By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University

The professional bicycling team from Bahrain, a country in the Persian Gulf, is needing specialized tires for their upcoming race to get rolling on gravel roads. Where do they get such tires?

The answer is, at a bike shop in Emporia, Kansas. 

Last week we met Kristi Mohn of the Unbound Gravel bicycle race. Her husband Tim Mohn is co-owner of Merchant Cycles, which acquired the specialized tires for Team Bahrain.

Tim grew up in Topeka. He was playing in a band in Lawrence when he met Kristi.  Ultimately they married and moved to her hometown of Emporia.

Kristi is an avid runner who loves the outdoors. Tim tried running but did not enjoy it. He turned to bicycling and found he loved that. “My father-in-law rode bikes,” Mohn said.  “I tried it and got addicted to it.”

In 2006, Tim was among 34 riders who participated in a bike race on gravel roads around Emporia. It went so well that it became an annual event called the Dirty Kanza, now known as Unbound Gravel.

Around 2015, the race headquarters office started offering race accessories for the riders to purchase. “That morphed into, ‘When are you going to carry bikes?’,” Mohn said.

As demand grew and a shop space opened up on the main street of Emporia, the Mohns and their partners opened their own bicycle shop in 2016. It is now known as Merchant Cycles.

“It’s a nice and simple name, emphasizing the type of merchandise which we offer,” Mohn said. Merchant Cycles specializes in all types of gravel cycles and related products. This has become a true specialty.

“Originally there wasn’t such a thing as a gravel bike,” Mohn said. “People were trying to use mountain bikes and cyclo-cross bikes.” As the sport of gravel racing grew, innovative companies designed bikes and tires specifically for this purpose.

“Every major (bicycle) company now has gravel bikes,” Mohn said. “There’s a lot of science to this.”

Research has led to improved technology and innovations that create smoother rides and less rolling resistance. Advanced bikes now have electronic shifters and riders can enter the race route into their Garmin devices for directions and information. “We make sure we have the best quality products in our region,” Mohn said.

Unbound Gravel has become a world-renowned gravel bicycling race attracting riders and media from across the nation and around the globe. “Because the race is world-wide, it’s easier for some participants to ship their bikes here rather than try to take them on a plane, for example,” Mohn said.

Merchant Cycles offers the service of receiving and building bikes as needed, and having them race-ready for the riders.

Merchant Cycles sells bikes plus all kinds of accessories. Bike rentals are also an option.

Of course, race week is incredibly busy. Merchant Cycles will, um, gear up for that demand. “We will have five or six high-end mechanics in the shop that week,” Mohn said.

Unbound Gravel routes take the racers hundreds of miles into the Flint Hills on rural gravel roads. “Being on a bike is the best way to enjoy nature with friends,” Mohn said.  It also takes the rider to out-of-the-way rural communities such as Cedar Point, population 22 people. Now, that’s rural.

Unbound Gravel hosts a two-day cycling expo preceding the race. There is also a four-day race training camp held in April in Emporia. Merchant Cycles offers products and services online and in-store during the cycling season.

Merchant Cycles is about more than the business of biking. “It’s about the community,” Mohn said. The company website states: “Our mission is to build community on and off the bike through outdoor exploration and adventure.”

For more information, see www.merchantcycles.com.

When the professional bicycling team members from Bahrain were preparing for the Unbound Gravel race and they recognized they needed specialized tires, Merchant Cycles became their source. We commend Tim Mohn and the people of Merchant Cycles for making a difference with this type of entrepreneurship.

I’m glad they are on a roll.

Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at https://www.huckboydinstitute.org/kansas-profiles. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit http://www.huckboydinstitute.org.