It doesn’t look like the other 20-plus bike shops in town. For starters, the front door of Spun Bicycles in Northside practically opens into the repair shop, rather than reserving this prime real estate for inventory displays. Farther inside, new and used bikes crowd the racks from floor to ceiling, accessories hang everywhere else, and a bench made of skateboards offers a perfect view of whatever movie is playing on the TV. It’s exactly what owners Dominic and Judi LoPresti wanted. “There are high-end shops, there are race shops, there are mom and pop shops,” says Dominic. “I didn’t want to be that. There are plenty of people doing that, and doing it well.”
The husband and wife duo opened Spun in February 2013, three years after getting hitched at the Interbike cycling trade show in Las Vegas and seven after meeting at Bicycles and More in Cheviot—back when Judi was a triathlete and working in corporate travel, and Dominic was a bar manager and bike mechanic. From day one they dreamed of opening a different kind of bike shop, but it took a bittersweet turn of fate to make Spun a reality. Judi’s father—a lifetime athlete and successful businessman—died suddenly in 2012 and left her an unexpected bequest. She took the money straight from the lawyer to the bank, rented the space in the historic Hoffner Lodge that is now Spun, and hung her dad’s bike above her desk in memory and gratitude.
Judi handles all ordering and bookkeeping for the booming business (they more than doubled their first-year revenue projections), and Dominic oversees repairs, restorations, and custom fabrication. Between him and master mechanic John Myers, Spun has more than 50 years worth of experience and can fix anything on two wheels, from rusted vintage rides to flashy BMX bikes. In fact, Spun is one of the few shops in Cincinnati that caters to BMX (Dominic rode semi-pro until he was 16, and still rides for fun).
Spun stocks top-notch, highly-affordable brands of many styles. You’ll find cruisers, fixies, mountain, touring, and road bikes from Raleigh, Kona, Masi, Haro, Pure Fix, Fyxation, Fairdale, and more, and BMX bikes from the likes of S&M, Failure, Verde, Cult, and Sunday. You’ll also find the cheapest tune-up, bike build, and wheel lacing in town.
“It’s not cheap because we suck,” says Dominic. “It’s cheap because I value what things cost back in the ’90s, when things were more realistic. We keep it real.”
4122 Hamilton Ave., Northside, (513) 541-7786, spunbicycles.com
Originally published in the May 2014 issue.
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