Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, on assignment for the Winooski News
For Dan Hock of Winooski Wheels, doing something nice for himself for his birthday means taking the time to work on his own bike.
“You know that phrase, ‘The cobbler’s children have no shoes?’” Hock asked — meaning folks who work in a specific industry often struggle to find time to ply their trade on their own behalf.
The bike is a 1984 Univega Alpina Sport. “It’s a great all-terrain bike,” Hock explained. “I have it built up with an internally geared hub,” he added, gesturing to a series of parts laid out on a workbench.
Dec. 11 was Hock’s 38th birthday, and it was Winooski Wheels’ second. He wanted to have the same birthday as his cycling store, which sits on West Canal Street.
Bikes have always been a big part of Hock’s life. He raced mountain bikes cross-country as a teenager and has been a year-round rider for more than 20 years.
Hock came to the area in the mid-2000s to attend Saint Michael’s College and worked at Burlington’s Old Spokes Home for 15 years before starting his own shop in 2022. He was excited to set up in Winooski, his home for over a decade.
“There have been times when it’s been difficult to reconcile having to work a lot versus taking time to get out and ride,” Hock said. “What I really enjoy about my work is that I get to bring something that is my joy and what I love to do and help other people achieve it.”
Winooski Wheels serves as the launch point for Winooski Bike Gang’s community bike rides. Hock said the group is the biggest community connection he has, and as the shop has grown, the headcounts of those bike rides have gone up.
Winooski Wheels has grown mostly through word of mouth, he said.
“The power of word of mouth is magnified in a community like Winooski,” Hock said. “If you’re doing good work, it can come back to you really quickly.”
“And it’s been amazing to see how many people commute here by bike and depend on their bike day to day,” he added.
He also thinks Winooski’s status as the neighbor to a larger city provides a business opportunity: A lot of his customers enjoy that his store is on the way to Burlington but not all the way there, he said.
The retail aspect of his business has grown steadily over the past two years, he said, and these days he carries many more new bikes than he would have anticipated when he started, including some electric bikes.
In his first two years of business, Hock said he has discovered that working for yourself is both freeing and challenging.
“At the end of the day, you’re the only one there to take care of everything,” he said. “It’s very all-encompassing. This is a seasonal industry, and when it’s really busy in the spring, it gets to be a lot.”
But when business slows in the winter, he gets to take off and go on extended bike tours —– this winter, he’s setting off for Colombia to bike around the country.
As for what’s next with the shop? “I could be content with more of the same,” Hock said. “Deepening the roots and the connections to the community that are already there. Even today, the first customer who came in was someone who I’ve known for 17 years.”
“I like getting to feel like I’m part of the fabric of the community,” he said.