Dan Cruikshank grew up riding his bicycle around the Twin Cities and pedaled his way to college.

After founding an outdoors business in Two Harbors with his friend Jeff Knight, Cruikshank is readying to open another Two-Harbors-based business.

SpokeNGear, a 3,200 square-foot retail bicycle shop, manufacturer of bicycle bags, bicycle repair facility, and coffee shop, is expected to be open by Christmas in Two Harbors.

"Everybody is really looking forward to it opening," said Cruikshank, a former owner of Granite Gear, an outdoor gear manufacturer in Two Harbors. "I can't go to the grocery store without having people ask me about it."

One of Minnesota's top tourist destinations, the North Shore offers a variety of paved and mountain bike trails.

The need for a high quality bicycle shop to serve local residents and visitors became obvious to Cruikshank, an avid bicyclist.

'We don't have a bike shop in Two Harbors," said Cruikshank. "The local people have to go to Duluth to get their bike worked on. When we moved Granite Gear here, you could stand in town and count the number of canoes go by on cars. Now, it's the same with bicycles."

The facility will manufacture custom fit, lightweight, aerodynamic bicycle bags under Cruikshank's own brand name, Cedaero.

Cedaero was chosen as the bag name because of the facility's proximity to a cedar forest and the aerodynamic nature of the bicycle bags to be manufactured.

"We're looking at next year having one or two people dedicated to sewing the bags and within three years having six to eight people sewing the bags," said Cruikshank. "We're going to start off slow and focus on the retail business first."

SpokeNGear will sell several different brands of bicycles, accessories, and offer repair services.

"Bicycling is a great activity for people who want to get outside and be active and it's not too hard on joints" said Cruikshank. "We are going to carry a full line of bikes to cater to people who are casual riders and to people who are experienced riders. There's whole new categories of bicycles emerging such as gravel bikes made for riding on gravel roads. I live on a gravel road and it's really fun to go for a ride on these new gravel bikes."

The coffee shop is also expected to be an attraction and social gathering place.

"A lot of people want a bike shop in town, but when I tell them we're going to have the real good coffee, the espresso, they say 'I'll be there every morning'."

With success of the bicycle bag manufacturing, Cruikshank said he hopes in the future to be able to construct a separate manufacturing facility.

Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB) provided a grant to the City of Two Harbors for site development and infrastructure for the project.

Pictured above are: Bob Palmquist, ARDC and the Northspan Group; Joe Radinovich, IRRRB; John Elden, Northland Foundation; Randy Bolen, Mayor; Dan Cruikshank, Developer; Terry Stein, MN Business Finance Corporation; Brad Roden, National Bank of Commerce; and Miranda Pietila, City of Two Harbors.