One proverb embodies that necessity is the mother of invention. For Brett and Mandy Bartrum, it came in the form of a new business and an as-of-yet untapped market in St. Charles County.
The Bartrums own and operate Juiced Wheels, an e-bike specialty and service shop, in Frenchtown in St. Charles, virtually in the center of the city’s $85 million City Centre Complex project and the Frenchtown Great Streets Plan.
Ironically, they say they started Juiced Wheels when many businesses were failing during the 2020 pandemic. Today, clients come from all over the state, and their business has tripled.
An IT master and a doctor of nursing and infection specialist by trade, Brett and Mandy, respectively, discovered electric biking while living in Colorado. They say they wanted to get healthy and to explore the outdoors. Electric biking helped them with both.
Essentially an electrically power-assisted motorized bicycle, the electric bicycle or “e-bike” can be powered by electricity as well as by pedaling. E-bikes came a long way since Hosea Libbey invented the first one in 1897, helping users enjoy the outdoors while overcoming obstacles such as steep inclines and high physical effort.
E-bikes have many of the same components as regular bicycles, including pedals, chains and gears. But an e-bike also has a battery, motor, computer and most have throttles. “With e-bikes, you don’t have to worry about hills, or headwind, or being too exhausted to make it back home. They allow people to go further than they would otherwise,” he says.
But the Bartrums say they realized the expense of purchasing the bikes and then trying to access affordable support was burdensome.
“We saw a need in the area for a dedicated e-bike shop,” Brett says. “We discovered people don’t want to go into a shop and spend $3,000 on an e-bike, when instead they can buy online for a fraction of the cost and have us support them.”
So Juiced Wheels has become a local support for the direct-to-consumer market. By partnering with brands that sell directly to customers online, e-bikers can bypass expensive dealerships. “We partnered with DTC brands where we can get bikes at better prices online, and at the same time, we are here to support them.”
With his background in IT, automation, data analytics and cybersecurity, Brett brought technology into every facet of Juiced Wheels.
The company has a full-service department that honors the same deals as online brands. They charge a $150 assembly fee when an e-bike is purchased through Juiced Wheels, which includes a free six-month safety check. They have a mobile van for pickups and deliveries, and do warranty work with more than a dozen e-bike brands. They also sell and rent helmets equipped with speakers, so riders can communicate on trails. The company also offers BiKeep, as smart bike locking, parking and charging stations, as well as community bike tools and a workstation for free.
The Bartrums named their business Juiced Wheels, because when they started, they intended to sell cold-pressed juice and e-bikes together, a hot combination on the East Coast. With the increase in their e-bike business, they quickly sold off their equipment to Neon Banana in Clayton and B Juiced in Ferguson.
The Bartrums became parents in 2018, and say they're now teaching their daughter, Science Bartrum, everything about biking.
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JuicedWheels.com
“We partnered with DTC brands where we can get bikes at better prices online, and at the same time, we are here to support them.”