Tag: Bikesmith

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

The Return of BreakFest

BreakFest, the festival dedicated to all things breakfast, returns this Saturday, September 23d, with some significant changes.

Chief among them is a new location: the medical district at Union and Bellevue. This means expanded parking that includes a reserved lot for VIP ticket holders.

Another new development is that teams, competing in such categories as omelet, bacon lovers, breakfast sandwich and more, can win cash prizes.

Old Dominick is sponsoring the Blood Mary contest, and Bikesmith will be raffling off a bike. There will be cornhole and giant Jenga as well, and the music lineup includes Memphis Second Line Jazz Band and Grape the Band. Plus, there will be breakfast trivia contest (!) and an eating contest.

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News The Fly-By

Bikesmith Opens City’s First Pump Track

CREDIT: David Evans

Bikesmith owner Jim Steffen may have a hard time focusing on work these days.

Right outside his bike shop’s back window is a new bicycle pump track, and Steffen admits that all he wants to do right now is ride it: “I’d never ridden a pump track before this one, and it’s fun. I want to keep coming out on it. It might be tough working right next it.”

Chances are lots of Memphis cyclists haven’t ridden a pump track because, until Bikesmith opened their track behind the shop at 509 N. Hollywood, there wasn’t one in the city.

A pump track is a small, looping trail system of dirt berms and mounds intended for mountain bikes, BMX bikes, or other cycles designed for rugged terrain. Bikesmith’s 4,500-square-foot track features three 90-degree turns and three 180-degree turns built from packed dirt.

David Evans

Bikesmith’s pump track opened last weekend.

“It’s called a pump track because you’re not meant to pedal the whole time. Once you get going, you can get momentum as you pump the bike with your body,” Steffen said.

Steffen opened Bikesmith in a converted automotive garage in the Broad Avenue Arts District last fall after first launching the business as a mobile bike repair pop-up in spring 2014. The mobile business is still operational, but now Bikesmith has a home base.

Bikesmith isn’t your average bike repair shop though — there’s a bar inside serving locally brewed craft beer, so customers can hang out and have beers while their bike gets repaired.

On days when the pump track is open, parents can knock back a couple beers on Bikesmith’s patio while their child plays on the track. No drinking is allowed on the track though.

“If you’re drinking, you’re watching,” Steffen said.

The track is open to all ages and all levels, but Steffen said it will likely be especially appealing to kids.

“Parents can feel comfortable with their kids here because it’s fenced in, so they can’t wander off and there’s no traffic,” Steffen said. “Even for adults on mountain bikes, they can feel safe from traffic while they build up their skills to get out on the street.”

Riders will need to bring their own bikes. Bikesmith won’t be renting bikes — at least for now — but Steffen said they do have a few pump bikes for sale at the shop.

The track won’t be open every day since having it open requires having an employee outside “acting as sheriff.” But it will be open on Tuesday nights from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The cost is $5 for Tuesdays and $10 to ride all day on Saturdays. Helmets are required, and users must sign a waiver before getting on the track.

Steffen said he hopes the pump track will inspire others across the city to build tracks. Currently, there’s the BMX track at Shelby Farms and some trails and jumps at Stanky Creek, but Steffen would like to see more pump tracks, which tend to be more inclusive for riders of all skill levels.

“We’ve talked with pump track owners in other cities, and they say when one pops up, a trend starts and more pop up,” Steffen said.

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News The Fly-By

Bikesmith Opens Shop in Broad Avenue District

When Jim Steffen started fixing bicycles in the back of his Bikesmith truck, he noticed that many cyclists liked to stick around and watch the repair process. Now, they can watch the repairs and drink beer at the same time, and all in the comfort of a brick-and-mortar shop.

Steffen has expanded his mobile repair business into a shop on Hollywood, right in the heart of the Broad Avenue Arts District. In the new shop, customers can sip craft beers while they wait.

For years, Steffen’s Bikesmith truck, a converted freight truck, has been serving people in neighborhoods without bike shops. But the business’ growth over the past year warranted a new shop for Steffen, who got his start fixing bikes with the Shelby Farms Park Conservancy’s bike rental program.

With his Bikesmith truck, Steffen has been able to serve cyclists as far east as Collierville and in some locations in Mississippi.

A look inside the Bikesmith shop

“For some people, going to a bike shop can be a little intimidating,” Steffen said. “I think people get nervous when they go to a bike shop if they don’t know bikes. They just want it to work. I think having the truck took some of that anxiety out of people. A lot of people wanted to come on the truck and see what I was doing.”

Steffen says he’ll continue to operate his mobile business, but customers can also visit his brick-and-mortar shop. The new shop is in a renovated automotive garage, complete with repair racks and a bar. There’s also a patio and some green space in the back, which Steffen is considering adapting into a bike polo court or a “pump track,” a looping trail system for mountain bikes.

Visitors are invited to ask questions about their bikes and chat while their machinery is being worked on, and they can enjoy beers and sodas while they wait.

“With our repair stands, we have this bar with stools there,” he said. “When David [Evans] and I are working on your bike, you can sit there and watch us work on your bike. We wanted to have everything out in front so you can see it. We wanted to make it more than just a bike shop.”

Steffen and his wife have a history with Broad Avenue: They volunteered on the street when it was going through the city’s MEMFix revitalization program, and they participated in art walks.

With the implementation of the Hampline bike path along Broad, Steffen said the arts district seemed like an obvious choice.

“It’s really easy for people to get their bikes down here,” Steffen said. “It’s really close to [Overton Park]. You have the Hampline. We wanted to have a place where people can bike to the shop. I don’t think there’s another place in town that would be as perfect as this building is.”

At the Bikesmith shop, visitors can also purchase their own bicycles and bike accessories.

The shop is celebrating its grand opening on December 6th with food, beer, and a raffle giveaway for a kid’s bike.

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News The Fly-By

Deals On Wheels

Food trucks have taught Memphians how to shop on the street over the past two years, and that experience has laid the groundwork for the next evolution in mobile marketing.

Five mobile retailers will get their formal debuts this Thursday through the launch of the MEMMobile program from Memphis City Hall. The trucks will offer jeans, t-shirts, bicycle products and services, and more.    

Most of the participating trucks have already hit the streets, taking advantage of the spring weather and big events like Memphis In May and South Main Trolley Night. Thursday’s rollout will gather all the trucks at City Hall from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., with food trucks, music, and speeches from city leaders. 

Jim Steffen’s Bikesmith truck

The program began last year as a part of the Mayor’s Innovation Delivery Team’s efforts to boost the economies of certain Memphis neighborhoods. The program started with $75,000 and research on mobile retail in peer cities such as Nashville, New Orleans, and Chicago. 

The MEMMobile program offers entrepreneurs forgivable loans of up to $25,000 to buy and design a truck and to get their business off the ground. The business owners also receive technical business training and advice from

alt.Consulting, a non-profit business consulting firm.  

The mayor’s team had hoped to get at least 10 applications for the program when they started MEMMobile. But they ended up receiving 20.

 “It sort of blew us away to realize that there were so many entrepreneurs who were definitely interested,” said Abby Miller, project manager for the Mayor’s Innovation Delivery Team. “A lot of them said they had this idea and were thinking about it, but, all of a sudden, this incentive was their tipping point to say ‘Let’s dive in and see what we could do with this.'”

 The applications were vetted by a committee of economic development professionals, food truck operators, and the Memphis Grizzlies mobile retail team. Some ideas, like mobile window replacement or art framing, weren’t right for the program, Miller said. The five that were approved had the right blend of financial viability, engaging the public at large, and contributing to the core city.

Given the city’s growing bicycle infrastructure, Miller said the Bikesmith truck “was a natural for this.” Truck owner Jim Steffen said he and his business partner, his wife Julia Steffen, were considering a move away from Memphis to open a bike shop when he ran into Tommy Pacello, a project manager with the mayor’s team, who told him, “Don’t move away. Memphis needs you here to do this kind of stuff.”

“[MEMMobile] seemed like a brilliant way to get into a bike shop for a much lower start-up cost,” Steffen said.

Opening a brick-and-mortar shop would have been “tough,” he said, listing the cost of a lease and buying expensive inventory. Much of that start-up cost will be defrayed by the MEMMobile program as long as Steffen provides quarterly financial reports to alt.Consulting and can prove that his business is actually working out.     

Other MEMMobile trucks include clothing stores Sache, Henny Penny, Thigh High Jeans, and K’Presha.