Matt (Rocky River) Complete Bio

Learning how to ride a bike was not a priority when I was a kid. I had no use for a bike. I hated bikes, or at least I thought they hated me. I felt like Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes, convinced that my bike was trying to attack me. In fact, I didn't learn how to ride one until I was 9 years old. Six years later, I stumbled into my first job at a bike shop in Rocky River.  I was hooked and bikes became a passion.

I spent about 10 years working for the previous two owners of the bike shop that would eventually become Century Cycles in Rocky River. I worked through high school, on breaks during college, full time after college, and any other possible way a job could be classified. In 1998 I joined Century Cycles. Although the joke is that I came with the building, there's some truth to that! Even while I had full-time corporate jobs over the years, Scott allowed me to keep my fingers in the industry and work on the weekends.

In 2000, I helped a customer who three years later would become my wife. I continued to work for CC as a "paying hobby" outside of my full-time job. There came a point where family time with our two children was more important and I stepped away from the bike business for a bit. I then worked part-time and full-time stints between corporate careers. In 2017 an opportunity was presented to come back to Century Cycles full-time and I took it.

I'm thankful to be a part of the CC family for as long as I have been. I get to play with bikes all day alongside some really fun people, help kids find their first real bike, and adults find their 12th - it's hard to beat that! Bikes have been a part of my life for a long time and they're also a part of my family's life.

Just remember - you can never have too many bikes!

Bike Bucket List: Another RAGBRAI with my wife and friends; Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal Trail from Pittsburgh to DC; unsupported ride across the US (route TBD); some long distance mountain bike rides (Great Divide maybe?); UP of Michigan and some others I'll think of!