Rotten Robbie's Bio

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I grew up in Crawfordsville.  As a young boy, a bicycle was the normal mode of transport for getting all around town.  I remember getting my first bike, a 20” West End, orange with a Banana seat and ape hangar handlebars, purchased at the Western Auto Store in Downtown Crawfordsville.  A few years later, I graduated to a ten speed Fuji, a red sports ten model researched exhaustedly by my father during various trips to out of town swim meets.  At the time, the only bike shop in Crawfordsville, Lashley’s, had closed down.  It became my pride and joy, and subject of debates with friends over which was the “best brand”.  It became my mode of transport, work vehicle for paper routes, and at the time, symbol of freedom for any young man in this town.  I just wished we had a bicycle shop in Crawforsdsville.  In 1985, while at College in Bloomington IN, I began racing bicycles competitively in the Little 500 bicycle race for the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity.  I purchased a Raleigh Supercourse racing bike from Bloomington Schwinn, then owned and operated by a Crawfordsville native Mr. Shaw. Cycling has remained a favorite fitness and recreational activity ever since.  Fast forward to 2001, my family and I are in the process of moving back to Crawfordsville to make our home and looking to make an investment in this town.  The most recent Bicycle shop, Valley Bikes has been closed up and sold to an out of town purchaser.  We believed a void existed that allowed me to realize a long standing dream of opening a bicycle shop in Crawfordsville.