Chocolate Spokes

TO MEET · 07/23/2013

Chocolate Spokes

Need a quick bike tune up? Chocolate Spokes can help. Want to build a custom bike from the ground up? They’ll do that for you too. “No matter what kind of bike you come in with, you’ll be treated with the same kind of respect,” owner Gregory Crichlow explained to us.

That mentality is represented by his daily attire—a button down shirt accompanied by a bow tie. With a background in architecture, Gregory considers his tie just part of his uniform. It’s also wore in homage to his grandfather, who worked as a draftsman in New York—he’d go into work, roll up his sleeves, and write up plans all day.

“It also gives a different feel to the shop, by instilling the idea of dressing up for work,” he told us.

After a few years spent working in architecture and the economy took a turn, his wife encouraged him to sign up for mechanics school and classes in frame building. “It was always sort of…someday that could happen,” he said of the business.

With enough skills under his belt, he decided to take the leap and opened his cozy 375 sq. foot space in Denver’s Five Points district.

For Gregory and his family, cycling is integrated into their day to day lives—they simply don’t own a car. “My kids are four and eight and they ride everywhere. They don’t see their bikes as toys anymore,” he told us.

In addition to all of the bike work, Gregory offers a thoughtfully selected assortment of chocolate bars (hence the name of the shop). “They’re all bean to bar,” he explained to us. This sourcing and making process is much like his own process of building bikes—from the ground up.

He carries a couple of local varieties, bars from Ritual and Dead Dog, and all others are from US-based companies. We immediately spotted a couple that we had seen in other cities—Raaka from Brooklyn, near our home base in the city, and Dandelion from San Francisco.