Suck Creek Cycle:
Chattanooga company builds custom trail bikes

by Florence Conner

Here's a new twist on the traditional Martini recipe:

· 1 Part Bike Wrencher
· 1 Part Rocket Scientist
· 1 Part Market Whiz
 

Shaking and stirring these three ingredients may make a terrible drink, but it's the perfect combination for the "Martini", a high-end, custom-built mountain bike designed and built by the owners of Suck Creek Cycle.

Owners Mike Skiles and Joe Thomas teamed with a former rocket missile engineer to build a bike that could negotiate the steep, "single-track" trails that categorize Southeast mountain trails.

"Most bikes are built out West where there's mostly wide-open biking," says Skiles. "Riding our trails is much different because the narrow trails and thick foliage give you a much better sense of motion, which makes for a more exciting ride. However, we couldn't find a bike that could handle our trails, so we went looking to build our own."
With Skiles' years of experience as a bike "wrencher" - a bike mechanic -- and Thomas' knowledge of marketing, the team could design and sell a bike, but they needed someone who could build the frame.

During their search for a lighter, stronger metal, Skiles and Thomas found Marty Williams, an aerospace engineer who'd moved from designing missiles for the nation's space program to designing and building bike frames in his Huntsville bike shop.
It was the perfect match. "Mike had the ability, knowledge and experience in the industry," Thomas says. "And Marty not only knows metals, but how to put them together in innovative ways. Marty uses a military certified aerospace welder - our bikes could be launched into space and not pull apart."

It seems the bikes could also pierce the polar ice caps, if needed. The frame of the Martini bike is made from Easton Scandium, an extremely strong, lightweight metal developed by the Russians for missiles that could deploy from subs patrolling the Arctic Sea.

“Most of the high-end materials being used to build bicycles, motorcycles and race cars - titanium and carbon fibers, for example - are the result of the cold war," Skiles says. "We've just found better uses for the them than missiles."

After Skiles developed the design of the bike and Williams built it, it was Thomas - an artist and former interior designer - who was responsible for the Martini motif. The bikes are playfully airbrushed with martini glasses and olives.

"Martini is partly a play on Marty's name, but we wanted to evoke the whole 'shaken and stirred' concept," Thomas says. It's James Bond - part sophisticated, part clever, part aerospace -- but all cheeky fun."

The perfect customers for the Martini bike are the serious riders buying their second or third bike. "They know what they need and are willing to part with their disposable income to buy it." Disposable income indeed: the Martini frame costs between $1,300 and $1,600, while complete bikes cost $2,400-4,000. Although expensive, the bikes are priced well in line with other similar custom-made bikes, Thomas says.

Bikes and friendly advice

Most Suck Creek customers aren't in the market to buy a $3,000 bike, but it's the same experience and knowledge that could build an innovative bike that Skiles and Thomas use to help more casual bikers find what they need.

"Whether people come in to buy a custom bike or their first bike, we treat them all the same," Skiles says. "We first talk with them and find out what their interests are in riding, what their skills are and what they want to do, then make recommendations based on that conversation."

The two-year-old shop, located across the street from the Aquarium on Market Street, occupies the top half of a recently renovated building in Chattanooga's growing tourist area. The interior of the shop is open and inviting, decorated with a selection of bikes that suit any level of bikers, from wannabes to connoisseurs. In addition to clothing, parts and accessories, Suck Creek offers a "kid zone" where shopping parents can park their kids. "We have kids, and we bring them into the shop every day," says Thomas. "We want our customers to feel comfortable bringing their children in as well." Repairs and maintenance are also done onsite, with frequent consultations with customers who "happen to ride by and drop in." Skiles says. Bike rentals are also available for reasonable rates.

The casual, friendly environment reflects the general philosophy of the shop. "There are plenty of bike shops in Chattanooga - we wanted to offer something different," says Thomas. "We're not here just to make money. We live for biking -- we sell bikes, and now we make bikes. Suck Creek is all about our joy for biking and sharing it with others."

From someone else, those words would sound like so much marketing hype. But these guys really mean it when they say they "live for biking."

For instance, some young boys steal their dad's girlie magazines, Skiles, a Chattanooga native, remembers sneaking up to the attic with his father's motorcycling magazines. "I didn't do the usual sports; I biked," he says. He began riding a BMX bike from the day he could get on one, raced them (and in the process winning the first BMX race in Chattanooga), then later raced professionally with the Schwinn Factory BMX team.

Over the years, Skiles worked at several local cycleries as a bike mechanic, then signed on with a new company named Litespeed, a then fledging local bike manufacturer selling 400 bikes a year. Skiles worked his way up to national sales manager the company now known as one of the most high-tech bike manufacturers in the world to open his own bike shop in Dalton.

Also a Chattanooga native, Thomas took a different track more suitable to being the "mouth" of the business. As a skateboarder, skier, interior designer and "corporate refugee", Thomas followed his love of the outdoors to begin Suck Creek.

"I built my first mountain bike before there were such things as mountain bikes," Thomas says. "Biking became more than a sport - it became part of my relationship with my wife, family and friends."

Thomas is now taking that commitment to the next level - by helping people realize that biking could be more than just recreation, but a viable means of transportation. Thomas is the director of the Chattanooga Bike Task Force and a member of the Metropolitan Planning Organization to help the city and county secure funding for bike trails and "corridors" that allow bikers to safely share the road with cars. A corridor is currently in the planning stage that will take bikers from the Tennessee Aquarium to Warehouse Row, with plans to ultimately connect bikers with the Incline at the base of Lookout Mountain.

“It's really unique for a city our size to have a voting member from an advocacy group on a planning committee - I think that says a lot about Chattanooga's commitment to finding funds for projects of this kind and making them happen."

Suck Creek has also reached out to the community through the formation of Team Peggy, an all-woman bike club sponsored by Suck Creek and Rock City. The club is headed by Suck Creek employee Kim Flynn, a professional racer and, of course, avid biker. The club's 70 members are made up of a mix of racers and recreationalists, mountain and road bikers, and coffee-shop pedalers and downhill monsters. The club sponsors casual rides on Saturday mornings and a mix of mountain biking and road rides at area locations, such as the Greenway, Stringer's Ridge and Signal Mountain. Ages range from 6-60, says Skiles.

"Team Peggy represents everything we'd like to do with a bike shop and biking in Chattanooga," says Thomas. "We want to promote biking as a lifestyle, getting involved in community and making biking an integral part of your life, as well as something you do on pretty Saturday. It's about education and changing perception."
 

For more information about Suck Creek Cycle, Team Peggy and custom trail bikes, visit www.suckcreek.com .