Pedaling ‘mountain bike resort’ to N. Kitsap

Night Owl Cycling, a bike repair shop located near Eglon, is in the midst of expanding to include up to seven miles of mountain bike trails, a community lounge and places for guests to stay overnight.

It’s turning into a mountain bike resort.

The business is located on the 122-acre property of owners Kelly and Heidi Campo. Kelly started the bike shop in 2015 and got married to Heidi the next year. Then, they bought the property where the business is located. They lived in a trailer onsite while Kelly built their home.

“We ended up getting pretty serious about really making this into a business,” Heidi said. “Once 122 acres of forestry land comes into your world…now we started dreaming. This isn’t just a mechanics business, what could we actually do with this property? We thought let’s make trails through the woods and maybe we could have a mountain bike resort. It just kind of escalated from there.”

Heidi grew up in Poulsbo and went to North Kitsap High School. She has had numerous careers, including social services, graphic design and marketing. Kelly moved to the area in 1993 from Lynwood and worked as a physical therapist for 28 years in Kitsap County. He is a certified mountain bike instructor and serves on the Port Gamble Forest Stewardship Committee, helping with trail work there. Both share a passion for mountain and other kinds of cycling.

“We’re all about education,” Kelly said. “Teaching people how to work on their own bikes and teaching people how to ride their bikes. One of our big commitments is involvement in the community that we live in.”

The crux of their business is having mechanics do bike repairs. They have two, including Kelly. Folks can either drop off and pick up their bikes at the shop or staff can pick up and deliver the repaired bikes all over North Kitsap. Shop hours differ each day but are listed on their website nightowlcycling.com.

“It’s completely up to them what they want,” Heidi said. “I have some customers that I’ve never met before. They give me their garage code…and I grab their bike, and we fix it, and then I bring it back to their garage.”

When the business opened, the closest bike repair shop was on Bainbridge, but another has since opened in Poulsbo. Heidi says their web presence has helped them get more customers.

“We just revamped our website,” she said, adding customers can log in to add their bicycles and service requests and see when was the last time they had repairs done. “Our customer interface I think is very different than any other bike shop that I know about.”

The shop also offers classes where people can learn how to repair their bikes and know what to look out for while riding. They also offer bike fitting. Night Owl Cycling also has a mountain bike racing team, which consists of about 15 people of a wide range of ages. There are races multiple times a year at various locations.

Expansion ideas

With all the extra land, the Campos wanted to utilize it to benefit their business and the wider community. With the future additions of the lounge and trails, people will be able to come not only locally, but across the water and beyond for a day or more’s worth of activities and socializing.

“People want an experience, not just an activity,” Kelly said. “You don’t necessarily have to be a biker; you can come here as anyone.”

The lounge is closest to being ready, and the idea is to host various events where local restaurants and bars can provide food and drinks. Heidi said things like fundraisers, music, art shows, birthday parties and weddings are all possible, and more. People can also rent out the facility.

“We’re going to have open houses to invite the community,” she said. “We’ll probably be able to do that maybe at the end of August.”

Their website says the lounge will feature shiplap walls, blue corrugated metal accents, industrial/biking decor, live edge bar, sink and countertops for food prep, all-gender bathroom, music or speaking stage, speaker system, TV and gigabit fiber internet with wireless access.

The outdoor courtyard will include a large groomed meadow, pizza oven, cornhole, propane fire pit, and an outdoor bike and people shower. They are also creating an area for tent camping and building a 20-foot round dome that will be available for guests to stay.

“It will be sort of an Airbnb kind of deal,” Heidi said. “We want people to come out here and stay and have fun with us.”

Once the lounge is finished, Kelly will develop the mountain bike trails. He said the primary ones will be ready by spring, and he will work on side trails after that.

“Fall and winter are the best times to build trails because there’s less green foliage so your line of sight is better,” Kelly said. “We’d like to get six to seven miles of trails twisting through the property. There’s nothing out here that’s flat.”

When trails are ready, Kelly will be teaching classes on how to ride mountain bikes and learn different skills. The trails will be a mix of beginner to advanced. Only members or people who are there for an event will be able to use the trails. A membership fee will be included.

Night Owl Cycling is located at 32065 Epic Place NE.