Boulder bike shop was sold without owner’s OK, he says

The merger of two Boulder bicycle stores in 2021 and their subsequent sale to Mike’s Bikes last year could all be unspooled by a judge after the owner of one of the merged stores has come forward claiming his shop was stolen from him and sold off without his permission.

Michael Stone, an Ironman competitor and triathlete who is legally blind, bought Colorado Multisport in 2010, a few years after it opened. The store “had a dedicated following in the high-end and professional triathlon community,” Stone says in a new lawsuit.

Russ Chandler, a tech executive and cycling organizer, bought Full Cycle in 2016, according to past media reports. Founded in 1982, it was Boulder’s oldest bike shop then.

In 2020, Stone and Chandler began discussing a sale of Colorado Multisport to Chandler with dual branding at Full Cycle’s store, 2355 30th St. In exchange, Stone was to receive $3,000 monthly for three years, plus a 15% cut of revenue over $50,000, his lawsuit claims.

That sale — spelled out in a nonbinding letter of intent rather than a more traditional asset purchase agreement, according to Stone — included assurances that he would own Colorado Multisport’s trademark until Chandler had paid him in full, Stone claims.

Full Cycle and Colorado Multisport announced their merger in early 2022 and signage at the store in Boulder reflected both names. But behind the scenes, Chandler was “making only sporadic and reduced payments” rather than $3,000 monthly and not sharing profits or saying how the store was doing, according to the lawsuit Stone filed Feb. 16.

“Chandler intentionally did not disclose that he was representing to third parties that he owned Colorado Multisport and had the right to sell it, (which) was false,” Stone alleges.

Last June, Full Cycle-Colorado Multisport was sold to Mike’s Bikes, a California cycling retailer that has two stores in Denver and two in the south metro.

“Russ (Chandler) built something very special and the store’s heritage before that in Boulder is amazing,” the CEO of Mike’s told Bicycle Retailer and Industry News at the time.

Stone says he confronted Chandler about why Colorado Multisport and its trademark were included in the sale, and Chandler admitted, in writing, “I did not have the right to sell.”