Riding into town – Rice Lake bicycle, coffee shop open for business

Rich Palzewic

Staff

July 22, 2024

RICE LAKE – Though a bike store and a coffee shop don’t necessarily come to mind as the perfect business combo, blending the two, Allison Hall – co-owner of Northwoods Cycle in Rice Lake – said, made sense.

“Why not come in to check out some bikes and get coffee on your way out?” she said. “Or, maybe you’re in for a coffee and get interested in what we offer – it’s a win-win. (The coffee portion) brings lots of folks into our shop who may not otherwise find themselves there, and maybe they don’t want to become a biker and simply want coffee – that’s great, too.”

Northwoods, located at 19 N. Main St. – which celebrated its grand opening last month – is co-owned by Hall, her husband Tim Bradley and Alex Wolff.

“I was born in Rice Lake, but my husband and I had been living in Minneapolis before moving here last summer,” Hall said.

She said it’s been a long time since Rice Lake has had a full-service bicycle retail and repair shop.

“There is a shop in town doing some repairs, but the gentleman is retiring,” she said. “Folks are excited not to travel an hour in any direction to buy bikes or get full service.”

The coffee piece

It might not be common to have a coffee shop combined with a bicycle shop, but Hall said, “that’s why we did it.”

Northwoods has partnered with Badger Brew to provide a coffee shop, Woodland Coffee, inside Northwoods’ building.

“We rent the coffee shop space to Badger Brew, which wanted a presence back in the main street downtown of Rice Lake where we’re located,” she said. “As business owners and owners of the building, we have a lot of flexibility. We’re fortunate to have a big building and (be able to) explore other options – it made sense to use that space to bring some coffee downtown.”

Hall said partnering with Badger Brew for the coffee shop was the right move because “they are the experts in that, we’re not.”

“In the future, we’ll (also) use that space for community events because we can pull tables and chairs (together),” she said. “If we want to run a fix-a-flat class in that space, that allows us to generate some revenue other than bikes.”

What to expect

Hall said patrons will find various bicycles – including kids, mountain, electric and road bikes – in addition to clothing, parts and helmets.

She said the shop also offers a full-service repair department.

With bike maintenance and service at the shop, Hall said with the ever-changing technology of brakes, e-bikes, tubeless tires and electronic shifting, she and the guys need to stay current on their training.

“Our service department is fully equipped to do anything from a basic flat tire fix to a frame-up build,” she said. “We’re positioning ourselves to be welcoming and accessible versus being known as a high-end shop. We don’t think that’s a good fit for our community. We want to be much more open and welcoming than that.”

Hall said Northwoods will fix any bicycle, no matter the make and model.

“We are definitely a family-friendly shop,” she said. “We don’t want to cater to one specific customer as other bike shops might do – that’s not our philosophy. We want everyone to feel comfortable with any level of riding experience.”

That doesn’t mean, Hall said, that customers can’t purchase an expensive road bike at Northwoods.

“We can cater to the high-end folks if need be,” she said. “If you want to order a $12,000 mountain bike, we can bring that in for you. If a customer simply needs a quality kids’ bike for a few hundred bucks, we have that, too.”

From dream to reality

Hall said Wolff grew up in Mandan, North Dakota, a suburb of Bismarck, and currently lives in the Twin Cities.

“As a friend and colleague of mine and my husband’s, Alex has been vacationing in Rice Lake for more than a decade,” she said. “The three of us work(ed) together in another industry and another business.”

When they wanted to relocate to Wisconsin when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Hall said “that put a monkey wrench into things.”

“The other industry we worked in was performing arts, and we got hit hard during the pandemic,” she said. “There were uncertain times during COVID, and that got some wheels turning for another adventure. Knowing Rice Lake needed a community-focused, full-service bike shop, we felt like there was the demand for it in town.”

Hall said they decided to take a “big swing” and bought the building Northwoods is located in.

“It was a huge renovation project we undertook this past spring, doing a lot of the work ourselves,” she said. “We dove in head first. We don’t come from a bicycle industry background, so we’ve been enjoying the learning we’ve been doing. We’ve also been enjoying getting started creating more community in Rice Lake around cycling and getting outside and moving our bodies.”

E-bike explosion

Like most bike shops, Hall said, e-bike sales at Northwoods “have been popular” – which has helped the shop with its revenue stream and getting people on bikes.

“For us, the interest level has been high on e-bikes,” she said. “I’d guess 70% of the people who walk in the shop want to talk about them.”

Pedal-assist e-bikes, she said, work much like conventional bikes, so they can be a good choice for those who enjoy cycling but need a little help due to an injury, age or getting back on a bicycle for the first time in a while.

“The difference is, e-bikes come with an ‘assist’ mode providing a boost as you pedal,” she said. “In many ways, it feels like riding a bike, but you get more power as you pedal.”

Hall said e-bikes at Northwoods are backed up by a warranty and have reliable parts.

“You can go on Amazon and buy an e-bike for not much money, but you get what you pay for,” she said. “If you’re buying an e-bike from a reputable shop, it can be more expensive for folks compared to an entry-level bike. It might take folks a while to test an e-bike and ride it. They want to kick the tires, so to speak, versus rolling out with a new bicycle without even riding it.”

Hall said e-bike sales versus conventional bicycle sales is about 50/50.

“Going forward, the percentage of sales that are e-bikes will continue to grow,” she said. “I wouldn’t be surprised in five years if it was 70/30 e-bikes – or even more. An e-bike doesn’t necessarily have to be a humongous heavy battery thing. There are a lot of different options, including bikes that are like regular bikes – (but) have a smaller battery and a smaller motor for somebody who wants a little bit of assistance.”

Hall said as the technology of e-bikes improves, more people will take advantage of that.

“No matter what, it gets people on a bicycle who maybe normally wouldn’t be out there,” she said. “We’re going to see more of that to the point e-bike sales will easily overtake traditional bicycle sales.”

Hours for Northwoods are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

For more information, visit northwoodscycle.com or its Facebook page.