About Spearhead Bicycle Excellence

Spearhead Bicycle Excellence is a one-man show starring Rob, who spins more than 23 years of experience into a wheeling series of bi-pedaled services. Rob's bicycle experience goes beyond the battle between Mountain and Road and includes work with names like Discovery Masters National Cycling Team, the University of Washington Aerodynamic Laboratory, and the San Diego Low Speed Wind tunnel.

Rob offers a wide variety of professional bicycle services without the attitude. These services include bicycle repair, bicycle consultation, bicycle assembly, bicycle fittings, as well as custom bicycle requests. Contact Rob today

Rob Spear's Bio

I got into bicycles at the age of 13 while living in Sunnyvale, California. What started out as a really boring day ended up changing my life forever. It was on a 1970's Rampar that I got my addiction to the wheels.

My first bike of my own was a Miyata 512. It had the coolest yellow and back fade job. Looked like a bee. Love that bike. I crashed it into the side of a car and then got another 512, crashed that and got the Trek 1200....I loved that bike, though I have loved all my bikes.

To keep this addiction rolling, I had to get a job. First, it was an ice cream shop, then it was Spectrum Cycles in 1987 as an assembler. In 1988 I moved to Oakley, California, and started working at The Delta Freewheeler. This is where I got my formal education working with bicycles. I worked for a guy named Chuck Pierce. Chuck was a motorhead and a bike junkie. Chuck liked everything that came from the factories to be taken apart before it was assembled for his customers. This process included the hubs, bottom brackets, headsets, and everything else, on every bike, that left his shop. I'm talking the kids bikes all the way up to the top of the line road and mountain bikes he sold. I worked there for four or five years learning how to sell and really dial in bikes. I also got my first pro bike here, a neon yellow and red Schwinn Paramount OS with full Dura Ace. So sweet.

When I got out of high school I took a winter off of bikes. I moved to Vail, Colorado and became a chair lift operator. I had chosen the year perfectly, all we got was snow, it snowed everyday. SO much fun but after a year I had to come back to Cali and start riding bikes again. When I came back I moved back to the Sunnyvale, Cupertino area.

I then started working at The Bicycle Outfitter in Los Altos, California. I sold all the bikes, especially the tandems. At the time, The Bicycle Outfitter had a rack of 14 tandems. Santanas mostly but they had a couple of Burleys and a Trek, too. I even sold a custom triple in addition too all the 40 or so tandems I sold that year. It was at the Bicycle Outfitter that I realized what a Pro Shop was and meant. A truly amazing crew. Mechanics, sales people, buyers, support staff, owner Dick Powell; it all worked. I walked away with more experience in one short year here than any other shop. I will judge all other shops against it. This shop, at this time, was where you wanted to get a bike.

I moved on and Start to Finish Bikes had arrived on the scene. There was a new store opening in Berkeley. I really missed wrenching on bikes so I applied to be the Service Manager. I really wanted to move to the service department when I was at The Bicycle Outfitter but I made the shop too much money in sales.

Within a time, Start to Finish got old and I left to work for The Pedaler in El Sobrante, California with the Honorable Jeff Jerge. Working for the Pedaler was a lot of fun. Jeff is a kick and a truly great guy. He is a lover of the wheels, and fun to work for.

Jeff told me how to win a race, "Put it in the big gear and pedal" Jeff would say, and "Second is the first loser." The real truths are simple.

A trip to Europe came and went. When I returned a friend of mine was managing a nice little service department in Mill Valley, California. It was a rogue Start to Finish. I was assured it was a different store than all the others and took the job as mechanic, then service manager and then assistant manager. Eventually,it was time for me to move on. Spearhead was born.

Its been a long time and I have seen almost everything. Please bring your bike over sometime and let me upgrade it for you.

Thank you for reading and,
WHEELOVE!

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