Glacier Cyclery rides to 35th anniversary

Glacier Cyclery owners Ron and Jan Brunk first came through Whitefish on a bike tour.

They spent a few days here and then returned to Jackson, Wyoming, where their house had been on the market for several months and then quickly sold. They moved to Whitefish because they felt it was still a real community even though at the time they didn’t have a plan for what they would do once here.

Eventually Ron decided to put his experience as a bicycle mechanic to use by opening his own business. This year Glacier Cyclery celebrates 35 years in business.

At the beginning, it was a mostly one-man operation with Glacier Cyclery operating out of the back of Glacier Mountaineering on Central Avenue. It was a different time for Whitefish and its retail businesses.

“Whitefish has changed a tremendous amount,” Ron recalled. “Whitefish was a sleepy little town then with an occasional bike tourist. We used to stand on Central Avenue and toss the Frisbee around. It wasn’t like Whitefish now with downtown crawling with people.”

It wasn’t unusual for him and Glacier Mountaineering owner Mike Fitzgerald to sit in chairs on the sidewalk chatting while waiting for customers.

Then Whitefish began to take off as a tourist destination and at the same time the mountain bike industry began to grow into what it is today. Before Whitefish was “officially discovered,” the Brunks say, Glacier Cyclery moved to East Second Street and over time expanded into its current building.

“We started as a repair shop and then people would ask us to special order bikes,” Ron said. “Mountain bikes were being produced in small numbers and then mass production of them made them more reasonable to purchase. Mountain bikes were discovered and that launched us into what we are.”

Glacier Cyclery today, in addition to the Brunks who still work in the shop most days, includes a number of employees. They’re thoughtful about the employees they hire, who all spend their free time out riding. Two mechanics have been with them almost two decades — Michael Meador and Tyler Tourville.

“There’s been a lot of technology change in the bike industry and having that advantage of that institutional memory is important,” Jan notes.

In addition, whether it was Jan herself or another employee they’ve always tried to ensure that there is at least one woman on the sales floor.

“There is a lot of women cyclists,” Jan said. “From the beginning we’ve always tired to have a female on the floor and that’s an aspect that has benefited us. We have a lot of loyal women cyclists.”

They point to a number of commercial bike tours that pass through Whitefish and Glacier National Park as an asset to their business. In addition, the Great Divide Trail mountain bike route passes through Whitefish, along with the Northern Tier cross-country bike route.

“There is a lot of people that travel by bike now,” Ron said. “Whether they get on their bikes and travel somewhere, or they bring their bikes with them and then ride. Whitefish has seen a huge increase in bike tourists.”

Ron says that even though Whitefish has changed, it’s still has the same quality that drew them to Whitefish 35 years ago.

“It’s still a real community,” Ron said. “There’s still a real community with heart that is neat to be involved in.”

With the summer months so packed with tourist looking to get repairs while they’re on the road, Glacier Cyclery always faces a balancing act to make sure that the cross-country rider can get their repairs completed in a timely manner while still making sure the residents are being taken care of.

“The locals are our customer base,” Ron says. “They’re the reason for our success.”

Although the Brunks are looking to pass some of their duties to their employees so they can get out on their own bikes more — the Whitefish Trail and spring riding on the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park are favorites — they still enjoy coming to work. They say watching their staff “pulling together” is their greatest enjoyment, not the growth of the shop over the years.

“It’s a fun business,” says Jan.

“We sell a fun product,” adds Ron.