Joselyn’s Bicycles: Monterey Peninsula (and England) institution since 1870

April 22, 2009

The sign above the front door features a man wearing a soft-billed cap and pedaling a high wheeler, the original bicycle invented in 1870. The wooden signage is ideal for Joselyn’s Bicycles since it opened the same year. These are good times and bad times for Joselyn’s and others bicycle industry companies. For the month’s time span before, during and after the Sea Otter Classic, bike shops’ demands intensify. They meet the needs of athletes competing in the varied disciplines of cycling at the four-day festival.
Frank Pinto, a former BMX rider, has owned Joselyn’s since 1995 and his business has been part of the vendor expo during the event at Laguna Seca Recreation Area for 12 years. Pinto also worked at the event for two prior years, which further adds to his pedigree perhaps best categorized as the cycling’s equivalent of full immersion.

But like other businesses, Joselyn’s isn’t immune to economic woes. Last year, Pinto had nine employes; now he has five. In yesteryear, bike shops were prevalent on peninsula. Six remain  combined in Monterey, Carmel and Pacific Grove. Salinas his only two bike shops.

“Since last October, it’s really been difficult to keep a business running,” Pinto said Saturday during a break from working with friends in a covered double tent booth on the raceway infield. “But there’s just something about the Sea Otter. It sends a good message. There’s not a enough good news. This is very positive. I’m blessed.”

Pinto is the fourth owner of Joselyn’s. And while the shop’s name may lend itself to being owned by a woman, its long legacy dates to the family name of original owners in England. They were brothers Pete and Les Joselyn.

Pinto knows some of the store’s history, but his research efforts have been stalled by sketchy records and the deaths of former owners and their family members.

To the best of Pinto’s knowledge, the business was first opened on the peninsula in the 1940s. Prior to its current location on E. Franklin St., the business was situated on Lighthouse Ave. on the border of Monterey and Pacific Grove.

“I don’t count myself in the total of employees,” said Pinto, joined in the booth by friends, members the various teams the shop sponsors and his eight-year-old son, Joey. “But with me, it’s 10 employes. I’m about five employees.”

While Pinto helped customers, four employees were just beginning their shifts at Jocelyn’s retail location. Sean Rigmaiden and Nova Hairston worked the floor while Jason Johnson and Nick Kintz were in the backshop amid a good supply of bikes under repair.

“It’s a busy time,” said Rigmaiden. “It may not look like it right now, but people will be in all day needing stuff. With Sea Otter it’s different because you’re meeting people from all over the world. We had a group in from China. They were shooting video because they want to open a bike shop there.”

Joselyn’s employees also work at Lagua Seca periodically throughout the event where Pinto invests about $3,000 for the same location “front and center” he’s had for a decade.

As a cyclist, Pinto says he “pays homage” to the sport when time allows as much as 250 training miles per week. The exercise has helped him lose more than 30 pounds. He’s also the father of three children and supports cycling by investing about $10,000 in the sponsorship of BMX, road and mountain bike riders compete this week in the four-day cycling festival.

Joselyn’s accepts applications for rider sponsorship each year, and the store also supports monthly training rides at Laguna Seca and riders’ competitive pursuits around Northern California.

Pinto mingled with customers, joked with his son and spoke of his appreciation of the sport and the ever-changing, demanding requirements of small business ownership. When he was a boy he said a teacher asked students to write down their life goals in five-year intervals. One of Pinto’s goals was to own a bike shop.

“And here I am,” he said. “This is what I wanted to do and I’m doing it.”

Posted in Monterey Peninsula Leisure