Welcome, I’m Michael, I own and run Green Cycles and always think it’s nice to give some background to a business.

My fascination with bikes actually started age 11/12 when I saw an early morning tv show of mountain biking through a cave system. The freedom and skill I saw immediately had me hooked, from that point on I was buying monthly magazines and watching on tv whenever possible.

At that age my dad didn’t want to buy me a new bike in case this was a short lived interest, after a year or 2 I got my first new bike, an Apollo Rampage blue and yellow, to me this was an incredible machine and I was now fully capable of everything I saw on tv, 3 months later the bike broke, I had always been interested in engineering and how things worked but never worked on a bike before.

My dad taught me from a young age you have 2 options when something breaks, earn the money to pay someone to fix it, or learn to fix it yourself. so that I did, It took me 3 months but I worked it out, that was the start!

Jump ahead to me being 16 I met my friend Leigh, he was incredible on a bike, doing tricks and stunts I had never seen, we would be out most evenings after college getting photos or videos if we had a phone that worked between us, we would go back to his and edit the video with music, Inevitably I would fall asleep laying on the spare room floor while he carried on working.

At 17 I was in an apprenticeship and in a position to buy a new bike from a local independent bike shop, a Commencal Absolut AL2 2007 purple in colour but many tried to wind me up saying it was pink, I didn’t care it looked cool and more than capable of my skill (or lack their of).

2 days of ownership and the brake failed, back to the bike shop and they refused to fix it despite the bolts being left loose when they built it, at that point I knew I wanted to start a business offering cycle repairs but aimed on good customer service.

Being still fairly young and not understanding business I bought a cheap bike repair tool kit and set about repairing my bike and learning on family and friend bikes, even picking up dumped and abandoned bikes just to take them apart and put them back together to leant how it worked.

At 18 I worked in a local bike shop (the very same shop) volunteering on a Saturday just to gain experience, learn somewhat how the business worked, I ended up building my first custom bike and got featured in Dirt magazine, only a picture but I was still in a magazine!, I left after around 1 year to try some other jobs but bikes were always in the background, I always had a bike, I always customised my bike, always learning and buying more tools as and when I could.

At 29 I found myself in a job I didn’t enjoy but at the time thought it paid well, I had always intended to move on from that job but never did anything about it, growing closer to 30 and my Granny being ill and the job looking like we would be laid off at any minute was pushing me to want to do something for myself, something I could be proud of, bikes!!

By late 2019 at 29 years old I had most of the tools I thought I needed, and started repairs again for friends and family, some paying me but I never asked, just dipping my toe in the pond so to speak.

Here comes February 2020, I'm 30 now and we have been called into a meeting at work to announce we were being laid off, the same day as this happens my fiancés (now wife) clutch goes on her car, I realise quickly I cant wait to be called back to work and try to earn money anyway I can, odd jobs, Painting etc… March and Covid hits, luckily because we are laid off we could get furlough on full pay, my wife being self employed couldn’t earn so although I was earning, I wasn’t earning enough.

As most in the bike industry will tell you, 2020 was great for bikes, as a cycle repairer I could work as I was essential to transport and exercise…. all the month I earned on bikes that year went back into the business, working from a spare bedroom I was storing bikes in the bath, moving them whenever it needed to be used, starting with no stock, any bike needing any parts no matter how small I was counting pennies and buying parts as they were needed, after 6 months we moved and I had a plastic 8x11 shed, slowly building. December 2021 my dad invested some of his retirement money for me to get a proper workshop style shed which I still work in today.

At 36 we are now at a point where I am looking up expand, likely with another workshop directly behind and cutting a doorway between the 2, also looking to get a van, I have a Volvo V40 with bike carriers on the roof, It works but I would like to move bikes inside a vehicle, I have access to a Peuget Bipper which is more suitable but the wife uses for her work so I try and only use that if needed.

Probably waffled on far to long, well done if you read it all.