Daily Inspiration: Meet Brian Hannon

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Hannon.

Hi Brian, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started cycling very young with my parents on the back roads of Indiana, Illinois and Iowa. Multi-day tours and longish day rides were common. I fell in love with road racing at 14 year old and started wanting to go faster and faster. It’s fair to say that road racing and training consumed my life for the next ten years. After going back to college and graduating with a B.S. in Botany, I continued to work in bike shops and race and tour as much as I could. After a long cycling expedition that took me all over the western hemisphere, I worked again as a mechanic in a shop in Madison, WI and then as a frame builder at Croll Cycles in Minneapolis. I moved out to Steamboat in the mid 90’s where I built frames for Moots Cycles before eventually falling in love with the Colorado Front Range.

Overall this time, the tires got fatter and the bikes got faster as I dove into mountain and snow biking. The road called again and it was off to northern Italy to build titanium bike frames for Rewel Titanium. Living in Bolzano, intense road and mountain bike riding, racing and fabricating consumed my every waking moment. Racing the Trans-Alp stage race and bike packing through Switzerland and Italy were just two of the many incredible cycling adventures I had over that year. When I came back to our Centennial State, I headed for the cycling mecca that is Boulder. In 2008, I returned to Italy and opened my own bike shop called The Bike Lab in Ascoli Piceno. Ascoli is situated at the base of the central-eastern Apennine Mountains – and basically, your options are ‘up.’ So, as you can imagine… the riding is incredible and off the charts. The cycling community there is as lively as Boulders. Racing and riding are vibrant threads in the fabric of daily life.

Over the years, the shop became a little cycling hub. Conversations with visiting pros, club riders, and long-time Piceno commuters kept a constant buzz around the store. I’m touched to say that when it finally came time for me to sell the shop and return to the States, the new owners renamed The Bike Lab to what locals usually called it: Brian’s Bike Shop. And back it was to Boulder in 2012. In 2014, my buddy Dave and I opened Boulder Bicycle Works. Dave rolled on to new adventures, but Boulder has remained my HQ. Add to this mix an incredible wife and two beautiful daughters along the way – and this brings us to the present day. My goal is to make Boulder Bicycle Works the culmination of all these cycling experiences and bring you the best in professional and knowledgeable service. I hope to see you in the shop sometime or out pedaling on the bike. Until then- Ciao!​-Brian

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There have been smooth segments of this journey, and there have been Very rough segments of this journey, much like any good bike race or long bike tour. The key is persistence and always striving to do the best quality job you can. Starting a small business on half a shoestring with only loads of expertise and a firm belief that it will all work out was my plan. Having to deal with my partner quitting the business soon after signing the second lease and then having the bank account go to nearly zero made for a hellish year and a half while I paid myself nothing and rebuilt the business working mega-long days and always wondering if things would get better. I still work very long days, six days a week and things Are getting better all the time! Persistence!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Here at Boulder Bicycle Works, we make people’s lives better by improving their bicycles! We’re a service shop and our reputation is firmly based on how well we work on bikes. We make scores of people happy each and every day. That provides us with a living, and just as importantly, it provides with great joy and reason to exist and strive towards excellence Every day. I’m extremely proud that we treat people with respect. A person’s bike is their prized possession and when we fix a bike, we try to treat it as we’d treat our own. Doing the best we can in every situation is something that we’re known for.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
No matter if you talk to Brian, Billy or Eric, you can be assured that you are talking to an expert. We’ll listen to you and try our best to make your bike as good as it can be.

Contact Info:

• Email: info@boulderbicycleworks.com
• Website: https://boulderbicycleworks.com/
• Instagram: boulderbicycleworks
• Facebook: @boulderbicycleworksbikeshop