Photo by Mike Lamb Bike Shop owner Chad Kulla talks about the bike industry.

This week I decided to walk down to the Bike Shop on Main Street in downtown and talk with owner Chad Kulla.

He was one of the more vocal merchants at the last week’s meeting of the Marshall Downtown Business Association that I reported on in my last column.

In fact, Kulla has been vocal at many gatherings when it comes to making the downtown area and his community safer.

Three years ago he was among 20 businesspeople who attended a round-table discussion with representatives of the Marshall Police Department, the city of Marshall and the Lyon County Attorney’s office. The discussion involved the kids on roofs in the downtown area that was brought up last week by Department of Public Safety Director Jim Marshall.

“It’s probably been happening for three years at least,” Kulla said about the kids on roofs. He told the others about trespassers using natural gas pipes to climb the Bike Shop building, damaging the pipes and causing as gas leak.

During that same timeframe, Kulla participated in a listening session on the future of Third Street in Marshall. At that meeting, he expressed a concern over losing parking on Third Street.

“We can’t afford to lose one parking stall on Third Street,” he was quoted in the Independent.

Kulla’s participation in community discussions proves he cares about his business, downtown area and the community.

And he has a long history as a downtown merchant. He’s been working at the Bike Shop since 1988 and bought it in March of 2020.

He shared with me his younger days growing up in Marshall and frequenting the Bike Shop.

“I was obviously a lot younger then. And what kid back then didn’t like riding bikes. So I always doing stuff, fixing my own (bike), tinkering with this and that and keep going in the Bike Shop for pieces, parts. I had the opportunity in high school to do an on-training through a class. And that’s where it started (working at the bike shop),” he said.

The shop back then was located off of Highway 68 before the previous owner, Dave Horstman, moved it the present location.

Kulla admits times have changed with the influx of e-bikes.

“There’s still a lot of interest in standard, what they call acoustic bikes (non-electric bicycle),” he said. “But the e-bikes are definitely a new item. It’s bringing a lot of life to maybe some seniors that are aging and maybe still want to keep riding. But it’s changing our kids a little bit with these e-scooters and stuff. They’re wrapped up into so much technology. They’re not pedaling a bike anymore. They’re on e-scooters.”

But when it comes to exercise, “you get nothing.”

“That’s where it’s different form what we’re selling. We’re selling — and the key word — is pedal assist. We are selling pedal-assist e-bikes. You still have to pedal, but you get to choose on how much assistance that bike is going to offer by selecting the level of assistance. You can assist your pedaling to make it very east, or you could pedal as much as you want,” Kulla said.

But then there’s the scooters.

“They’re a throttle activated item where you sit down or stand up and press a lever and go. No different than a motorcycle, but it’s just electric,” he said. “That’s where it kind of went — I’ll say the word south. A little bit in a negative way.”

I did take a quick look at the different kinds of bikes and exercise equipment in the shop while Kulla talked. I brought up competing against the Walmarts and Amazon.

“I don’t really look at them as competition because they’re selling something totally different that what we are,” he said. “They’re selling at nothing more than a price point. No service, no knowledge. We’re the opposite of that. We’re selling a quality product with service with a staff that knows what the right item is or what bike to get an individual for how they’re using it.”

I brought up the health aspect when you are pedaling a bike.

“People are realizing that biking is a sport, an activity that most can do and it’s very easy on your body. Unlike running, it’s easier on your joints and you can get a really, really good workout. Of if you want something very leisure and casual, you can do that as well,” Kulla said.

Kulla talks about biking in the same way he talks about his community — with passion. And he doesn’t apologize for speaking up when it comes to issues involving the community.

“I try to keep it professional as I can. It’s important to keep our community in the right direction,” he said.

He spoke up about the kids on the roof three years ago and he said that problem appears to have disappeared. And he’s thankful he and others in the downtown area along with the police department, took a proactive approach.

“I think the word has gotten out to the other kids, there will be consequences,” Kulla said.

Meanwhile, he still sees the scooters being driving up and down downtown sidewalks putting shoppers and pedestrians at risk. But he says everybody is working on the solution. Members of the Marshall Downtown Business Association are waiting on the new signs to urge people to walk their two wheels. And just like the kids on roofs, hopefully the scooters problem will disappear.

“Like Jim Marshall said at the meeting, they don’t have eyes everywhere, so more people that care about the community do have eyes to help engage in different things to help them (police) through. That’s really what was the key in the roof situation. Some key people downtown being aware, putting up cameras, calling the police ‘Hey there’s someone on the roof now.'” Kulla said.

“Even though the police are aware of the scooters, but getting involved and letting them know that, ‘hey, this is a problem. This is a concern of ours. We need to do something about this and take it seriously.’ I think that helps get something done.”

And that’s how Neighborhood Watch becomes effective. In this case, downtown Marshall.