Bicycle Guild a Perfect Fit in Bike-Friendly Oak Park

Editor's note: Business Spotlight is a regular column featuring information provided by local businesses. If you're a local business, share your information in this form. We also write features about local businesses. To send your ideas, email editor Michael Sewall at michael.sewall@patch.com. Businesses can also blog on Patch or share events in our calendar.

Business: Holistic Cycles/Bicycle Guild, Oak Park

Owner: Christopher Wallace

Founded: 2009 

Learn more about the Bicycle Guild on its website. 

How did the business come to be?

Before I started the Bicycle Guild I worked for years in a variety of bicycle industry businesses. On my journey, I found many needs for local retailers were not being met by available schools. 

I learned about many ways businesses could modernize, increase sales and grow the cycling community, I combined best practices I had seen in over 30 years of working in the industry and created the Bicycle Guild to help shops grow in ways they have not even imagined. I am excited share these tools to help grow a healthier business community and a growing cycling community.

Why did you choose the area that you did? 

Oak Park is a Hamlet in the Chicagoland area. It has a forest of trees on each street that settle the spirit when biking through town. Oak Park has great community spirit and focus on pedestrian and cycling as a government goal to increase accessibility and safety. 

Oak Park has access to great public transit to reduce car dependency. Oak Park works to build a better world by engaging the community and using the public opinion to grow a better village. I like working here.  

What does your business offer?

Basic knowledge in the bicycle industry is not focused on profitable service area procedures, modernizing processes, engaging clients, reducing labor cost, and many other service skills that pay great benefit to the story and the cycling community.

Modernity is seeing with new vision, changing your thinking, engaging staff and clients in a new direction, and being profitable. When you are open to greater organization and clear objectives then opportunity is yours.

What's something interesting about your business your customers might not know?

I am one of the Founding Members of Youth Bicycle Education Network. I teach silver/metal smithing towards learning frame building with artistic lugs. I have taught bicycle repair, in academic schools focusing on applying science, math, language arts and fine art skills added to bicycle repair. I love riding in nature and getting fresh energy from the world.

We are all in this together, we might as well have fun together also. 

What's your most popular product or service? 

Wheel building classes Aw both professional mechanics and consumer cyclist for different reasons. Professionals cut through industry myth and get solid knowledge they can build their skills with. Mechanics gain better communication skills to sell a wider range of their services. Cyclist think wheels are magical, only elves know how to build wheels! Cyclist become more engaged with their bicycles, and find more reasons to ride their bikes because they are proud of their mechanical achievement.

It is all about growing and building a better community for us all to cycle in.