KINGSTON – Perpetual Cycles in Kingston isn’t so much a bike store, it’s more a bike shop, a place where bikes are serviced, repaired, and released back into nature.
It’s also the only bike shop in North Kitsap.
Owner and mechanic Tim Todd is a dealer for two bicycle brands, plus he stocks a selection of new parts, but Todd says his ultimate goal isn’t to sell bikes, but to help people ride bikes.
That means working on bikes — he has almost 30 years experience — and recycling used parts from a veritable bicycle junkyard, and most importantly, making sure people fit their bikes.
“No one rides out these doors on a bike that doesn’t fit,” Todd said.
It’s a business model he admits isn’t going to turn massive profits, but it does attract cycling addicts more interested in the ride.
“It’s more of a clubhouse than a shop,” Todd said.
Max Southerland traveled by car from Bainbridge Island Tuesday afternoon to have his friend’s off-road bike repaired.
Southerland, describing himself as “hopeless” — his apartment is cramped by five bicycles — made the trip to get the bike fixed to nix any excuse not to hit the trails.
“It’s easier coming in here, he works on it right away,” Southerland said.
The store started as Perpetual Motion Cycles in Seattle. Todd bought the store in 1994 and moved it to Kingston in 2000. A sign tells visitors to knock on his house next door if no one is in the shop.
Cycling can be an expensive hobby, but with entry-level bicycles available on craigslist.com in the $200 range — often cheaper — plus some online research and some assistance from a helpful mechanic, it need not take a whole paycheck to peddle to work or for fun.
“It’s life-changing,” Todd said. “When you get on a bike, that is freedom.”
His junkyard of bicycles — mostly donated entry-level models — is like a DIY cyclist paradise.
“The economy kind of dictated it,” he said, laughing when asked about helping cyclists get back on the road by plundering parts from the junkyard.
“I end up doing that all the time,” he said.
But it’s not just Frankenbikes, he sells new Redline and Norco bicycles, and within an hour he was servicing three high-end rigs, two road and one mountain. That said, there is a homemade tandem recumbent “kinetic sculpture” Todd has been asked to fix sitting outside the shop right now.
The Cycle Continues
Perpetual Cycles is located at 9320 NE West Kingston Road. The shop is open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. (360) 626-8934.
Shop rates are $65 an hour for repairs, $20 for wheel truing and $40 for a fitting.
