About Sports Garage: Boulder’s Premier Mountain and Gravel Bike Shop
Brad James
Owner
Elorie Slater
Owner
Fred Nolting
Buyer and Inventory Manager
Colin Williams
Lead Mechanic
Erik Maresjo
Senior Mechanic
August Fackler
Mechanic
Sean Bragstad
Service Writer
Ambassadors
Jarod Adcock
Brian Firle
Madison Pitts
Our Process
Our History
25 Years of Off-Road Adventure
Sports Garage is Founded
In 1994 entrepreneurs Thom Beckett and Frank Vogel founded Sports Garage in a rusty Quonset hut – “Q1” – located at 27th and Spruce Street. The two young men defied popular opinion by converting the building into a service center for outdoor recreation and backcountry thrill seekers like themselves. Initially, the “Garage” offered mountain bike service instruction, ski tuning, and was home to a small machine shop.
Expanding Sports Garage
In only three years’ time, the business outgrew Q1 and expanded into the larger hut immediately adjacent on the north side of the property. Significant remodeling included connecting the two huts through an elevated passage and installing a loft for office space. Today our clients, visitors, and employees still work in the space created by Beckett and Vogel in 1997.
Retail Pioneers
In addition to mountain bike service, Sports Garage joined Boulder’s ranks of bicycle retailers, representing such pioneering brands as Maverick and Rocky Mountain, an innovative company building and testing bikes on the wild north shore of British Columbia. We also introduced Boulder to the iconic mountain bike line Santa Cruz by becoming a dealer in 1999.
Neon Icon
A Datsun pick-up spray painted neon yellow was an iconic fixture in the Sports Garage neighborhood between 1994 and 2004.
Bikepacking and the Tour Divide
Sports Garage mechanic Sam Johnson had been using zip ties and Velcro to attach his camping equipment to his bike for several years before the marketplace officially recognized the art – and sport – of bikepacking. In the early 2000s, the penultimate adventure in bikepacking was the Grand Tour of MTB from Banff, Alberta to Antelope Wells, New Mexico. Sam joined the field of “challengers” to attempt this 2,745-mile self-supported bikepacking race known as the Tour Divide. Since inception, bikepacking has been an adventure that appealed to the DIY-er’s of the mountain biking world; an echo of Beckett and Vogel’s founding vision.
The Second Generation
The Summit County mountains were calling Beckett and Vogel. They sold Sports Garage to Denver-area bike industry contemporaries Chris Jacobson and Nick Howe. Jacobson – with a passion for bike fitting – and Howe diversified SG to include a robust road cycling program. “J&H Ventures” also picked up a little backyard mountain bike brand called “Yeti”.
The Modern Road
By 2009 Boulder and the University of Colorado had long established itself as the epicenter of road cycling in America. Under Jacobson and Howe’s direction, Sports Garage had diversified to include a robust road cycling business beginning back in 2005.
We introduced Boulder to the fourth and final long term mountain bike manufacturing partner in the business, Tempe, Arizona based Pivot Cycles, in 2009. Formerly the creator of such iconic bikes as the Titus Racer X, SG already had a close relationship with the Pivot founder and lead engineer. Also during 2009 Sports Garage underwent the only rebrand to date, adding “Cycling” to the name and giving the shop the equally recognized nickname “SG”.
A Local Lifestyle
Mountain biking had been steadily gaining in popularity and by 2012 Boulder cyclists were spending more and more time on the trail for short and long distances. During the first year of publication, local culture magazine Boulder Lifestyle featured Sports Garage employees riding at the Betasso Preserve on the cover of their inaugural outdoor issue.
Back to our Roots
Sports Garage Cycling was acquired by the current and third generation owners Elorie Slater and Brad James. With personal passions for mountain biking, and off-road adventures of all kinds, Slater and James took SG back to its roots in 2016 by becoming Boulder’s only “dirt only” bike shop. With the addition of a suspension service center and a gravel bike demo fleet, we re-committed fully to supporting the thrill of seeking the trail.
25th Anniversary
The third season of Sports Garage’s grassroots “Gravelanche” off-road group rides drew hundreds of local riders to a tribal-less celebration of finding community on the dirt. In celebration of the shop’s 25th anniversary, the SG mountain bike demo fleet reaches the milestone number of fifty full-suspension trail bikes.
Core Values
Rich Experience
Technological Expertise
Long Term Relationship
Actively Supporting
