Two passions in one building
Photo by CHANSE WATSON From left: Dirty Treads Bike & Coffee House owners Dave Seamons, Ashley Wieser and Mike Wieser smile for the camera on opening day of their new business in Uptown Kellogg.
Mike Wieser tinkers with a bike while Ashley speaks to a representative from Doma Coffee. The unique business prides itself on offering both services under one roof.
Ashley Wieser steams milk for an order on opening day. The shop also offers teas and small baked goods.
By CHANSE WATSON
Managing Editor
KELLOGG — It’s not everyday that someone turns their interests into a legitimate business. Most people’s favorite hobbies are kept separate from their jobs with those two worlds never really converging.
When it comes to the trio of owners of Kellogg’s newest bike repair and coffee shop though, they have not only opened a business based on one of their interests — they’ve done it with two.
On Tuesday, Dirty Treads Bike & Coffee House opened its doors and received a warm welcome from the community. In addition to simply buying coffee or getting bike repairs, patrons also brought flowers to the shop to commemorate the big day.
Owners Mike and Ashley Wieser, and Dave Seamons were overwhelmed with the kindness and were happy with the crowd that was coming in.
“Opening day was good and consistent,” Ashley said. “We had locals and people from all over the place come in.”
Separate, a coffee shop and a bike repair shop aren’t all that original ideas, especially considering that these types of businesses already exist in the Silver Valley. Coffee and bikes under one roof though is a different story.
Ashley explains that the idea for Dirty Treads came about when the three were riding a chair lift at Mount Hood for the purpose of practicing for an upcoming mountain bike race. After some further discussion, it was decided that the trio wanted to open a business that combined their two favorite hobbies — Mountain biking and drinking coffee.
In July 2018, all three moved from their longtime homes in Boise to Kellogg in campers with the goal of making their business dreams a reality. Ashley said that the group was drawn to Kellogg because of its mountain biking opportunities and its small-town vibe.
“I don’t drive a car here,” Seamons said. “I either ride my bike, walk or ride the gondola pretty much everywhere I need to go.”
“We love Kellogg. All we like to do is ride bikes,” Ashley said. “My favorite part of Kellogg is that there is not one stop light.”
On the bike repair side of things, Mike and Seamons have almost 50 years of bike repair service between them.
Mike started working on bikes when he was 15 and has managed two bike shops in the Boise area. Between working on them and riding them competitively, he certainly knows a lot about the product.
“Having to take care of my own bikes and get the best performance out of them I can for racing made me really good at fixing suspension, dialing breaks and fixing wheels because you break all those things all the time.”
Seamons has just as much experience and currently owns a second Boise bike shop in addition to Dirty Treads.
“We’ve been in the industry for the evolution of the mountain bike and that type of knowledge is rare,” he said. “It’d be a shame for either of us to work outside the bike industry. I feel like it would be a disservice to the public. We change the world one bike at a time.”
Dirty Treads accepts all bikes for service, but they specialize in mountain bikes.
On the coffee side of things, Dirty Treads offers drinks made with Doma brand coffee with the intention of giving customers a more classic beverage experience.
“Satisfy all your caffeine needs in a very coffee original type of way,” Ashley said. “We’re not doing a lot of flavoring, it’s really back to the roots of coffee and tea. We want you to taste the coffee in the drink.”
Ashley chose Doma based on her experiences with it at other establishments and how she saw other baristas pull the coffee. Once it was chosen, Doma assisted the group in looking at the building and giving advice on how to install the espresso machine.
“It was the only coffee company I went after. There wasn’t another one in mind,” she said.
The small shop also carries different flavors of tea and small coffee shop snacks. Patrons can take their items to go or settle down in the modern-style shop’s cozy front seating area or back patio.
“What we tried to create here is a big city type of shop, but in Kellogg,” Ashley said. “We weren’t really going for the kind of rustic, what Kellogg is kind of about. We really wanted to draw in the young people with the big city vibe of the place.”
Going forward, the trio are hoping to hold bike and bike part demos to showcase certain products. Seamons said that they take pride in the fact that they are knowledgeable about their products and do not take any job lightly.
“When we put a wrench on a bike, we’re putting that customer’s life in our hands. It’s not a game, it’s not a toy — it’s very serious.”
They hope one day that Dirty Treads will become so successful that one of their stores will pop up in resorts across the country.
Dirty Treads Bike & Coffee House is located at 121 1/2 McKinley Ave. in uptown Kellogg. The store can be reached by phone at 208-783-1356.
For more information, visit its Facebook page.