History

“The Republic was built by the people for the people and I am lucky to have the honor of being in charge of the show.”- A.H. on his blog.

Republic Bicycles, as many other business, was the result of a vision, a goal and a dream of a man. The vision that one can work with what he loves and talk about it all day, everyday; The goal not to differ from the relaxed atmosphere that bike shops can have but to broaden it by being friendly and accessible to all, well-adjusted and misfits alike; And the dream to actually make a living out of it.

Armand Hurford, Republic’s founder, like many of us, discovered bicycles in his early childhood and by the age of 8 started racing BMX in a non-commital manner. In Armand’s second time around 5th grade, his teacher Mrs. Cauliford at Brackendale Elementary gave him an Apolo road bike so he could compete in a duathlon and perhaps pay more attention in class (it worked, he never failed a grade again!).

It’s pretty obvious to assume what happened then… He fell in love with all the things bicycle! In all its modalities!

Hurford raced for Brackendale Secondary Mountain Bicycle Team and was soon working in the bicycle industry when he started to envision having a bicycle shop of his own. In around 15 years Armand had done about it all in the industry: riding, selling, fixing, UBI, promoting, sponsoring, sweeping floors, sand-bagging, building trails and generally just having fun. The Idea of his own bike shop grew stronger and stronger, it had to be somewhere in his home country, the Republic of Brackendale. They say “Luck is opportunity meeting preparation” and Armand was ready. …

…So in the Spring of 2007 , Republic Bicycles was established in its first location; the back of a charming little barn that had to be renovated by 3 generation of the Hurford family, before it could become Republic’s cozy first home.

The shop grew and needed help. As in life, some people passed by and some stayed. Several people helped to build, improve and consolidate the original idea. Amongst these people, Kelly Servinski came to shake it all around. First as mostly a service shop, Republic needed Kelly, a passionate, enthusiastic , and knowledgeable sales person, Kelly offered many years of bike shop experience as a consumer and shop guy, as well as his MANY years as a savage stage racer to the service of the Republic. Servinski is a faithful ally and without his many, MANY, MANY strategy rants with Hurford, Republic couldn’t be where it is now.

Eventually, Republic Bicycles had customers and service enough to demand from Armand several late shifts of servicing bikes. Finally, the opportunity came that a great customer, Richard Dietel, used to wrench on bikes was going to UBI and was interested in enlisting for the Battalion. That was enough motivation to double the wrenching capacity in the little barn. Now Republic had TWO WORKING STATIONS! And we rejoiced! Big Rich is an extremely reliable, friendly, self-motivated, who is a key person and trusted blindly. With the service department, as well as the sales and customers growing, the little barn became too small to be the Republic Bicycles’ headquarters and stayed that way for a while, until again, Luck crossed Hurford’s way.

In August 2010, Armand had the opportunity to make a move South, to downtown Brackendale, and it was a hard decision. Sure business could be better, but could the atmosphere of the Republic be recaptured in a commercial village? And could the since-we-can-remember-grocery-store look like the Republic headquarters with little to no budget?

The decision was made and papers were signed and still no answer was given. It wasn’t until the crew was in the new building looking around sketching ideas and debating affordable ways to do it, that a solution started to present itself. The community, the friends, the customers, the allies, started volunteering their time and their materials to build this new and improved idea of a bike shop. ( Click here to read Armand’s thoughts on the whole process)