Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 9, 1993 TAG: 9305100349
SECTION: DISCOVER PAGE: 25 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FORT CHISWELL LENGTH: Medium
He and his wife, Nancy, a teacher at Pulaski County High School, have opened New River Bivcycles near the entrance to the Fort Chiswell Recreational Vehicle Campground in eastern Wythe County.
They sell, rent and service bikes, and offer shuttle and guide service for bikers to various points along the New River Trail.
With another company, Tangent Outfitters, they plan to offer canoe trips and rental along with bikes.
Lanny Sparks says his motto is "Grease is your friend."
Both 51, they came to mountain biking in recent years. They have a daughter, Blenna, 27, who teaches in Radford, and a son, Lanvny Jr., 26, now living in North Carolina.
"He's actually the one who got us started in mountain biking," Nancy said. Their son had gotten interested in it while at Virginia Tech. He and his girlfriend used to bike at New River Trail State Park, said his mother.
"We got to thinking maybe that's something old folks could do . . . and this was just a year ago."
Since then, the couple has logged more than 200 miles with their own bikes along New River Trail.
Lanny said his cholesterol has dropped drastically, thanks to his biking exercise.
"I'm convinced that the bike really helped me," he said. Nancy said it has strengthened her back muscles so she no longer suffers from low-back pain.
The bikes have benefited them economically as well.
In 1991, Lanny had been laid off from his job with an environmental consulting agency in Blacksburg. Having lived in the area for 20 years and with a home on Claytor Lake, they did not want to relocate. But jobs were hard to find in the New River Valley.
The couple wrote a book on coping with unemployment while Lanny was seeking work. After a year, they took some of their own advice and decided to find a way to boost their mental outlook.
That was when they bought their bikes.
Lanny had landed some part-time work "and I was looking for something else to do," he said. "I figure, if you want to work, it ought to be fun."
Biking was fun.
So he enrolled in the East Coast Bicycle Academy at Harrisonburg last August.
After completing a training course there, he began making contacts with suppliers and manufacturers to sell and service bicycles.
"I guess the next three months I spent on the phone, really," he said.
In January, he found out about the space at Fort Chiswell and opened his shop.
"Right off the bat, when I put my signs up, I started having guys come in who are mountain bikers," he said.
And mountain bikers are enthusiastic about their sport. Sparks knows two of them who, even during the blizzard of '93, missed only a couple of days of their daily peddling.
A 21-gear mountain bicycle sells for a midrange price of $850, Sparks said.
"You can go on up. I mean, way on up."
He receives the bikes in parts, boxed in the maximum-sized parcel that UPS will ship, he said.
"When they say `build a bicycle,' that's what you do," he said. "They tell you absolutely nothing. They expect you to know how."
Usually, he does, he said.
"But then sometimes it's like Crackerjacks: `There's a surprise in every box.' "
by CNB