Store Offers Wide Variety of Options, Including E-Bikes
Trevor Phipps
Mountain biking has become a favorite past time and sport for people living in the Teller high country.
And during the pandemic, sales for thin tire buffs especially surged as people pursued more outdoor recreational options.
Luckily for area residents, one of Woodland Park’s longest standing businesses has been in existence for more than three decades, and has specialized in serving adults, kids and seniors with all of their complete, mountain biking needs. Team Telecycle first opened its doors in 1986 ,and to this day, the business still works hard to provide mountain bikers with everything they need, running the gamut from new bikes and accessories, to repair services and rentals options.
According to the shop’s longtime owner ,Paul Magnuson, the shop was first started as a business geared more towards cross country skiing and a variety of winter activities. But due to climate changes, with the area receiving less snow during the winter, this made cross-country outings not as popular.
Magnuson joined the business as a partner in 1990, and then became full owner of the shop in 1992. Magnuson has been a mountain biker his entire life. In fact, he is a former racer and he purchased his first bike shop when he was 19.
To this day, the shop owner is still an avid mountain biker who rides every single day. “For the 30 years I have had the shop, I have ridden to and from work almost every day,” Magnuson said. “Now my whole commute is through Lovell Gulch and on mountain biking trails. When we lived in Divide for several years, I commuted between Divide and Woodland Park on the highway. It’s nice to be riding in the woods instead.”
The shop offers full service on any type of bike, including mountain and road bikes. Team Telecycle also sells just about any accessory for mountain bikes that anyone can imagine.
When it comes to bike sales, though, the store only carries mountain bikes made by Specialized and pedal-assist e-bikes. Magnuson said that his store mostly caters to intermediate and advanced riders as the prices for the bikes range from $700 to $12,000.
E-Bikes Become the Latest Mountain Trekking Trend
Magnuson said that the addition of e-bikes to his store has emerged as the most recent technological change. “The e-bikes are all pedal-assist, so they just assist people so they can get up the hills,” Magnuson said. “It helps with the altitude. We get a lot of folks that are moving here from lower altitude that used to ride all the time and they come here and ride the bikes and the hills just kill them. E-bikes take care of that and they are a game changer for a lot of people. Industry-wide, they are saying that in four more years, 60 percent of all bike sales will be e-bikes in the world, and 40 percent will be regular pedal bikes.”
With the growing number of seniors and retirees, these vehicles are a big hit.
Magnuson said that the e-bikes are exceptionally popular with people between the ages of 50 and 80. “They allow you to travel further and do more challenging stuff without just being beat up 100 percent,” the shop owner said. “We are big into the pedal assist bikes because it gets someone who is not riding a bike to ride, a bike, and they are still pedaling and getting exercise. Any exercise is better than none.”
The store also carries special bikes for young children and even toddlers to help them learn how to ride bikes at an early age. “The new thing is that instead of training wheels you start kids out on these what they call ‘walk bikes’ where they can just push with their feet and they get going fast enough to where they put their feet up and balance,” Magnuson explained. “Then when they go to a pedal bike, all they have to learn is that first pedal stroke and they are gone. My grandson started riding one of these at two. He just turned three and he rides Palmer Park on one of these, it’s pretty amazing.”
Team Telecycle also offers mountain bike rentals for tourists or for those who want to take a trip every once in a while. And starting next summer, Magnuson said that the store will start having the pedal-assist e-bikes available to rent as well.
Magnuson also said that he supports local mountain biking clubs at the Woodland Park High School, middle school, and Columbine Elementary. At the high school level, mountain biking is a club sport that has more than 25 kids on the team who race.
Every fall, the high school team competes in four races all over the state in places like Leadville and Snowmass and then a state championship race. The middle school also has a club team of over 20 students that serves as a feeding system to the high school sport.
