MILWAUKEE, WI (BRAIN)—Trek Bicycle recently purchased Ray’s Indoor MTB Parks business, enabling founder Ray Petro to finalize the new Milwaukee location at the 110,000-square-foot former Menards Home Improvement Center. Petro’s Milwaukee park is scheduled to open this November.
Petro, who opened Ray’s Indoor MTB Park in Cleveland, Ohio, had been planning a second park for the past few years, but it took a partnership with Trek to pull it off.
“Trek took over the ownership of the company in May giving Ray the ability to close the deal in Milwaukee. While they provide the financial backing, Ray still steers the ship,” said Eric Schutt, general manager of Ray’s Indoor MTB Parks.
Ray’s of Milwaukee, like Ray’s of Cleveland, will provide cyclists from across the Midwest a place to ride, train and develop skills during the long winter when local trails are closed.
With Trek behind the company Schutt said they plan to expand to other indoor park locations, but he didn’t provide details on future parks.
“Having a corporate owner doesn’t mean the way the parks look or operate will change. The clubhouse feel, the built-by-bikers-for-bikers energy that drives our current model remains as it is, a part of the success of the company,” Schutt said.
As park owner Trek becomes the official bike of Ray’s Indoor MTB Parks.
Ray’s Indoor Park Milwaukee will promote its cross-country trails a bit more than at the Cleveland park. Not only is there a higher mix of cross-country riders in the Milwaukee area, but the park has not done as good a job marketing to these riders, Schutt said.
“For obvious reasons photos of freeriders doing back flips into foam pits are the most common things you see on blogs, but this public face of Ray’s misses the other kinds of riding we offer. So with Milwaukee we will be doing more to promote the cross-country options at the park,” Schutt said.
—Matt Wiebe
mwiebe@bicycleretailer.com
