Local bike shop wins national awards
March 25th, 2008, 7:28 pm Teen Hobbies
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Employees of Garwood Cycles attribute winning their first national bike show award to their friends and supporters.
“It’s great,” said David Garwood, co-operator and lead technician of the shop. “We thank all our friends and employees who work so hard to get us where we are.”
Garwood Cycles received first- and second-place trophies in The Rat’s Hole custom bike show in Daytona Beach, Fla., for two of their bikes, “Sinister” and a military tribute bike.
When visiting the shop on West Fifth Street one may think you’re seeing double, with twins Steve and David Garwood running around the shop with their pet boxers, Drake and Cleo.
The Garwoods, 36, are both 1990 graduates of Lexington Senior High School. They grew up on a horse farm, and like many boys they became interested in cars and motorcycles as teens. They received their first bikes after graduation.
After David began working on his motorcycle and others, he decided to start a business in 1993 working in a barn with a dirt floor behind his mom’s house.
“People started bringing him bikes, and it turned into Garwood Cycles,” Steve said. “He started buying and selling a few bikes, too. He’s the one who started it, and my sister joined in, and together they got it rolling.”
The Garwoods’ older sister, Lynn Garwood, and David are the operators of the shop that customizes, repairs, sells and buys bikes. They operated out of the barn for years before moving into a little shop down the street from their mother’s house. After outgrowing that spot they then moved to the downtown location in 2004.
“It went from a hobby to a business,” said Steve, a consultant with the shop. “Now it’s a full-grown business. It has developed over the years from a backyard shop to a nationally recognized shop.”
There are two technicians at the shop, Lonnie Michael and Reggie King. Steve is also a designer at the shop.
“I design, and he (David) builds them,” Steve said. “I lay out the parts and make sure everything’s there, and he puts it together. It’s like a puzzle.”
Steve is the designer of “Sinister,” one of the bikes that won at the national show. “Sinister” is a 2005 Suzuki GSXR 1300 that Steve considers his dream bike. It’s black with candy red and silver designs with ghosted skulls, Steve said.
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