that were maybe destined for the landfill, and we refurbish them and give them to kids who don’t have bikes.”

Last summer alone, she said Charlie was able to fix up 18-19 bikes donated by community members to give to kids in need.

“For some reason, this fall, everybody decided to clean out their garages, their basements and whatever,” Charlie said. “(So) I’ve got a good pile of bikes that are going to hopefully be ready next spring (for) the kids that need them.”

Manda said they rely on donations to bring those repaired bikes to kids in their community, and said they are putting out a call to action to anyone who has bikes to spare.

The Morrison Family received the Langlade County Economic Development Corporation’s Entrepreneurial Training Course Business Start-Up grant in August.

“We’re trying to limit what’s going into the landfill and be good stewards of the earth and make sure your kids are staying healthy and active,” she said.

If the bike is beyond repair, Manda said Charlie will strip it for useful parts that could go to fix another bike.

Growth cycles

Since opening roughly three summers ago, Manda said the shop has seen promising growth.

“In May (2024), we had more than $4,000 in sales,” she said. “And that’s (only) doing tune-ups, just to give you an idea of the kind of volume we were seeing.”

The couple said they determined the cost of their services through formulas Manda used during the county’s entrepreneurial training classes.

She said the formulas account for time spent on a given service, the skills it required, and the nearly three decades of experience Charlie brings to each repair job.

Last year, the couple said they became so busy with the business, that they made the decision to have Charlie repair bikes full-time.

“All summer long, we got to the point where we were two weeks out on getting bikes back to people and that, of course, was really hard on us, because we didn’t want to be taking that long,” Manda said. “So (Charlie) made the decision to stay home and focus on the bikes.”

Last summer, Manda said, Charlie worked on 250 bikes.

Now, the couple said they have their sights set on a physical storefront – with the hopes of moving the business to a location beyond their garage by next spring.

“We’re getting our name out there and growing, so we try to accommodate that,” Manda said, “but it will be nice to have set hours and set days off, and then to also be able to open up a new stream of revenue – being retail sales.”

Right now, Manda and Charlie said they “can’t compete” with wholesale bike stores and repair shops, but they are considering opening a one-stop bike shop once they find a retail space just right for their family-owned and operated business.

For now, as colder weather sets in, the couple said they’re preparing to advertise for snowboard and snow ski tune-ups and repairs – a seasonal transition for the shop.

For more information, visit charliesbikeshop.com or Charlie’s Bike Shop page on Facebook.

Author/Source: Rachel Kroeger, The Business News