South Mountain Cycle & Café on Main Street in Emmaus is not your average bike shop. It’s a full-on community. And as the name suggests, the store is home to a full-service café, inviting shoppers and guests alike to stay for a while.
Chad And Heather Balliet
Owners
Talk about the product offerings available at South Mountain Cycle & Café. What are some of the brands that you carry?
In our bike shop, we offer a wide variety of bicycles available from Liv, Giant, Momentum and Cadex. Models include hybrid, electric, gravel, racing, mountain and road bikes. We offer bikes for everyone, including bikes for your commute, ladies-specific bikes, youth rides, fitness rides and bikes for weekend adventures with your friends and families. We also have a well-stocked parts and accessories area.
How does your staff stay up to date on trends and remain knowledgeable about the store’s inventory?
We are always learning new things. Our team attends training seminars and trade shows. We love the opportunity for this hands-on training to provide a better experience for our customers.
Is there a new item, gadget or trend that you’re particularly excited about for this spring?
E is for electric! Yes, electric. Perhaps the greatest thing about an e-bike is how it enables you to extend your adventures. To travel farther and ride longer. These trekking e-bikes offer a smooth, comfortable riding experience on all types of terrain. We have e-bikes for everyone.
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Describe your bike repair and trade-in services.
We service all makes and models of bicycles, no matter where they were purchased. From a flat tire, minor adjustments and tune-ups to major overhauls, our team can handle what your bicycle repair needs are. We offer zero percent financing on our bicycle sales. We also take used bikes as a trade-in for credit towards that new bike.
What advice would you have for someone new to or interested in taking up cycling?
Do it! There are many reasons one would want to ride a bicycle: it’s fun, for fitness, it brings joy, helps your brain power, saves you money, gives you freedom, gives you a sense of community and did we mention it’s fun?
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How does your team assist various levels of cyclists, ranging from novice to expert?
With Scott Kleinschuster leading our team on the sales floor, he brings 35-plus years of experience and excellence; he has seen the passion start many times. Scott knows and understands the importance of making people feel comfortable, from that first kids’ bike in the family up to that highest level of any enthusiast.
Tell us about the initial decision to include a café in your retail location! How does it elevate the overall customer experience?
We wanted to create an experience, a community, a purpose, a place for people to gather. When we moved to the current location, we wanted to make it more comfortable, more casual, like you were in your own living room; we added a fireplace, some couches and more tables. We love when people gather here—whether it’s to talk, hang out, have meetings, sit back and relax with a latte while reading a book, meet for a ride or here just to grab a bag of coffee beans to take home. We can see the customers are happy with it by the way the tables and chairs fill up on a busy morning or on the hopping weekends here at the shop.
Describe the food and drink offerings available.
In our café, we offer a variety of our own hand-selected brands of coffee beans, specially roasted for us. If you choose to drink here, we offer alternative milks that include oat, almond and soy. We offer pastries delivered daily from Philadelphia and New York bakeries. Our café doesn’t stop with just coffee—we have a wide offering of lattes (featuring weekly drink specials), chai drinks, teas, cold brew, iced drinks, smoothies and more! We pride ourselves on offering local items too, including The Granola Factory’s Bethlehem Bars; Pure Wild Tea bottled mint iced teas from Bernville; Easton Salsa’s hot sauce, chips and salsa; Lehigh Valley Kombucha; Bucks County Biscotti; Gilda’s Biscotti and Bad Farm’s yogurt and cheese curds.
What do you love most about being based in the Lehigh Valley, specifically Emmaus?
We have fallen wheels over pedals for Emmaus. We have lived in the borough for over 15 years. We love the sense of community and support in our town. It’s truly that small-town Main Street feeling folks talk about that fuels this fire.
318 Main St., Emmaus | 610.967.4490 | southmountaincycle.com
