Owner Experience - Cortland Bike Co

Bicycle Mechanic Professional Resume

Michael Bennett
Cortland Bike Co. LLC | Cortland, NY | 607-250-SHOP | cortlandbike.com

Professional Summary

Nearly three decades of bicycle industry experience spanning independent shop ownership, high-level suspension work, backcountry guiding, and content creation across some of North America’s most respected cycling destinations. From the desert trails of Phoenix to the mountains of Whistler, BC. UBI-trained suspension and brake specialist with a passion for community-driven cycling culture and precision mechanical service across all disciplines.

Experience

Cortland Bike Co. LLC — Cortland, NY Owner/Operator | 2026–Present Independent bicycle service, sales, and community shop serving Cortland County and the Central New York cycling community. Authorized mobile service provider. Specializing in service and repair across all disciplines with a focus on building the local riding community.

Crows Feet: A Mountain Collective (now Between Evergreens) — Bend, OR Staff Mechanic | 2021–2023 Full-service bicycle and ski shop. Mechanical service across all bike disciplines and ski equipment.

Pine Mountain Sports — Bend, OR Level 3 Mechanic / Suspension Specialist | 2015–2020 Senior mechanical role with advanced suspension service on forks and rear shocks. Completed formal training at United Bicycle Institute (UBI) in suspension systems and brake service. Full overhaul, wheel building, and precision diagnostic work across road, mountain, and gravel platforms.

Webcyclery — Bend, OR Mechanic & Sales | 2012–2015 Full-service mechanical work and customer-facing sales at one of the Pacific Northwest’s leading independent bicycle retailers.

Arbutus Routes — Whistler, British Columbia Mechanic & Content Creator | 2005–2010 Bicycle mechanical service and content creation in one of the world’s premier mountain biking destinations.

Coast Mountain Guides — Whistler, British Columbia Backcountry Ski Guide & Content Creator | 2005–2012 Professional backcountry ski guiding in the Coast Mountains. Wilderness First Aid trained. AST Level 2 avalanche safety training. Content creation for outdoor industry clients.

Cactus Bike — Phoenix, AZ Owner/Operator | 2001–2008 Founded and operated independent bicycle shop in the Phoenix market. Full-service sales, repair, and community programming across desert trail and road disciplines.

The Bikery — Baldwinsville, NY Shop Grom & Race Team | 1995–1996 Early formative experience in bicycle retail and racing. Where it all started.

Training & Certifications

United Bicycle Institute (UBI) — Suspension Systems & Brake Service

Wilderness First Aid — trained | AST Level 2 Avalanche Safety — trained | Cycling Coach — trained

Skills

More about Michael Bennett

A UBI-trained suspension and brake specialist, former shop owner, and lifelong rider across most disciplines, Michael brings professional-level mechanical expertise and genuine passion to every bike that comes through the door. He grew up in Cato, NY, raced the Norba mountain bike circuit as a teenager, founded and operated Cactus Bike in Phoenix, turned wrenches at Pine Mountain Sports in Bend as a Level 3 suspension specialist, and spent years in Whistler at the heart of the global mountain bike scene.

Now back in Central New York, Michael is opening Cortland Bike Co. to fill a real void in the community he grew up in — a service-first, community-driven shop built on the belief that every rider deserves expert care, honest advice, and someone who loves bikes as much as they do.

[ If you’re REALLY that interested continue to Read Michael’s Full Story below…forewarned its a bit of a novel!]

Michael’s Full Story

Growing Up in Rural New York

I grew up in upstate New York, in the farmlands and woods of a little town called Cato — just shy of Lake Ontario, thirty minutes northwest of Syracuse. A very rural place with hot, muggy summers and plenty of lake-effect snow in the winter. We would cross country ski around the “neighborhood” and alpine ski at Labrador and Greek peak.

My family had about twenty acres, a mix of cornfields and thick deciduous forest full of maples, apple trees, ash swamps, and frogs. I spent much of my youth exploring every inch of it. My favorite thing in the world, besides riding my bike, was hopping on my dirt bike, three-wheeler, or go-kart on the muddiest day of the year and going out for a ride. I’d put on my worst clothes and hit every puddle and mud pit I could find.

The First Bikes

My first bike was a cruiser — an old red single-speed with 20-inch wheels that I learned to ride in my backyard at age five. Then came a pretty sweet BMX bike with a coaster brake and hand brake. For my seventh or eighth birthday, my parents got me an analog speedometer, and I rode back and forth in front of our house pretty much all day long, seeing how many miles I could put on it. At the end of the day, the grand total was 25. I was so excited.

Then around 1988 or 1989, I discovered mountain bikes. I’d save and hoard every Bike Nashbar and Performance catalog, check out Bicycling magazines from the library, and dream of the day I could have a GT. One weekend, my dad took me to the local bike shop — DeWitt Sports — and we came home with two beautiful new chrome steel Diamondbacks. His was a red Apex road bike with Ultegra 600 components. Mine was a white GT Topanga with Exage 100GS componentry.

I rode that bike for a few seasons and then traded it to my best friend Jed Sheckler for a Bridgestone touring bike. I soon missed mountain biking — Jed had really found his calling on the trail and was absolutely tearing it up — so I bought a GT Tequesta from my brother’s best friend Terry and started my mountain bike addiction. I upgraded it with full Deore DX components, installed with help from my dad’s friend Jean Capaletti in his basement, along with some Onza bar ends and Onza clipless pedals.

Racing and The Bikery

I quickly decided I needed a lighter bike. I sold the Tequesta to my girlfriend and, with some saved money, my parents took me to The Bikery in Baldwinsville, where I picked out a new Cannondale Killer V 900. It was light, stiff, and I felt very fast on it. I soon caught the upgrade bug again and installed a Manitou 2 suspension fork, Ringlé components, and some first-edition V-brakes. We took it to Oswego and raced the Fallbrook Mountain Bike Race. I got second place in my division against a bunch of Oswego State College kids, and I was only in 11th grade. I won some tires and couldn’t have been happier.

My art teacher was really into cycling and encouraged us every step of the way. He thought I should get another new bike — and that he should buy my Cannondale :). So I convinced my parents to go back to The Bikery, and I found a Trek 9700 carbon fiber race machine. I’d been working at the local IGA and had saved about half the money. Graduation was six months away, and my parents said the other half would be my graduation gift. I was elated.

That year, Jed and I drove to quite a few races around the East Coast, doing the NORBA series together. The highlight was skipping our senior prom to race the 24 Hours of Canaan in West Virginia. Jed worked at The Bikery and I was a part-time shop grom, and they gave us jerseys and riding shorts. We trained at Great Bear with NightRider lights, huge heavy water bottle battery packs stuffed into our bottle cages, riding around in the dark getting ready for our first 24-hour race.

We got there as a team of four — Jed, myself, Steve Whitehead, and one of the Oswego State guys. The race started, and wouldn’t you know it: Jed Sheckler came around the first lap in second place, right behind John Stamstad. I was up next and had the ride of my life ripping the downhills at Canaan, West Virginia — unlike anything I’d ridden before. On one of my night laps, I broke a chain link and had to run almost the entire lap with my bike on my shoulder. But I don’t think I lost a place, because we’d been training for our high school cross country season and were in peak shape. We ended up crushing it. I did fall asleep in the tent after one of the college guys handed me a beer — I think I missed a few laps.

We drove home in Jed’s Toyota Celica blasting Violent Femmes on the radio to keep me awake while Jed slept the entire way. I drove straight through, and that trip was the first time I realized road tripping was my one God-given ability.

Arizona and the Birth of Cactus Bike

After high school I attended college at OCC and Buffalo State, and around the turn of the century I moved to Arizona. I fell in love with mountain biking all over again and turned my Trek 9700 carbon fiber race bike into a single speed. Was it ever fun. My roommates and I (we called ourselves Team 1269, after our address at 1269 E. Campus Drive in Tempe: Coach, Doc, Boy, and myself, Monkey haha silly kids!) We became obsessed with building up older steel mountain bikes into single-speed South Mountain smashers.

While working an office job one day, I discovered a company called freeridetours.com. They offered eight-day freeride mountain bike vacations to British Columbia, all-inclusive for $800. I booked a trip immediately. That trip changed my life and the direction I was heading, and I kept going back for years.

A few of us started a freeride and downhill mountain bike race team called the Saguaro Soul Riders. We traveled to events, got deeply involved in trail work and trail building, and some of us even went to Virgin, Utah to ride and compete at the Red Bull Rampage in 2001 and 2002. I still have photos of us hitting twenty-plus-foot drops in the Utah desert, and they still amaze me — we were riding that kind of terrain when freeriding was in its infancy.

After getting back from that first BC trip, I convinced one of the owners of the tech company I worked for to help me start a bike shop and tour guiding company. We opened Cactus Bike and Cactus Adventure in 2001, finding a small industrial space as close to South Mountain as we could get and starting with repairs, tours, and rentals. Eventually we expanded to a bigger retail space in Chandler, Arizona, and opened a seasonal store in a high-end mall where we’d sell around 600 bikes — mainly Electra Beach Cruisers and Haro kids’ bikes — in a three-month window around Christmas.

Eventually the shop outgrew what I’d envisioned for it. I sold my half of the business to my partner in 2005 and pointed the Diesel Suburban north.

Whistler Years

I moved to Whistler, British Columbia, where I rode the bike park close to a hundred days per summer for several years and skied as much as I could in the winter. I started Lifestyle Creative, a design and marketing firm catering to bike shops and outdoor brands. My best clients were my best friends. In the winter I worked with Coast Mountain Guides, creating their websites and photo and video content. In the summer I helped Arbutus Routes do the same. Great times, so many memories, and friendships built that have lasted ever since.

Bend, Oregon

In 2012 I headed back to the States — to Bend, Oregon, where my old teammate Boy was living. I rebuilt my life there after so many years abroad. I became a committed bike commuter and got deeply into bike touring, bikepacking and adventure motorcycle riding. Over the next several years I rode from British Columbia to Mexico, covering the Washington, Arizona, and Oregon Backcountry Discovery Routes and riding hard enduro single track across Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Montana. This love of adventure touring on bicycles and motorcycles kept me thoroughly captivated for about a decade.

During this time I worked at Webcyclery and later at Pine Mountain Sports, where I served as a Level 3 mechanic and suspension specialist where I completed formal training at the United Bicycle Institute in suspension systems and brake service. I later worked at Crows Feet: A Mountain Collective (now Between Evergreens), a combined bike and ski shop that felt a lot like the kind of place I’d always wanted to work.

Coming Home

In 2024, I moved back to the small upstate New York town where I grew up, to spend time with my 80-year-old father and build a simpler life outside of the boomtowns of the West. I spend my winters ski instructing at Greek Peak, skiing the cross-country trails at Tuller Hill, and heading into the backcountry with my dog Charlie. In the summers I’m riding and exploring every inch of New York I can find with a trail on it. It’s amazing being back and seeing how much mountain biking has grown here. In the 1990s, we basically had only Highland Forest and Great Bear.

Cortland Bike Co.

That brings us to spring of 2026. There is no bike shop in Cortland, and that’s a shame. Such a great little city with a university, a mountain bike park seven miles up the road, easy access to multiple State Forests and a cycling community that deserves a real home base.

I’ll be filling that void with Cortland Bike Co. I hope the knowledge I’ve built over several decades in the saddle and behind the bench can bring something to Cortland that it’s currently lacking. I’m excited to serve this community, help grow cycling in Cortland County, and be part of what comes next.

See you at the shop.

— Michael Bennett