This is exciting news. :-)

GRAND BOULEVARD — Bronzeville is getting its first bike shop on Friday when one of the former mechanics at Blackstone Bicycle Works opens Small Shop Cycles and Service.

Chris Willard, who trained young mechanics and helped run Blackstone Bikes for nine years, is venturing out on his own with a new shop in a former cellphone store at 4250 S. Cottage Grove Ave.

“It was just a box and had gray and blue paint — it felt like a cellphone store,” Willard said Tuesday.

He had transformed the storefront into something far brighter and more welcoming by Tuesday as he unpacked the new bikes preparing for the opening. The store is packed with bright neon custom bike parts and a wall of helmets and locks, things that people in Bronzeville had to travel to Hyde Park or Bridgeport in the past to buy.

“It’s definitely nice for the neighborhood because we’re up and coming,” said John Kinchen, who had convinced Willard to start work early to assemble his bike. “I think tons of people are going to come out when it opens.”

Willard is hoping so, too.

Full article:
https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20160504/bronzeville/bronzevilles-f...