I’m closing my Shrewsbury bike shop after 75 years of family history – but this is not the end

Stan Jones set up his legendary store in the 1950s and went on to run the eponymous shop alongside members of his own family for decades.

His grandson Mike now runs Velo Fit in Longden Coleham, a small but perfectly formed shop selling everything you would expect from kits and accessories to cleaning products and of course a broad range of bikes.

It even has a wonderful Raleigh 'Chopper' bike in the window - the marque so synonymous with kids in the 1980s - although Velo Fit's version is a newly built modern version and belongs to a customer.

But Mike is preparing for his own slice of history and to "pivot", as we became so accustomed to saying during covid times, by launching a new mobile repair business and waving goodbye to the bricks and mortar store.

But, to see where the company is heading, it helps to take a look back.

The first store, carrying the name 'Stan Jones - Grey Friars Cycle Depot', opened in Greyfriars Road in 1951 before moving to Hill's Lane near the Welsh Bridge where it was Stan Jones Cycles and based for many years.

Its final home was next to another bridge, the English Bridge at the bottom of Wyle Cop, where the business was known as Stan's Cycles but this was sold by Mike to legendary bike brand Trek and it is still trading from there to this day.

During his time, Stan worked with his son Tom and grandson Mike who joined him on Saturdays in the Greyfriars Road shop, eager to learn a new trade as a teenager.

"My grandfather started the business after being in the Navy and serving in the Second World War," he said.

"I was a Saturday boy at the age of 15 and I also started racing then. I really got into it back then and have now spent 45 years in this industry. I gradually started working full time before taking over the business from my dad Tom when he retired. We moved to Hill's Lane and were based there for about 25 years."

He says bike manufacturing is an ever-changing industry so running a maintenance service is a constant learning curve.

"We were fitting rod brakes and cotter pins and had steel cranks where you had to knock a pin out to get the crank off. These were very old-fashioned bikes," he said.

"The bikes had aluminum frames as there was no carbon about and no suspension. It was all very different. I am constantly learning and even now there are always new products and systems.

"It helps having that background knowledge because if you can fix things, you can fix things but modern bikes need a lot more time spent on them to maintain them.

"Changes have happened gradually over time - sometimes for better but sometimes not."

Mike is a keen and accomplished cyclist who has been both a Midlands district champion and national veterans champion.

He was able to take his passion for bikes to, quite literally, new heights when he and wife Wendy spent five years in the Pyrenees in the south of France, running a B&B and hosting bike tours exploring "some pretty tough" routes through those iconic mountains with tourists.

But a combination of factors including Brexit, the covid pandemic and family ties made the couple call time on that chapter in 2021 and return to Shrewsbury to launch Velo Fit, bringing the Jones family back to the town's retail community after a five-year hiatus.

Mike said: "My wife did all the catering and I took people out on the bikes. We had a big B&B house and could accommodate 15 guests but there was a mix of things that brought us back for good in 2021.

"We became grandparents while we were away and my father-in-law was ill so the pull of family brought us home. I do miss it though.

“The way of life is different, it was much more relaxed and the weather was really good. It was something that I had always wanted to do as I just love the mountains and selling the shop in Wyle Cop gave us the opportunity to do it."

He keeps his toe in the bike tour water by helping to run European summer rides in partnership with a law firm which sees its clients rubbing rear wheels with retired pros such as former Tour de France winners Carlos Sastre and Miguel Induráin on what might be considered a dream holiday for cycling nuts.

Velo Fit is the official maintenance partner for the Shrewsbury Moves e-bike rental scheme, something Mike calls "a very important business relationship".

He also carries out bike fits to ensure customers are sitting comfortably and in the best position possible but the core of his work is in fixing people's steeds and keeping them on the road.

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It is this which has prompted him to take a new direction with the business as he approaches a landmark birthday at the end of October when he turns 60.

Mike says the mobile repair service will mean he can pick bikes up directly from customers and carry out smaller jobs in his van or take the bikes to his workshop at home for the bigger projects.

But this means the Stan Jones family lineage will once again leave Shrewsbury's high street at the end of September after returning in 2021 with the launch of Velo Fit.

The vacant unit in Longden Coleham will then be taken over by a local hairdresser.

"The retail industry is tough nowadays and I wouldn't like to be selling just products so it's good I am offering a service with the bike repairs," Mike explains.

"With online, people always want the best value products and you can't always offer that running a shop with all the overheads.

"Because 70 per cent of our work is servicing bikes and I am a one-man band, this move will give me more free time and flexible hours but it also gives the customer better options.

"I will be able to collect bikes early in the morning from customers' homes and deliver them back in the evening, meaning they don't have to bring them into the shop.

"Mobile mechanics are not a new thing and are on the increase because of people's lifestyles and everything that's in my workshop I can also offer from elsewhere.

"I will still have an online retail presence and do e-bike conversions. I don't think I will return to having a shop in the future. This is a lifestyle decision but, I say all of this, and I will probably end up busier than I am now.

"I will just have more control over my destiny and it's not like launching a new business as I already have a big customer database so I have a headstart. I will miss having a shop and that customer interaction but this is the start of another phase of my life."