Better Here than Wall Street

Shawn Emmerson has been running the Bicycle Center in Brookfield — on upper Federal Road, a few hundred yards west of the Super Seven exit — since 2004. You might think he fell into the job, since he started working for the shop's previous owner, John Coulter, in 1999, when he was just 15. But it was a thought-out decision.

A finance major at WestConn, Emmerson was planning to work on Wall Street after graduation when Coulter mentioned his retirement plans... and gave Emmerson first dibs on his shop.

"I love dressing up in a coat and tie — I was going to be like Charlie Sheen," Emmerson says, referring to the original Wall Street movie. "It was either that or the bike shop. I think I made the right choice."

Brookfield seems to agree, for Emmerson has many repeat customers, returning for the owner's friendliness, expertise, and reliability — "I'm married to the place," he says, usually putting in 60 to 80 hours a week. (Emmerson says his actual wife, Lisa, takes the 'married-to-work' joke with good humor.) Much of that time is spent doing repairs: "We've taken in 20 to 30 repairs a day," he says, noting that unlike some bike shops, he'll work on any bicycle, not just those he sells (mostly from Bethel-based Cannondale, Seattle-based Raleigh and China-based Giant, the world's largest bicycle maker).

His favorite repair to work on? "The difficult bike," he says, "brought in by the 15-year-old who thrashed it in the woods, bent the frame. The bikes that have stories." Those stories are often what the shop staff (in high season, Emmerson has as many as six employees) calls "JRAs" — when a customer comes in with a damaged bike and says, "I was Just Riding Along when..."

Emmerson, a 2000 Brookfield High graduate, moved to the area at 13 from New Rochelle, but didn't give up biking despite his old town's being "nice and flat" and his new town... not. And hilly terrain isn't the only deterrent to casual cycling around here; Connecticut, he points out, was recently ranked the 48^th-lowest state for "bike friendliness," a metric based on bike lanes, bike racks and so on.

For all that, though, business at the Bicycle Center is pretty good, because biking has taken off in recent years. A least among adult riders: the children's bike market has actually gotten worse, because, Emmerson says, "fewer and fewer kids are riding bikes, and they've got their video games and all the sports." And if the parents think a bike isn't going to be used much, they may just buy one at Wal-Mart and pay $80 rather than $140 (though later, bring it to Shawn's shop for repairs).

I still own the 10-speed I bought for $100 in 1974 — yes, it's seen a few thousand miles — and while it looks similar to today's bikes, it's totally antiquated: heavy, spartan, clumsy.

"The bike world has become a lot more rider-friendly over the last 20 years," says Emmerson, with today's mid-range bikes (around $350) boasting gel seats, front-fork and seat-post shock absorbers, twist shifters and maybe 21 gears. And at the top end of the market? Servo-assisted shifting, with tiny electric motors operating the derailleurs... meaning you never mis-shift, and change gears without easing off on the pedals.

A bike so equipped can cost over $5,000, but if the seconds gained help you win the Tour de France (where servos started appearing a couple years ago)... hey, it's a good investment.

Emmerson considers his bike shop a good investment, too. As well as setting the stage for some fun, as when he's participating in his first trail-bike night race ("An owl flew right in front of me, it was big!") or encountering a new JRA ("Sometimes it's like 'Bicycle CSI'!"). Yup, good choice... especially considering where Wall Street (and Charlie Sheen) are right now.