“I need the training wheels to land my jumps,” said a five year-old customer.
“You know this bike is not made for jumping,” explained Justice Baxter – a co-owner at Wheels of Justice in Montclair – looking over the bent training wheels and the bike’s beat-up frame.
“It’s all part of the job at the Mountain Boulevard bike shop.
Anthony Volp, an adult customer, struggles through the shop’s door with a bike in each arm that he wants to use on a weekend ride. “This is a neighborhood store,” said Volpe, adding that he appreciates the convenience of not having to haul his bikes across town.
Montclair Cyclery – the first pedecessor of the Wheels of Justice – was originally opened as the bicycle department of Tom Revelli’s Montclair Sporting Goods in 1994.
Baxter worked for Revelli throughout his high school and college years. When Baxter – graduated from Humbolt State, Revelli told Baxter, “congratulations, I’ve been waiting five and one-half years for you to graduate and proposed that Baxter manage Montclair Cyclery – an adjunct to Montclair Sporting Goods – for one year, after which time they would discussed if Baxter was interested in buying Revelli out of the business.
Baxter took ownership of the bike shop in April 1 of 2002 and changed the name to Wheels of Justice.
Within months Baxter lured friend and colleague Dan Watson away from the bike cooperative The Missing Link in Berkeley, where he was but one of many co-owners.
Watson had spent his youth working for Eric Hoffmann of Montclair Village Hardware.
Walk into Wheels of Justice and you will notice that it differs from your typical bike shop. For starters, all the bicycles are the same brand, Specialized.
“By purchasing one brand of bike, I can get roughly the same price as the chain stores,” said Baxter.
Specialized offers a full range of bikes from kids first bikes to bikes suitable for racing.
“Specialized offers feverish design for different experiences,” Baxter added.
By sticking to the Specialized line “it’s easier to train employees and it’s easier for them to help customers focus on the experience the want. “It’s not about what’s written on the side of the bike, but the experience,” said Baxter.
Wheels of Justice serves everyone from families buying their children’s first bike, or second or third, to more serious cyclists. One customer recently road in France’s grueling Paris-Brest-Paris race.
Bea Bacher-Wetmore has been coming to Wheels of Justice – and Montclair Cyclery - ever since her teenage boys were small. She has bought her boys new bikes here over the years as well as repairs. As a Montclair resident Wheels of Justice “is a logistically sensible choice.” The boys go through a lot of bicycle tires these days.
Baxter and Watson donate bikes that they take in on trade-ins to an east Oakland based program called Cycles of Change. The program is designed to take children on bike rides after school as well as teach them how to care for their bikes. At the end of the program graduates teach get a bike of their own.
Baxter got his first bike – without training wheels – at the age of six. It was a silver Schwinn Predator. “It was the first time I discover freedom. I could get more than a block away from my house. I kept going farther. It was awesome,” said Baxter.
Then came the teenage years and Baxter’s first crush. She lived in Walnut Creek, so he needed to get to BART. The first time that Baxter came back up the hill to Montclair, it was a killer but by the third time it wasn’t so bad.
He’s been riding and working on bikes ever since. “I rediscovered the freedom but also a sport that gave fitness,” said Baxter.

© 2005 Mimi Rohr

Oakland, CA.