Kevin McIlwaine
Slow Roll has a partner relationship with Giant; 80 percent of its stock is from that manufacturer.
From our 75 miles of off-street bike paths to designated safety zones at intersections and plentiful bike parking, Madison takes steps to make biking easier. And that’s just one of the things Dan Dacko, owner of Slow Roll Cycles, loves about this city. “Madison is a great place to be,” he says. “You can meet so many awesome people riding bikes if you just take the time to say hello.” The bike community here is “like an extended village that really helped us get started,” he says.
Getting more people on their bikes is a mission for Slow Roll, the bike shop Dacko opened in the Lake Edge Shopping Center on Monona Drive in May. The shop closes early a few times
Kevin McIlwaine
Dan Dacko (right) and wife, Stacy: “We want people to feel good about biking.”
per month so employees and community members can go on bike rides together. The rides are casual and free to anyone who wants to join, and Dacko hopes the trips will encourage more people to find joy in getting outside.
Dacko reminds recreational riders that a person doesn’t need Spandex shorts and fancy gear to enjoy being on a bike. “Just show up and ride — if you have a bicycle, you are a cyclist,” says Dacko. “We want people to feel good about biking.”
Dacko got his start in 1999 working for Planet Bike, a Madison company that produces custom cycle parts and accessories. He was the second employee there and learned the business from the ground up, from meeting with suppliers to doing hands-on bike maintenance. He moved to Trek in 2006 as a product manager, where he developed bikes and specialized accessories. He traveled the world, riding bikes on streets as well as trails and even up and down mountains from Copenhagen to Japan.
While Slow Roll carries road and utility bikes, it specializes in mountain bikes. “Our passion is mountain bikes,” says Dacko. “It’s where our expertise really shines.”
Slow Roll has a partner relationship with Giant; 80 percent of the bikes it stocks are Giant, but for the rest “we’re flexible to sell the bikes that we think fit [our customers] best,” says Dacko. Among these brands are off-road specialists Pivot, Transition and Guerilla Gravity.
Slow Roll also sells women’s frames from Liv (Giant’s women’s frame label) and some children’s bicycles and electric bikes. Youth bikes start at $150. Adult bikes start at around $400 and go to around $4,000.
The shop floor is open and inviting, with a pro-level bike fitting studio and demo bikes to try. Slow Roll also offers tune ups as a drop-in service to keep people rolling, with prices starting at $10 for a pedal install and hourly rates for more complicated fixes. The whole idea is to keep people moving and experiencing life on a bike. “It’s your pace, your journey,” says Dacko.
Slow Roll Cycles
4118 Monona Drive; 608-286-1176; slowrollcycles.com
7 am-6 pm Mon., 10 am-7 pm Tues.-Fri., 9 am-5 pm Sat.
