Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
When Greenbrier Bikes opened in Marlinton in May 2021, it was sharing a storefront with Alison Pottery, owned and operated by Alison Safrit. In 2023, the pottery and art studio moved to its current location in Rivertown and Greenbrier Bikes took advantage of the extra space.
But it just wasn’t enough space for what owner Scott Guyette had in mind. The business was getting too big for its building on Ninth Street. Fortunately, Lucy’s Grocery and Moore was up for auction.
Guyette was able to purchase the building and Greenbrier Bikes has taken up residence in the former grocery store.
“There was less than fifteen hundred square feet in the other building and, this is over six thousand,” Guyette said of the move.
As he puts it, the stars aligned and Guyette couldn’t pass up the opportunity. The fact that he needed more space and the building is parallel to the future site of a trailhead seemed like the perfect match.
“The fact that this building was available; the fact that we could move quickly enough to obtain it; and the influence of having more infrastructure across the road – it just happened,” he said.
The shop is well-stocked with mountain and trail bikes, electric bikes, accessories and a bike repair shop.
“A third of what you see is rental bikes and then the rest are retail,” Guyette said. “That whole wing over there is just repairs waiting to get picked up or worked on.”
With an emphasis on mountain biking and trail systems coming to the forefront in Pocahontas County tourism, Greenbrier Bikes has flourished and gained a large clientele of both local and out-of-state enthusiasts – especially those in need of repairs to their bikes.
“We’ve gotten pretty proficient at being quick,” Guyette said. “We hear from out-of-towners all the time that if you’re in Richmond and you needed a full tune up, it might be two or three weeks before you get your bike back. We’re usually two or three days.
“We’ve actually had people come from Richmond to get a tune up and go back,” he added.
Most rental bikes at the shop are for the Greenbrier River Trail and not off-road use. That is until the Monday Lick Trail System opened in May. Guyette said he has had an influx of calls from people who have heard of the trail system and want to give it a go.
“People have been calling us and asking, ‘when can we ride,’ ‘how do we get there’ and with the opening of it in May, it’s even more,” he said. “We’re getting two to three phone calls a day of ‘how do we get there,’ ‘do you have maps,’ ‘can you show us around,’ ‘are shuttles available.’
“It’s good to see,” he continued. “It’s a whole new line of business. We have Snowshoe and the river trail and now Monday Lick is the third. It kind of fills the gap between the river trail rider and the true downhill guy. Monday Lick is pretty accessible to anybody who has off-road experience.”
In addition to mountain bikes and trail bikes, Greenbrier Bikes has electric bikes that give riders a little extra punch when they ride. When the business first started renting e-bikes, Guyette said the ratio was 60/40 regular to electric, with it skewing to 40/60 the next year.
Now there seems to be a nice 50/50 split between regular and electric bike rentals.
“A lot of people don’t need or want electric, and a lot of people wouldn’t get on the trail without electric, so it’s kind of a mixed bag,” he said. “We see a lot of people who go on the twenty-mile round trip ride up to the Sharp’s tunnel and back that would have never been able to do that on a regular bike, so it opens up the trail.
“It opens up the ability to see more of the trail,” he continued. “And they’re just super fun. That’s one of the most fun ways to ride a bike.”
All the e-bikes at Greenbrier Bikes are considered Class 1, which means there is no throttle. The bike is propelled by peddling, but it can go further with less effort.
There are also specialty bikes for challenged athletes who don’t have their own.
“The hand cycle is owned by the Challenged Athletes of West Virginia at Snowshoe,” Guyette said. “We keep it and maintain it, and have it ready.”
Greenbrier Bikes also has access to a rickshaw bike for special needs individuals who can’t propel themselves on their own bike or a tandem bike. Instead, with the rickshaw, they can relax in the seat as someone else peddles the bike.
“We have a pretty good focus of getting people of all walks of life to be able to be on the trail,” Guyette said.
This year, Greenbrier Bikes has added a shuttle service that will be familiar to some. Guyette purchased Greenbrier River Shuttles from business founders Amelia Rose and Erin Poliziani.
Now that space is not an issue, Guyette said he is focused on continuing to offer great service to both local and visiting bikers who have a love for the trail systems in Pocahontas County.
He said work on the building will continue as the business settles in and he has plans for a mural to spruce up the exterior of the facility.
Summer hours for Greenbrier Bikes Mondays through Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The rest of the year, the shop is open Tuesday through Saturday.
Greenbrier Bikes is now located 916 Third Avenue.
The phone number is 304-591-7021.
For more information, visit greenbrierbikes.com
