New Canaan Man Preps for Opening of Full-Service Bike Shop in Town

New Canaan on Saturday will see its first bicycle shop in about six years open in a spacious, renovated space once occupied by Bob’s Sports.

Town resident Lou Kozar says Cycles on Call, located in the building at the rear of the Bob’s lot off of Cherry Street, is a full service retail and repair shop for all levels and types of cyclists.

“I like to say, ‘From training wheels to triathletes,’ ” the Norwalk native said Thursday from a brightly lit ‘show floor’ with newly installed large-pane windows and a new floor.

A veteran bicycle repair professional who previously had owned Better Bicycle Center in Norwalk and most recently had operated a bike workshop in Stamford, Kozar says his main customer base is from New Canaan and Darien as well as Norwalk. A 1983 Norwalk High School graduate (as is his wife of 11 years, Ann—the couple have a son at West School), Kozar said he’s eager to open his first retail bike store after years of working in service alone.

“In some ways it’s overwhelming,” Kozar said of the soft opening Saturday. “A lot of things aligned at the right time.”

Those include the availability of space that long housed Bob’s Sports—a shop that often had referred cyclists in need of repair to Kozar. He says he’s eager to enter a new type of business and to become “an integral part of the community.” Kozar already has run children’s bike safety classes out of the YMCA, he said, and is part of the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce.

“We’re very excited,” Kozar said, adding that Cycles on Call will include pick-up and delivery service.

Joining Kozar in the downtown New Canaan location is Greg Holomakoff, from whom Kozar purchased the Norwalk-based Better Bicycle Center in the early 1980s.

The pair are pictured in the black-and-white photo attached in that shop (Kozar is on the right, and he’s standing up in the photo of the two men, with Holomakoff sitting down).