With many essential services taking a modern-day twist, more customers are enjoying the convenience of home delivery options such as groceries, pet grooming and now, bicycle repair. Owensboro Firefighter Kevin Klobe moved his family to Owensboro in 2015 and brought with him his passion for cycling and bicycle repair.
“I love cycling. I love seeing people get out there and enjoy what they love doing,” Klobe said. “We are a mobile bicycle repair shop. I think the big thing that sets us apart is that I come and pick it up and drop it off as a standard service. It’s more about convenience.”
Klobe who had a brick and mortar store at his former residence in Missouri has since started Freeride – Owensboro’s Mobile Bicycle Repair Service where their slogan is “We come to you!” If you’re at home, your office or stuck on the side of the road, his business is there to help.
“We moved this way for work and sold our former business and building but we had everything we still needed for a mobile shop,” explained Klobe. “We started applying with our vendors and started back up in 2016 but really starting officially this year.”
Klobe said he likes helping people and loves working on bikes. He’s enjoyed bringing this passion back to life with his mobile repair shop on wheels and attention to detail. He has an enclosed trailer and can service any make, model and any type of bike including unicycle, quad bikes, children’s bikes and more.
“We will go to anyone in Owensboro with no destination fee within city limits,” Klobe said. “We’ll bring an entire bike shop to anyone that needs assistance and we’ll fix it right then and there to try to keep the bike with them. We want to keep the downtime as minimal as possible. Outside the city limits, there is a small destination fee but convenience is really the key.”
Many clients call to schedule tune-ups and repairs while others use Freeride’s emergency bike repair services. Tune-ups starting at $65 and take about an hour and a half turnaround time. Bikes are guaranteed to be back the same day as long as they are received by 4 p.m. and no replacement parts need to be ordered.
“I started riding in high school before I had a car as more of a necessity. I didn’t have a car when I went to college in the late ’80s but I’ve always loved riding and have stuck with it since then,” Klobe said. “The acceptance of cycling is a lot friendlier here and I’ve been met with a lot more courteous drivers here in Owensboro for the most part. It’s a lot larger cycling community here too and that helps. I just love cycling, I love helping people, and I love seeing so many within the area enjoy bicycling.”
Klobe has a wide variety of availability including weekends and some holidays. He works around his schedule as a full-time firefighter and makes that available to clients via his website or by phone call. To find more information on Freeride visit https://owbbike.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/TheFreerideBikeShop/
