Simplest Answer:
- Monday thru Sunday: 10am to 7pm
Complicated Answer:
You can drop it off anytime from 10am to 7pm, every day of the week.
However, if you would like to meet Ryan, the proprietor, then it is best to make an appointment. He is rarely there on Sunday. Generally, long days: Monday through Saturday.
When Ryan isn’t there, you can simply hand it off to a Boulder Sports Recycler employee, and they will take down your phone number/email, and have you sign a waiver.
Many times, Ryan can fix your bike on the spot. This is the preferred way.
You may have noticed that the shop is now located at 7123 Arapahoe Ave. Standard Bike Repair is located inside the building of the Boulder Sports Recycler. You can bring your bike through the Shopping or Gear Repair entrance. The Gear Repair entrance is a straighter shot to the back of the store where the shop is, next to the used bikes for sale.
Hours told in the voice of: As you might see on the window of surf shop –
- Ryan Kelley, the owner-mechanic, is at the shop during all daylight hours. Except when he is on errands.
- While popping by unannounced with your bike often does get your bike fixed on-the-spot, for the same price at $90 per hour, as if you had made an appointment, sometimes it can yield undesired consequences such as too many customers at once.
- Appointments are gold: Part of what you are paying for is a promise that if you respect the shop’s time with appointment, and you show up on time, we guarantee a great experience.
- A “great experience” at a bike shop is defined as: you will learn about your bike, get your bike fixed, not have to wait that long and pay a fair price for the service rendered.
- Is it possible to make appointments for weekday mornings or evenings? Yes.
- The only day of the week that Ryan will not work is Sunday.
- Usually, the shop is open every day at 10am.
- If you would like to make an appointment before 10am, then it may take a “beg and a plead” or just being courteous. To be honest, Ryan likes early morning appointments: the sooner he starts, the more money is made that day.
- Ryan will honor all requests for Watch/Help/Learn.
- Expect 5-Star service despite the “surf shop hours”.
Wooden Rim Parallel to Customer Service
You might notice that the rim is made with wood. Building a wheel with wood, as opposed to metal, reminded me of the balance required in a “customer/business relationship.”
As a sole operator bike shop, you get the benefit of working directly with the owner.
Standard Bike Repair currently has 186 Google Reviews for a 5.0 Google Rating after 15 years in the business. It is a lot of pressure to maintain that Rating. But, it is that Rating that keeps Standard in business.
Ryan is not perfect. He tries to be.
Banker’s Hours are Learned
As a former bank teller at U.S. bank for four years, he claims that is where he got his “cadet experience”. In reality, he has not served.
While the United States does not currently mandate service, he chose not to go to a dangerous country and potentially be “more harm than good”. His dad served in Vietnam. Since, he dropped out of college, he felt like he was “second guessed for consistency”. Then, he got a job at U.S. Bank and worked there four years: May 8th 2008 to May 8th 20012.
After working at US Bank for two years and being envious of a particular entrepreneur who was going to “lunch with a friend” on a Tuesday, Ryan decided that he wanted that freedom too.
Ryan noticed that there were certain traits of an entrepreneur. Namely: tenacity and quirkiness. As few people deny Ryan’s oddness, he decided to do a brainstorming exercise. The goal was to invent a product or find a service based business that he could execute.
Products are hard to invent. The beauty of a service based business, is that you don’t have to “invent” anything. It is almost as simple as: put a sign up, learn the trade, and offer good customer service.
James Keller, from Full Cycle, once said: “Ryan, bicycle repair is pretty easy. A few 40 hour weeks, and you will be on your way in no time.”
Ryan had the perfect location: a cottage near downtown Boulder that his landlord allowed him to run a bike shop from. It had the look and feel of a quintessential local bike shop that would be in Boulder, Colorado.
Ryan lived at that house for 18 years. The shop started in 2010 and made it to 2025 at 1823 Marine St. Ryan moved into the house when the landlord’s grandkids were babies. Eighteen years later, the landlord called and said: Ryan, the grandkids are ready to go to college now. We would like to make the cottage a home again.
Standard Bike Repair was briefly for sale on Craigslist as a result.
A man named Carl Hern wrote an email to Ryan one eve and said: Why don’t you talk to Mick and Izzy, the owners of the Boulder Sports Recycler and see if you can move the shop into BSR. They wanted to have a bike repair shop in there.
In that moment, a little voice entered into Ryan’s brain and it said: Follow this man’s advice.
As a result, Standard Bike Repair lives on.