Call him resident dad. Phil Hughes, owner of Wheel Happy, is standing behind the counter of his Edgartown bike shop on recent afternoon, repairing an XC Cannondale mountain bike, spinning its wheels. As he does so, he occasionally reaches into the pocket of his gray apron for a wrench or screwdriver to tinker with its gears.
Milling around Mr. Hughes are a handful of clean-cut high school and college-aged boys — checking on customers, handling phone calls and surveying inventory. These polo-shirted wingmen could have just stepped off the tennis court or a sailboat at the Edgartown Yacht Club.
Which in a way, they have. Mr. Hughes’ wife Alleyne, the club’s membership secretary and office manager, has brought Wheel Happy a number of its clients — as well as its employees.
“I’ve been lucky,” Mr. Hughes said. “I have a lot of clients because of the yacht club, and a lot of these young guys who work here are actually yacht club members who have come in and for some reason think I’m a good guy.”
On this afternoon, Ben Kaplan, a high school sophomore from Washington D.C., is working the phones and handling rentals.
“I’m definitely a father figure, but they all have great fathers,” Mr. Hughes said. “I’m just happy their parents have raised them well, they know how to talk to people, they’re not afraid to work.”
Mr. Hughes initially worked off-Island in big box retail, before he, his wife and two daughters moved to Oak Bluffs in 2000 “just to raise our kids in a more calm and peaceful place.”
Daughters Taylor and Madison, now both teachers in their 30s, were then in first and third grade.
“We’d been vacationing here for a dozen years, spending whatever time we could here. It just happened in the spring of 2000 we decided to make the jump,” he said. “It’s very easy to find work here. I was initially at Island Pursuit, where Backwater Trading is now on Main street. My wife worked in administration at the hospital.”
Mr. Hughes said that he and the previous owners of Wheel Happy became friendly, and he learned they were getting ready to sell.
“We looked at the books, everything looked good,” he said. “So I just worked hard and I fell in love with it in the process. I really enjoy working seven days a week here during the summer, and I can’t imagine doing anything else.
When he first took over the shop, Mr. Hughes said the business was entirely rental bikes. On Upper Main street, where Kismet Outfitters stands now, he opened a second location, Wheel Happy 2.
“Being from a retail background, I started to bring in a few bikes for sale, some gadgets, some bells and whistles. Then in year-two I brought in a few more, then in year-six, where Juniper’s is, we actually opened a retail store..”
Sixteen years in, he said, he made the decision to close the Upper Main street shop, bringing everything to the 8 South Water street location.
“Now I can really put my finger on the pulse everyday and know what’s going on,” he said.
The breakdown of the business — particularly the distribution between rentals and bike sales — shifted dramatically during the Covid-19 pandemic, when everyone wanted to own their own bike, and then back again in recent years to some degree, Mr. Hughes said.
Over the last three or four years, he estimates, e-bikes have made up nearly half of retail inventory.
“They’ve just been making them better and better,” he said. “My clientele aren’t looking for a performance e-bike. They’re looking to replace a car, to go to the coffee shop, to go to dinner.”
Business tends to peak in the busy summer months, with Mr. Hughes needing as many as nine employees on the payroll in June and July.
“After Labor Day, it’s either just me or me and one other,” he said.
Mr. Hughes rides to work from his Oak Bluffs home every day, about six miles to work each way. Often he uses an e-bike.
“I’m a commuter, I’m not a rabid cyclist,” he said. “I do six or eight (miles) from home. My whole family, we’re very into it. My daughters, they’ll come for the summer, they commute [here] by bike with their children on them.”
Mr. Hughes describes Wheel Happy’s reputation as the “friendly and outgoing one.” He says he and his wife are “very community oriented, focused on giving back to the place which has given so much to us.”
Volunteering at the annual Bike MS: Ride the Vineyard event is a highlight for him each year.
As for the future, he shrugs. “I have no plans to retire, I hope I can get to 80. And then, hopefully one of my daughters will take it over. I don’t ever want to stop. I’ve seen people, once they stop, life changes.”
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