Wheel House Leads Cycling Community

By Chris Frost
EAGLE TIMES NEWS EDITOR
CLAREMONT — Biking enthusiasts are discovering that Claremont is a fantastic place to ride. And, Wheel House Bikes, 12 Plains Road, has a long-standing history of being the place to go for a quality ride. The shop also serves as a popular community cycling hub.

The Wheel House’s Co-Owners are Rob Walker, Eli Burke and Matt Hall. The specialty bike shop has been open for about 19 years.

“I was the general manager for about 10 years, and now, we three former employees are now the owners,” Walker said.

The Wheel House’s goal is to put more “butts on bikes” and get folks riding.

“Bicycles can bring happiness to folks,” he said. “They’re more than transportation. It’s an awesome vehicle that can do so many different things.”

He said his appreciation for bicycles began as a weight-loss tool for him years ago when he weighed more than 300 pounds. Eventually, he became hooked on the sport.

“At a certain point and speed, you’re so locked in on a bicycle controlling it, you can’t think about the mortgage or the kids, and business shuts off for a minute,” he said. “That clarity and speed on a bicycle is something I love and live for.”

Walker has raced and traveled all over the Northeast and USA, which gave him and his partners some perspective on the overall biking community. When he returned to Claremont, he realized the city has a secret that needed to be promoted.

“It was a bit of a locals-only vibe,” he said. “From this bike shop, if you race up 20-minutes in just about any direction, there are 100-miles of single track. Mountain biking is plentiful.”

He and his partners are excited about the area and talk a lot about its potential.

“We go to these destinations and meet hundreds of riders that were competing and started talking to them about what we have here in Claremont,” he said. “There is a little trail system that nobody knew about at Arrowhead; the bike shop and other volunteers over the years have put blood, sweat and tears into maintaining it.”

He said the race season ended too soon, so they started to bring people in.

“Hey, we’re going to have this stopwatch-timed thing, so come check it out for training,” Walker said to cyclists. “That word spread fast through that network of racers to the point where racing directors called and said: ‘Do you have this trail system and have National Enduro Champs, people high up in the ranking riding with you and training? Where’s Claremont?’”

That set off a bell in his head that made him think that Claremont was something special – that the secret needed to be shared.

He said Arrowhead is one of the most technically difficult places to ride in New England. And, it was all built by volunteers.

“It wasn’t an infrastructure thing,” he said. “Now, I think people in our city’s Planning Office and City Manager’s office are looking at that and saying this is how people are recreating.”

He said it’s more than bicycles; there are jogging, hiking and walking paths that together make the city a recreation destination.

“I have a friend that owns a Bike Park and got started the same way and built the hard stuff first and got notoriety,” he said. “Now, we need to start thinking about family-friendly stuff. In Claremont, we have this amazing trail system that expands through our urban compact area, beginning on Pleasant Street and goes all the way to Newport.”

He said the Claremont Parks and Recreation Department maintains that trail system until it passes by the Home Depot. From there, the state of New Hampshire takes over.

“It’s awesome with two covered bridges,” he said. “On the outside, the surface isn’t that great, so if you are on a general comfort Hybrid Bike (a mix of a road bike and a mountain bike), the tires may be too narrow.”

He said Moody Park is 256-acres and features intermediate mountain biking trails.

“You can go in and think maybe I’ll go off-road today, but you have to look at the maps and figure it out,” he said. “Moody Park is a steppingstone and we do a Kids’ Camp there. Next month on each Wednesday, we’ll do a Kids’ Mountain Biking Club through the Parks and Recreation Department and the bike shop, where we have coaches.”

He wants area kids to discover cycling as a lifelong passion.

“As a Bike Shop, we have group rides on Thursday nights, and over the years, we’ve called it Thursduro,” he said. “It’s a play on a discipline. Those bikes weren’t geared well; half the time, they were pushing them up those steep hills.”

Wheel House is a cyclist resource, but they want to be more than the local bike shop.

“We repair everything,” he said. “There are bikes purchased online that have a motor built into them, not an E-Bike (electric bicycle), but if you can make a two-stroke motor on a bicycle, I can’t work on it. I’ll work on just about anything and want to keep people rolling.”

He wants Wheel House to be a cultural hub that says to people looking for a good family ride that they have come to the right place.

“This is what we want,” he said. “Do you want more? Get the advocacy role. It takes more than three guys who own a bike shop; it takes people who care, and ownership, to make it better.”

For example, he knows about people who pick up trash to make the experience better.

“We ride a lot of the terrain and unused space, and over the years, I have been trail building,” he said. “I’ve seen areas where you bring a trail then tends to bring in an element that pushes out a negative element. We’ve seen a lot of positive change. I don’t want to take my kids on a hike in an area where we’re going to encounter something. If you have more people caring for those trails, it will benefit the city.”

For more information, please visit the store’s website at thewheelhousebikes.com.