This family is moving their cool bike shop to Lake Highlands
The charming bicycle supply and repair boutique Switching Gears Cyclery is closing its Fair Park location at the end of State Fair season and will open in Lake Highlands, hopefully in November.
Lake Highlands couple Andee Pittman-Clark and Colin Clark opened Switching Gears near Fair Park, where they have thrived; now they are planning a move to the former First National Bank building at Shoreview and Ferndale.
Andee says she and Colin will close shop in Fair Park Oct. 19 and begin moving into the new digs as soon as they finish a few repairs and receive the Certificate of Occupancy from the city. Sometime in November, she guesses.
“We are very excited about being in Lake Highlands and hope the neighborhood will welcome our small family business,” Andee says.
The couple and their unbearably cuddly basset hound Agent Bauer appeared in our September Pet Issue, where we showed the family cruising the L Streets in their vintage yellow cycle taxi, something Colin refurbished after it landed in the shop.
Switching Gears — with its intelligent, friendly and popular owners and their services, its cheery yet serious selection of bikes, parts and equipment and kitschy gift items — will lend an undeniable element of hip to our side of White Rock. I mean, Yelp and Google+ reviewers rave about this place. Everyone simply adores the whole operation. Well, everyone, that is, except the family canine, aforementioned Agent Bauer.
Remember the September story? Andee told us at the time, “The shop happens to be one of the very few things Agent Bauer does not like. ‘There are loud noises. People coming in and out. I guess it just makes him a little nervous,’ Andee says. ‘We joke that he hates work.'”
She hopes he will feel more at-home at the new store near home.
“We’re hoping Agent Bauer will enjoy this new shop better and become a permanent employee as shop pup.”
If that happens, cool factor goes through the proverbial roof.
Lake Highlands retail market explodes.
