Full circle: Sterling bicycle shop owner shares love of sport

STERLING – Most of us hit the gas pedal when we want to get somewhere.

Bryce Mead prefers a different kind of pedal.

The ones he likes come in pairs and rely on people power to get them moving, around and around and around. He’s not alone. The Sterling businessman and bicyclist is among the millions of Americans with a passion for pedaling, a passion he shares at the shop that bears his name and with the local bicycling community that he’s been a big part of for more than 20 years.

Mead is both a former professional cyclist, who’s competed all across the country, and the owner of Mead’s Bike Shop in downtown Sterling, where riders ranging from the casual to the committed can find gears and gear at a full-service bicycle store and repair shop.

Mead’s is more than just a bicycle shop however. It’s a place that welcomes fellow cyclists to enjoy the benefits of bicycling. He also promotes weekly and special event rides throughout northern Illinois.

“As a community, we really promote cycling in general,” he said.

The shop also sells bicycle parts and accessories, clothing, car racks and more, as well as offers service and repair.

There’s a different kind of feeling being on a bicycle versus driving, he said, especially when the weather is nice.

“If you’re driving a car and doing a 62-mile loop, you don’t see the same things that you can see on a bicycle,” Mead said. “If it’s 20 miles, 40 miles, 60 miles, it doesn’t matter. I’ve been able to ride all over in the country, and a lot of people asked me while I was racing why I stayed in Sterling, Illinois. It’s a very safe location to ride a bicycle in. The Midwest in the summer time is exceptional with great views.”

Whether you’re looking for a basic bike for an occasional ride or you’re a committed pedal pusher, Mead’s shop fits the bill. He’s got bikes for all ages and abilities: bikes built for the road or bikes built for a rougher ride, bikes for fitness or bikes for fun. He’s even got electric bikes that’ll give your feet a helping hand.

The store carries mostly bikes from the Waterloo, Wisconsin-based Trek Bicycle Corporation, but also has other brands, including Sun, Electra, Strider Sports, We The People and Radio BMX-style bikes. Recumbent bicycles, where riders in a seated position pedal three wheels from a seat close to the ground, also are sold, along with child trailers for the little ones who want to come along for a ride.

Electric models have been popular for about a decade, and in recent years have become even more advanced. Like their four-wheeled cousins, some electric bikes come with different bells and whistles, including touch-screen controls to shift gears and smartphone-controlled features. Bikes like these can help give you boost when you need and hit speeds of nearly 30 mph.

“Any time it’s a windy day, the electric bikes can make cycling more enjoyable,” Mead said. “Any time you get tired, you can turn the assist on and make it easier. Got a hill? You can turn the assist on. You can make it as easy as you want or as hard as you want, so you can definitely get your workout in, but if you get tired you can still do a 30-mile ride if you wanted to, and make it as easy as you want.”

Mead said battery-powered bicycles are still a new thing to some people, especially ones who grew up with Stingrays and banana seats, but he’s more than happy to help them shift gears and learn about something new.

Part of the enjoyment of owning a bike shop is to educate people on the changes and trends in the cycling world.

Electric bikes were first popular in Europe before entering the U.S. market. Mead began selling them 12 years ago, and it took only a couple of years before there were more on the sales floor. Now there are about 50 of them in his shop.

As with anything, the more features there are and the higher the quality, the heftier the price tag. These days, a high-end performance road bike can set you back $13,000, but those kinds of rides are reserved for serious cyclists. There are plenty of models out there that are more affordable. “We offer bikes for just about anyone,” he said.

“Whatever the customer is looking for, we got it,” Mead said. “The bike industry isn’t what it used to be, even from 10 years ago it has changed so much. It’s really unbelievable.”

Change has come from communities, too, as growing numbers of cities – including local ones – embrace the cycling community by installing and expanding bike paths. Rock Falls Tourism launched a bicycle-sharing program in 2019 to promote exploring trails and being active outdoors. Riders can rent one of eight bikes from a site at RB&W District Park on the riverfront. Dixon and Sterling have expanded their pedestrian/bicycle paths in recent years.

Growing up in Rock Falls in the 1990s, its boundaries weren’t big enough to contain Mead’s love for cycling. One of his first jobs was working as a mechanic for Kyle and Shelly Anderson at the former Mr. K’s Mud, Sweat and Gears bike shop on First Avenue. That helped him immerse himself into the world of professional cycling.

Mead graduated from high school in 1999, and would go on to compete in major national events, including the Tour of California, Tour of Georgia and Tour of Missouri as part of the Jelly Belly Pro Cycling Team.

“These were worldwide events as well, so there were also Tour de France professionals like Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer, and Lance Armstrong during his [comeback] run,” Mead said. “I was able to race against all of these individuals in a high-tier of cyclists.”

While racing professionally, Mead opened his bike shop in 2003 near the Sterling Post Office. He later relocated to Bazaar Americana, near the foot of the Avenue G bridge in Sterling, before buying the former Ben Franklin printing shop on Locust Street 10 years ago, where his shop remains today.

Mead’s decision to open a store came not long after Mr. K’s closed, and he sought to keep cycling – both casual and racing – a part of the Twin Cities’ lifestyle. Having someone behind the counter whose heavily invested in the biking community helps give customers confidence in his abilities.

“Over time, you grow a sense of the evolution of what’s happening, but when you’re traveling and you’re competing, you do learn a lot more and see all kinds of different aspects,” Mead said. “When you’re racing professionally, bikes are handled differently than, say, one sold in a bike shop. It’s given me a chance to be a little better about being a bike mechanic and to spread that information to our other mechanics of how a bike should be handled in a race platform. Definitely traveling and seeing all of these other systems in place, it definitely gave me a lot of different viewpoints.”

Weekly rides also are organized through the shop, ranging from 18-to-25-mile rides to 35-to-40-mile ones. On Wednesday nights from May to September, 10-mile “time trial” rides are held on Ridge Road south of Rock Falls for bikers of all abilities. The rides come with a prize: the rider with the most improved time from the previous week gets bragging rights until the next ride. Rides are also organized rides for charitable organizations. The shop also hosts bicycle workshops and classes.

One of the largest rides Mead organizes is the Free Mondo, formerly called the Farm Mondo. The inspiration for the name of the ride through Whiteside County’s farm country comes from “fondo,” the Italian word for a bicycle race of more than 75 miles. There used to be a fee to participate, but after the COVID-19 pandemic, the fee was dropped and the name changed to reflect the free ride.

The Free Mondo on Sept. 10 was composed of a cyclist’s choice of four loops: 18, 28, 42 or 62 miles, with the longer route spanning to nearly both east and west ends of the county. The terrain ranges from mostly flat and somewhat hilly for the shorter rides, to a little of everything for the longer ride, including riders going up and down the large bluff east of Fulton.

“It’s repetitively flat, but if you get near the bluff it starts getting hilly, and then as you get closer to Coleta, there’s a few more big hills. We had a lot of new riders come with brand new bikes, people who couldn’t normally do these rides are now calling us and asking about it. So that’s one positive about electric bikes, it gets people back out and able to do things that they weren’t able to do before.”

The success of establishing a cycling community in the Twin Cities inspired Mead to do the same in larger cities. He opened up shops in the Peoria and Rockford areas, both named Trek Bicycle, and has organized riding events in those areas, as well. Mead began his first Free Mondo for the Peoria area this year, and plans to add one in Rockford next year. The Peoria ride, which encompassed both flats and hilly terrains north of the city, attracted 70 riders, including a few from Sterling and Rock Falls.

“When we opened up, there wasn’t a really community per se,” Mead said. “Now, we’ve kind of grown it, and we were able to open in Peoria and Rockford with the same philosophy of providing a great product and treating people right. We’re getting more people back to getting on bikes, and it’s definitely worked here, so we’re going to make it work in Peoria and Rockford as well. Hopefully we can have that continued success.”

A child exploring his hometown on a bicycle, a young man working in a bike shop, competing in races, opening his own shop – it’s a journey that’s come full circle for Mead, a circle with spokes that began spinning all those years ago when the Twin Cities served as a backdrop for a lifelong love of bicycling, and where those wheels are still spinning today.