Broken Heart Cycling

From bike lanes to biking trails, Crawfordsville, Indiana accommodates for the avid cyclists. Perhaps one of the best features that the city of Crawfordsville has to offer to cyclists is the shop called Broken Heart cycling. The owners are Dave and his wife Jennifer Meadows. With Jennifer managing the paperwork and Dave taking care of the customers and making repairs on any damage to the bikes.

Recently, Dave and Jennifer have set up shop in the building where Heathcliff used to be. Funnily enough, Jennifer’s mother, Ruby, owned and operated Heathcliff for many years. So, to Jennifer the building means a lot to her. For Dave, being a Crawfordsville native, setting up a store in Crawfordsville felt like coming back home.

For most of his life Dave has been an active person and interested in fitness. From competing in canoe racing to wrestling in high school, Dave has loved to be involved in some sort of sport. Unfortunately, Dave had a major injury in high school that would force him to back away from higher impact sports. This is when he turned to running and then cycling.

Dave says that “Cycling is a life sport”, even cycling 30 miles before we started our interview with him at 10:30 AM. One of the reasons why cycling is so important to him is because he can ride every day and control the intensity of his workouts, this allows him to have a safe reliable way of staying fit.

In the early 90’s Dave worked for a bike shop called Hodson’s Bay Company in West Lafayette, Indiana. Where his knowledge of repairing and experience of different bikes quickly made him the manager of the store. After a few years with the store, he felt like he needed a change of pace. Wanting to work closer to home, Dave picked up the role of investigating child maltreatment and policing at the prosecutor’s office. Then, in 2018 Dave saw that Hodson’s Bay Company location in West Lafayette was looking for a new owner. Dave, cycling almost every day, felt like owning Hodson’s Bay Company would be a worthy venture.

With Dave’s passion for bikes and his warm, welcoming nature, he was a natural leader upon the start of his ownership. In proximity to Purdue’s main campus, Dave would get a lot of Purdue students stopping in and wanting a bike to get to class. Observing and listening to the Purdue Students that came in to get a bike, Dave learned that many of his customers were international students and had a difficult time acclimating to life in the United States. Dave knew how daunting and isolating it can be in a new place. He wanted to create a welcoming tone at Hodson’s Bay and setup couches for anyone who simply needed a place to hang out. He has continued that tone in the new shop with his “Comfy Corner” located just inside the door.

Today, Dave has lived in Crawfordsville for all but 8 years of his life and he wouldn’t have it any other way. When coming up with the name of the new store in Crawfordsville Dave wanted to put his own spin on not only the name but the shop. Dave and his son Kaleb have both struggled with heart issues. Both requiring several surgeries. Dave came up with the name of Broken Heart Cycling as a nod to this.

Moving to Crawfordsville also gave Dave the opportunity to work with Kaleb. Where it allows Kaleb to help Dave around the shop, and he can take a break whenever he needs it. Having a family and community focus is extremely important to Dave. As he doesn’t want the Broken Heart Cycling to only be for avid or competitive cyclists. Some of Dave’s most memorable sales is finding the perfect tricycle for a young lady with down syndrome and modifying a bicycle for a man with Parkison's Disease.

Dave is also incredibly grateful that the community of Crawfordsville has welcomed him with opened arms. When people come into Dave’s store he always loves chatting with new or familiar faces. Even if a person visits just to say hello, he always enjoys the person’s company. Helping and providing to the community of Crawfordsville is what Dave enjoys most about owning Broken Heart Cycling.

The collection of bikes that Dave has is from a brand called Specialized and those bikes can range from $300 to $20,000. Dave also is displaying and promoting Stradalli bikes, a line of bikes that Rob & Cole Hudson, previous owner of Rotten Robbie’s bike shop, owns. Along with bikes, Dave has accessories, repair kits, and replacement parts for your cycling needs. Dave is excited to serve in the small but vibrant downtown community of Crawfordsville and the loyal customers from Lafayette. Stop in and say “hi” to Dave from 10 AM to 6 PM every day except for Sundays and Mondays.

Broken Heart Cycling is located at 101 N Washington St.

Hours: Tuesday - Saturday: 10 am to 6 pm

Phone: (765) 323-3099