Full Cycle History

The Early Years

Full Cycle was founded and incorporated in 1982 by Tom Morris, an original Boulder entrepreneur.  It began by selling bicycles in Tom’s garage; pretty normal beginnings for a bike shop back in the early mountain bike days.  Being the new shop in town, he couldn’t get any of the big brands of the day, but he had good connections from his travels around the world and found some mountain bikes he thought people would like.  To attract customers, he advertised new and used bikes around town on bulletin boards.  As mountain bikes grew in popularity, he felt we could take the next step and in 1984 he rented the space at 1825 Pearl street.  The space was split between Full Cycle and Crystal Market Grocery.

At the end of 1985, due to an increase in business, a new space was needed for Full Cycle. We decided on the “Hill” district of Boulder close to the University of Colorado. There were two other bike shops on the Hill, The Bicycle Center (later to be Morgul Bismark, now Al’s Barber ), and the Spoke (which is now Buchanan’s Coffee house).  Full Cycle was not like the other shops, selling mainly used bikes and having a community repair area. Full Cycle was slightly scorned by the other shops, but we thought that keeping a less pretentious friendly atmosphere, while still having knowledgeable people might just work.   Over the next 10 years, the shop grew and grew, and gained a reputation as the place to go for cyclists who cared about riding. Whether it was commuting, road riding, dirt jumping, or mountain biking we supported it, and this non-pretentious attitude caught on.  In fact, none of the bike shops from 1982 are still around in Boulder.

The Formative Years

In the late 1999′s Full Cycle’s Hill store had grown to be one of the best known bicycle retailers in the country, with an emphasis on service and providing an encouraging, friendly environment. Our service staff had such a reputation that at one point 6 of the top 10 US mountain bike race teams had a Full Cycle mechanic. The staff had grown and one of the new employees was Kaj Gronholm. Kaj worked in sales from 1995 to 2000, when he left to get his MBA at CU.

By 2005 Tom Morris and his partner, Tom Noyes were ready for new challenges, but wanted Full Cycle to continue in good hands.  Kaj approached the owners to see if they were interested in selling. They liked the idea of having someone who understood the Full Cycle history and had the passion to keep it great. In April of 2005 Kaj & Karli Gronholm purchased Full Cycle.

Full Cycle Today

In 2006, Full Cycle expanded and opened 2 new stores; one in Fort Collins and another on 18th and Pearl in Boulder. The new locations maintain the historic charm of the original Hill location, but due to their larger size are able to offer road and mountain bikes, as well as family and comfort oriented bikes. In 2008 Kaj’s sister and brother-in-law, Tanja and Scott Wiant joined as owners too. Full Cycle is a now family-owned business.

With a non-pretentious, friendly atmosphere maintained by the employees, our goals are to serve our customers and inspire them to ride more. We are also actively involved in the community and strive to make cycling safe and accessible for everyone. Our line of new bikes includes major brands like Giant, Felt, Kona, Ibis, Merckx, Colnago, Spot and Maverick. Come visit Full Cycle in Boulder or Fort Collins and experience friendly service and great employees ready to work for you! You can go for a test ride, check out our World Class Service Department, watch crazy mountain biking videos in our lounge, or just check out the space. We’d love to have you! And don’t forget to say hi to Kaj, Karli, Tanja or any one of our friendly crew.