“I am the business side of things, while Kevin is the visionary,” explains Ira Kargel, co-owner of GEARS. She refers to him as such since a personal tragedy in Kevin Wallace’s life led to his opening a bike shop which, decades later, is now the flourishing GEARS.
When he was still in school, Kevin’s father passed away and he felt he had to make a decision to stay in school or go out into the world and contribute to the family. With guts and enthusiasm, Kevin opened his bike repair store. And now it's a thriving centre for the cycling community.
GEARS offers a range of every type of bike imaginable, bike building, repairs and bike maintenance as well. “I became close friends with Kevin in high school,” recalls Ira. “He had been through a lot of tough times. His dad had died, his mother was ill and his brother was also struggling.”
Ira started to take over from Kevin’s mom on the business side of things at GEARS and was about to take a further course at university when she had to make the decision to stay in business or carry on with her education. “I love business. There’s just something about someone giving you their money for something that I got a kick out of,” she says. “So I decided to stay with the store.”
