New Tacoma mobile bike-repair shop offers on-site tune-ups, fixes, more
Bespoke Bikeworks will meet you where you’re at, in more ways than one.
The mobile bike-repair shop opened earlier this month in Tacoma, offering tune-ups, all types of repairs and just about anything else you need for your two-wheeler.
Co-founders and owners Dayne Hall and Ripley Morris said they saw similar mobile bike shops in communities around the Pacific Northwest and decided they wanted to open their own.
The pair started accepting bookings earlier this month and said they’ve received great feedback.
“We show up to someone’s downtown apartment and park in their alley space and can fully check their bikes, or drive out to someone’s driveway with all of our tools,” Hall said. “Getting your bike to the shop is not super easy, especially if you don’t have a truck or a bike rack, so people are excited they don’t have to deal with that.”
Working out of a van allows Hall and Morris to offer more affordable pricing. A basic tune up is $90, while more basic repairs like shift adjustments, flat tire fixes and spoke replacements range from $15-$40. Bespoke also sells fixed-up bikes and will buy old bikes.
Bespoke offers complimentary safety checks with no appointment necessary. Plus, tune-ups for kids’ bikes are pay-what-you-can.
The pair also plans to hand out free kids’ bike helmets at different community events, the first being the annual Fieldhouse Flea Market on Saturday.
Making biking and bike safety more accessible is at the forefront of Hall’s and Morris’s minds.
Hall started working at bike shops when he was 16, before going into machining and other work.
“I just decided that I really want to be able to help people in some capacity with my job,” Hall said. “So we thought, how can we actually make this a more helpful business instead of just being, like, a retail shop?”
Morris, who has a background in social work, said she understood the importance of bike safety during her three years working for South Sound 911.
“The amount of bike-related fatalities and injuries, whether it be maintenance issues, or lack of helmet or lack of awareness, was just really striking,” Morris said.
The pair also noticed that bike repairs were often just accessible to more affluent communities or just in metropolitan areas, and they wanted to reduce that barrier.
Along with taking appointments, during the weekends Hall and Morris said they’ll try to park around Ruston or the Foothills Trail, a popular bike path that runs from Puyallup to Buckley.
“If anyone sees us working in the van, they can come up to us and ask for a safety check, or opinions about their bike or anything we can provide for them,” Hall said. “And we’re never gonna charge for that.”
Making bike safety accessible for kids is especially important to them.
“You got to have the next generation of cyclists, and that’s how we get to that point,” Morris said.
Hall and Morris said they’re looking to collaborate with Cascade Bicycle Club on its statewide bike-education program, which implements safety courses into middle, elementary and high schools around Washington.
Bespoke is partnering with Cascade Bicycle Club for upcoming events like the Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic, and also has partnerships with Ride Together Pierce and the Pacific Raceways Circuit Series.
To book with Bespoke, you can call or fill out a form on the website during normal business hours (9 a.m. to 7 p.m.) seven days a week, and same day appointments are often available.
Hall and Morris will travel all over Pierce County, plus anywhere an hour from Tacoma. While they push bike safety for all, don’t expect a lecture.
“Everyone has a different relationship with their bike,” Hall said. “We’re not here to tell them how to ride their bike, or what they should be doing. It should be something that people can enjoy.”
