The bike shop on Main Street has been a part of the Seal Beach’s landscape (under many names) for about 50 years, according to owner Dave Dunton. Kids were known to hang out at the bike shop, where they sometimes worked on bikes.
However, change comes to everything including Main Street, which serves as the “face” of Seal Beach to visitors and residents alike.
In recent weeks, the iconic bike shop’s inventory has been sold off. The brick-and-mortar bike store will be sold.
Owner Dunton isn’t quitting the bike business—he’s simply moving into the digital world, spinning off the bike repair service from Main Street Cyclery.
“We are spinning out a portion of the repair center, as an online entity, responding to customers that want more personal or convenient service for their bikes,” said Dunton, soon to be former owner of MSC.
Instead of having customers come to the shop to get their bikes fixed, Dunton will bring the repair service to customers.
“The largest deterrent to enjoying your bicycle can be plain old lack of time,” said Dunton, managing general partner of an all-new organization, TRY-CYCLERY LLC. Dunton described the new name as a place-holder.
“You lose precious time if your bike is down. Finding a ride to the bike shop, waiting three or four days while they get around to doing a 10 minute repair, then picking the bike up. No wonder so many bikes are sitting in garages all around town with flat tires … No one has time to take them to the shop,” Dunton said.
According to Dunton, the time had come for a change.
“I will miss seeing my buddies every day, but I’m pushing 70 and I recently broke a hip, which tells me it’s time to slow down a little. Showing up six days a week is just becoming too much. Five or 10 service calls a week keeps me active and puts many bikes back on the street, where people can enjoy them,” Dunton said.
Dunton was apparently inspired to create the on-call bike repair business by the cable-TV series “Royal Pains,” in which a “concierge doctor” is hired directly by affluent patients and makes house in the Hamptons.
Dunton has 25 years experience as a bike mechanic as well as 25 years experience as an electro-mechanical bio-medical engineer.
According to the bike shop website, when the bike shop became available, Dunton bought it. Dunton opened the Main Street Cyclery on Father’s Day 1997.
The community reportedly rallied around the hometown bike shop, allowing it to succeed in the face of competition from chain stores. Main Street Cyclery sold bikes, but also offered repair services and expertise allowing the shop to pair off customers with bikes that suited their lifestyle.
About 10 years after MSC opened its doors at lease for 135 Main, the lease was not renewed. Dunton moved the shop to its current location, 317 Main.
According to the bike shop website, the move was just what the business needed.
Now the wheel turns again, as Dunton makes another move.
