You get more than bike service from Velo’s retro 1969 VW bus. A friendly smile and a cold one if that is what’s needed to make it right with the world at the moment.
Michelle Schmiedeler, co-owner of Velo Garage & Tap House, is passionate about bikes, cycling and the bike community in which she calls her friends.
Michelle Schmiedeler, co-owner, Velo Garage and Tap House (North Kansas City, MO)
Like most cyclists, Michelle Schmiedeler of North Kansas City has harbored a passion for cycling since she was a young girl who hit the road to explore the world around her. “It has been a lifelong passion,” she says. “I fell in love with the feeling of wind in my hair, because bike helmets weren’t very popular. Cycling gave me the freedom to see parts of the city and the country that I’d never seen before.” As an adult, Schmiedeler worked in corporate public relations for more than a decade -- until one day when she stopped into a local tap house for a beer on the way home from work. It was there that she met Kiley Sutter, the man familiar to North Kansas Citians for being the guy with the powder blue 1969 VW bus, which he had fashioned into a mobile bicycle repair shop, complete with beer taps. After all, what better way to finish off a long ride than with a cold brew? Schmiedeler and Sutter chatted about Sutter’s tap house and the adjacent Velo Garage and Bicycle Shop. Soon, Sutter learned that Schmiedeler’s interest in the shop wasn’t just a passing one. She had worked as a bike shop manager for years and had plans to open her own shop upon retirement from the corporate world. Throughout her conversation with Sutter,
Schmiedeler realized that day likely would arrive much sooner than she expected. “I told Kiley, ‘If you are ever interested in having the Velo Garage and Bicycle Shop as a whole brand (with the tap house), I’d love to do that for you,” Schmiedeler recalls. “He called me the next day and said, ‘Are you serious?’ I said, ‘I could be!’” Schmiedeler bought the tap house side, and the two worked for the next several months to bring the bicycle shop and tap house under the same brand. Velo Garage and Tap House opened in September 2017. One thing, of course, didn’t change – the VW bus remains parked in front of the building, ready to canvas the area for repairs to be made and thirsts to be quenched. The bike shop includes a repair area settled behind the shop’s main show room, where bicycles with shined chrome stand at attention around the room’s perimeter. It’s a beautiful sight, Schmiedeler says, adding that the shop itself is quite unique. “We don’t sell road bikes. That’s not our focus,” she explains. “We focus on what we love to ride here at the shop. We don’t sell what we’re not passionate about. And we’re the only shop in town that does consignment bikes.” When you’re finished shopping or riding, the tap house offers a place to enjoy a beer, play
a game of darts, and chat with like-minded hobbyists. It’s that community of hobbyists – friends really – that Schmiedeler enjoys the most about the business she shares with Sutter. “What Kiley and I have done is built a community around cycling that is very welcoming, because we don’t have that competitive sense in our shop. We have a really diverse crowd that rides together,” Schmiedeler says. We have so much fun, and everyone gets along. We don’t leave anybody behind. We’ve created a community in that.” The shop’s busy season runs from April to August, and customers who need work done on their bikes mostly come for tune-ups, Schmiedeler adds. However, whether it’s fall or summer, spring or winter, Schmiedeler notes that one can take enjoyment from biking in any season. “Around here, we believe in riding 365 days a year,” she says, “and we’re trying to convince people that riding in the winter is actually quite enjoyable.” And the most enjoyable part? “Cycling is the freedom and the things you can see that you never can from a car or a plane,” Schmiedeler says. “Once you get out on the roads and the trails, it’s a bit like being a kid again. It’s really the beauty of the world around us.”
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