From right, BR Bikes and Repairs co-owners Theresa Dobbs and Bernabe Romero Santos wait on Carlos Cuellar at their shop in Urbana. URBANA — For Bernabe Romero Santos, there’s something special about fixing up an old bicycle. To him, it’s more than just working with gears and chains; it’s giving the discarded machinery “a new life.”
Santos has harbored a love of bike repair since his childhood in Mexico, where he would build bikes from parts he found in dumpsters.
He moved to the U.S. when he was about 14. When it came time for him to enter the workforce, he didn’t go into bike repair but was instead a restaurant worker.
However, he would ride his bicycle to work and began to turn his old passion into a side hustle, buying used bikes from thrift shops and fixing them up to resell online.
Santos was mostly doing it for fun, until the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“One day I came to work, and there were signs up. They were saying, ‘Oh, tomorrow’s the last day,’” he recalled.
“It was the first time he was hearing about it,” said his wife, Theresa Dobbs.Faced with the question of what to do next, Santos did what he always does: He built something new with the resources around him.Santos and Dobbs opened BR Bikes and Repairs in late 2020, initially running the business out of their home before relocating to 303 W. Griggs St. in Urbana, also home to the Itty Bitty Bike Shop, in 2023.The couple’s business sells […]
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