New Frankfort Business Preparing for Dry Roads, Customers

With snow plowers fatigued but determined and residents weary but stoic from ice and slush covered roads, a young married team is on the job, excited and energized, preparing their just purchased building for their new business that relies on dry roads and less stressful conditions.

This burst of hope is from the new enterprise of Meg Doby and Ethan Przekaza, called Coastline Cycles. Their building at 1100 Main Street, Frankfort will open later this spring as a destination for bicycle rentals, bike repair and bike mavens everywhere.

Through sweat equity, the couple is removing walls and ceiling tiles, painting and creating new walls, installing a new heater and more. The building now boasts a new galvanized metal ceiling, new slat wall for merchandising, a new office and a beautiful mixture of gray, blue and finished pine throughout.

“New bicycles for our rental fleet on their way to Frankfort,” said Przekaza “and parts for bike repair are not far behind. When we open, we will be ready with what people need to explore northern Michigan by bike. From older bikes showing their age to the most stylish racing bicycles on the road, all bikes new maintenance and occasional repair. We will be here to keep bikers rolling.”

“This is a wonderful community with charm, beauty and friendly people always willing to help,” said Doby. “We boast a world class environment and natural beauty as well as a world class place for bikers of all abilities. This is our vision and dream and it’s coming true!”

Doby said that flexible lending from Venture North Funding and Development enabled them to mobilize their new building and purchase bikes, spare parts and other items to ready the business for a blockbuster season. “Venture North has become part of our team,” Doby said. “Financing, a business plan, marketing, you name it. I think you’ll see some of their staff biking on Benzie roads this summer.”

“Perfect example of a start up business with all the skills, talent and drive to knock it out of the park,” said Laura Galbraith, President of Venture North. “We were proud to help get things underway and, yes, we’re counting on Meg and Ethan to be part of our team as well.”

Galbraith said Venture North welcomes being of service to small businesses, including start ups. “Small businesses predominate in northwest Michigan for good reason,” Galbraith said. “They are essential to our economy and the communities where they do business. They provide thousands of jobs. If you are – or want to be – a small business, we hope you’ll let us know how we can help.”

Przekaza has been fixing up bikes since childhood and it quickly became a lifelong passion. He’s been a professional bicycle mechanic for over ten years and takes pride in keeping up with all makes and models in the biking industry. Doby is a perfect match with all the right skills and experience to round out the business team, including managerial, banking, finance and retail experience. Most recently, she was a commercial loan processor at Honor Bank.

“We’ll have dry roads and perfect biking conditions in no time,” said Doby. “We’ll invite everyone to our opening in late May to crank up our new business and welcome a great summer in Benzie County.