GREENFIELD — As a kid in Charlemont in the 1980s, Matt Sullivan was accustomed to regularly visiting Berkshire East for ski lessons.
“I saw the guys behind the counter giving out the rentals and, yeah, those guys were so pumped up and cool back in the ’80s. Those guys were like rock stars,” he recalled. “You know, we always looked up to those guys and I knew that I wanted to be like that one day and just be in the mix.”
Now 42, Sullivan feels he has made it into the mix, with the opening of Outer Limits Cycle & Ski at 334 High St.
“This isn’t really work to me. I get up (in the morning) and I’m pumped, dude. … It’s just awesome,” he said. “And I kind of made this place so people could come and chill and hang out and sit at the bench and chill and talk.”
The building had been Jack’s Cleaners for many years. Sullivan said he approached the owner, who he knew as a customer at a different bicycle shop, and asked if he was willing to sell.
“Then he sold it to me for $60,000,” Sullivan mentioned. He got the name of his business from the 1960s science-fiction television show that is often compared to “The Twilight Zone.”
The Montague resident moved in on Aug. 31 and worked to convert the place into his shop. He services and sells bicycles, skis, snowboards and skateboards. In the basement is new equipment to work out imperfections on skis and snowboards as well as to flatten and wax them. Sullivan said when he bought the building, there was paint peeling off the basement walls and he had to power-wash the space.
“It was like going into a barn after … 60 years,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan started his mobile repair shop, which he will continue, on Jan. 1 and races mountain bikes year-round, even managing the Outer Limits Racing team.
“That’s a huge part of who I am and this shop,” he said, adding that his “honey,” Amber Orcutt will work the front of house.
Sullivan got his start in the industry in 1998, when Robert Perry, nicknamed “Bicycle Bob,” hired him at Bicycles & Skis Unlimited at 322 High St., where Crocker Communications Inc. now sits. He said cold weather typically doesn’t hinder the bicycle business.
“People will start bringing in their fat bikes (off-road bicycle with oversized tires) to get their tires swapped over to studded,” Sullivan explained. “I know a lot of people around here. … I’ve been doing people’s bikes and skis for a long time.”
Contact Outer Limits Cycle & Ski at 413-325-5143 or outerlimitscycles@yahoo.com. More information is available at outerlimitscyclesmobile.com.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or
413-772-0261, ext. 262.