We’ve been going to Grove Street Bicycles every since we moved to Jersey City about 8 years ago. My husband and I love riding our bikes and would go into the shop to buy accessories, get our bikes fixed, put air in our tires… you name it they do it. I always had a really great experience, the people who work there are really knowledgeable and they take their time with each customer. What I love about Grove Street Bicycles is not only are they a great shop but they are an integral part of biking culture in Jersey City. You see them at all the local events!

Rodney and Rob, owners of Grove Street Bicycles invited me to the shop to try some bikes, get a tour and get the history behind this Jersey City bike haven. Did you know not only do they sell and service bikes but they also offer maintenance classes and bike storage! I had no idea. They really are a one stop shop for all things biking!!

What’s Your Name? Rodney Morweiser.

And you? My name is Rob Pietras.

What do you guys do?

Rodney: We own Grove Street Bicycles here at 365 Grove Street.

How long has Grove Street Bicycles been around?

Rodney: It’ll be seven years in April that we’ve been open.

Can you tell me more about what you guys sell here and your services?

Rob: We’re a full-service bicycle store. We sell bicycles, we do rentals, we also do service on those bicycles, we offer maintenance classes, and we also off bike storage.

How did it start?

Rodney: I’ve been in the industry for 28 years. My partner Ralph, who is a silent partner, him and I discussed opening up a shop Downtown. It looked like this area definitely needed a bike store so we put our heads together and opened up.

Awesome. To me, it’s like the most well-known bike shop in Jersey City.

Rodney: Yeah, we put a lot of emphasis in gorilla marketing in a sense, you see our stickers and our T-shirts all about. We’re all riders so we’re all about town and definitely customer-based, really trying to push our customer service. Going out with our customers we do group rides and we do a lot of events in town too of course. We’re very family friendly and Jersey City oriented especially with the parks around town, Liberty State Park, and Lincoln Park. There’s a lot of great areas to cycle to.

Can you tell me about biking culture in Jersey City and how it’s changing?

Rodney: I think there’s a younger demographic coming into town and they understand sometimes using mass transit or bicycles is a better way to get around. The cars and amount of traffic, parking spaces are quite difficult to deal with in town. We’re getting people that need the bikes to get to work, to get around town, or just to have fun. It’s a lifestyle for some people too.

Can you tell me about the bikes you sell here?

Rodney: We pride ourselves on not being a particular style or branded store. We do everything from road racing for the enthusiasts to someone who hasn’t been on a bike in twenty years or a child that’s getting their very first bike.

What are the price ranges?

Bicycles will start anywhere from $169 for kids bikes and $359 for adult bikes and go up from their dependent on quality, components and such.

And you both love biking?

Absolutely. I started out as a professional BMX rider for many years.

Rob: BMX’er as well.

Awesome!

Rodney: We got a BMX team here that we’ve gone out and done demos and shows with. We actually opened for Mat Hoffman at the Tribeca Film Festival a couple of years ago too which was really cool.

How often do you guys ride?

Every day about ten miles each way. I live in Bayonne, the next town over, and I go through the park, Downtown areas, and it’s a great way to get to work.

What about in the winter?

Rodney: There are some diehards that will ride around—there’s equipment and clothing that will keep you warm and comfortable for the entire season. There’s also indoor riding, there’s bicycle trainers and equipment that you can use to ride the bikes indoors. It also allows us to reinvent ourselves and get ready for that rush that we get right at that spring time.

I feel like bikers are fanatics. What makes a biker a fanatic?

I think it’s just like anything that people get into. They just get bit by the bug and they’re interested in everything about it, how it’s made, why it works, how it works, and all the gadgets and accessories that go along with it. We make that very inviting for people to come in and experience that and help them with that. There’s always people that are a little bit more enthusiastic about whatever they get into. We cater to everybody, the first timers that are afraid of cars and timid and the people who are right out there in the middle of the street with them.

How do you feel when you ride a bike?

Alive and free. It allows for that freedom of being able to take any stress or anything out on the bike instead of in a car where it’s much more dangerous and the fact that you can just explore. There’s great areas around even Liberty State Park, there’s areas in the park just to ride around and to get great views. I think it’s the allure of the freedom of just being out and you don’t have to be out in the woods. There’s no limitation, and of course, the city is doing well with getting bike lanes and making it a lot safer so everyone can enjoy it.

Has the CitiBike Share affected you guys?

Only in a positive way, it’s getting more people on bikes, there’s more awareness, and it’s strength in numbers. We’ve helped quite a bit them with offering discounts on accessories, helmets and locks and such. It only helps us because there’s more people on bicycles.

Can you tell me about the importance of bike safety?

Unfortunately, with the city and how many cars and people that are moving about, you want to be as safe as possible. There’s endless accessories that’ll make you safer and more seen by the drivers and pedestrians out there. We pride ourselves in making sure—it may be dangerous—to educate people on what and how to maintain a cycling lifestyle here in the city. Not only is it about protecting themselves but also protecting the bike. We, unfortunately, have a theft issue here in the city with bicycles, but again, buying the right equipment and using it properly.

That’s an important thing. What would you usually recommend people do to prevent bike theft?

Again, come in a talk to use about purchasing the equipment that they need to secure the bike properly, just being aware of their surroundings and what they’re locking the bike too. If they have the capabilities, bring the bike indoor—even for long term parking they can use us.

I didn’t realize you guys had bike storage.

Yup, daily up to yearly.

Where?

Here and for long-term storage, we have an offsite warehouse.

I had a good experience here last summer, I was riding my bike and I got a flat tire and I came and I wanted to use the air pump. I was having major issues and somebody was really nice and came outside and helped me out.

Rodney: We leave a pump outside if they need it and know how to use it. We also have a flat class where we teach people not only how to fill the tires but how to repair the flat if they get one. Every Saturday at the store, it’s a free class too. That’s the most common issue with cycling here in town, even just the knowledge of knowing how to check the pressure or what the pressure should be dependent on the bike.

So you do have any other classes?

In the off-season, we offer maintenance classes and that’s something we do charge for. It’s a six-hour preventative maintenance class, we’ll teach you how to do brake adjustments, gear adjustments, lubrication, and other classes that we do throughout the year.

Rob: We’re working on devising a safety class now that we want to bring to some of the condo associations. We can offer free classes and talk through some of the safety aspects. Bike safety is important, I mean I know it. I came down to ride here a few weeks ago and I was just riding in the bike lane and some guy just opened his door. We’ve been talking about that and we’re putting together a class we’d like to offer.

Rodney: Along with group rides, we’ve done that in the past with condo associations and groups of our customer base where we’ll do rides from here to the park and back. Even in a sense of defensive cycling class to let people know what they should do at intersections and help them how the bike lanes work.

I always use the bike lanes, but what do you do in a situation where you can’t?

Rodney: At the end of the day if it’s about your safety then be as careful as you can on the sidewalk. We definitely don’t want people to ride on the sidewalk, it can be dangerous for pedestrians especially small children and pets. If it’s a situation where you’re going to get hurt or potentially hurt somebody then absolutely. That’s something about the city allowing and having the bike lanes. Yes, there’s a lot of cyclists and there’s bike lanes and it’s great for everybody, but let’s make sure everybody’s educated on how to use them. It’s the same for the drivers, there’s a lot of kooky drivers that don’t like cyclists. They yell at you to get on the sidewalk or vice versa so it’s a lose-lose situation sometimes, but we’re here to help as best as we can.

Do you guys live in Jersey City?

Rodney: As I talked, I commute in from Bayonne.

Rob: I live in Cedar Grove.

Well, you’ve been here for years now right? How many years?

Rodney: Seven years.

How do you feel Jersey City has changed in the past couple of years?

I think it’s great. I think the city’s moving in a positive light, especially for my industry, and with our mayor being bike friendly, for being an advocate of cycling, and even a person that competes in cycling. The city is becoming more bike-friendly, more alternative transportation-friendly. On our end, protecting Liberty State Park is important too.

#SaveLSP.

Absolutely.

Do you have a favorite Jersey City hangout spot?

Rodney: There’s so many. We haven’t really partnered with anybody, there’s a couple stores around here that we’ve hooked up with to help with the sponsorship of our clothing and our cycling club. One of our favorite spots is Liberty State Park, a great place to cycle. Grove Street, a lot of our business stays here Downtown so we support a lot of the local businesses.

Do you have a restaurant that you guys like to order in?

Rodney: Park and Sixth, the sandwich shop down the road has been great too, and around the block Toricos. I think we’re friendly with the skate community, unfortunately, there’s not many skate shops in town but there’s some in the surrounding towns.

Do you think that’ll change?

I think so especially with word of the skate park going up—

Berry Lane.

–I think that’s going to be helpful and it’s a different sport than what we offer here. We don’t dabble in the skateboard industry, but we’re similar in what we expect and want out of what we do in the city.

Do you have future plans for the shop?

For this year, we’re one of the major sponsors for the Ward Tour. And anything that Bike JC is offering we’ll be a sponsor or partner for this year and many years to come. Bike JC and anybody who’s pushing cycling is helpful to what we do here as a business.

Rob: Yeah, they’re a great voice for the city.

Rodney: We offer a lot of sales and promotions throughout the year, but that will be what’s up on our social media. For this time of year, there’s indoor cycling or take advantage of those warm days popping up. Come spring on Sunday’s at 8:00 AM, we’ll offer a ride that goes from our store to the George Washington Bridge. It’s a great ride, it’s what we call a “No-Drop” ride, if there’s anybody that’s slow or if anybody has any mechanical issues, everybody stops until everybody can proceed on. We push safety, everybody must wear a helmet, we usually have people sign waivers, and that’s something we will expand on.

Any last words about the shop?

Rodney: We’re a very friendly, customer-service oriented business that’s here to get as many people on to cycling. If it’s from the sports aspect to just leisure or commuting, we’re here as a full-service shop to offer sales, service, rentals, storage, and anything else that’s cycling related. A few years back we were hit with Hurricane Sandy as were a lot of people, but our basement here which is our shop and our service area was destroyed. We had about three feet of sewage water and throughout that experience, we never lost power.

We stayed open and cleaned and helped as best we could to the rest of the community by offering bicycles, bicycle rentals, and we had numerous pumps outside. We let people use the power for charging stations and helped the best we could. It was quite helpful to be community orientated and help as best we can. We fought through and fixed everything we could here while staying open and offering what we could. I think that’s important for people to understand because unfortunately through that time it took us a little extra time to get repairs finished. Instead of closing we fought through that to stay open and help as best we could. So again, we’re here to help as best we can to help people get back out on their bikes. Cycling is the best way to get around town.

Grove Street Bicycles

365 Grove Street
Jersey City, NJ 07302

201-451-2453

http://grovestreetbicycles.com