This profile is in active compilation — some details are awaiting a cited source.

Bike America is a family-owned bike shop that has been part of the Kansas City metro’s cycling trade for decades, trading online as bikekc.com and describing itself as “Nick’s Bike America.” Its Lee’s Summit store — downtown since the 1990s, relocated to 522 SW 3rd Street in 2019 — carries Cannondale, GT, Niner, Salsa and All City alongside e-bikes, runs Guru bicycle fitting, and services wheelchairs as well as bikes. A second store at 9514 Nall Avenue in Overland Park is still listed on the company’s own site, but a review-site listing marks it closed; that conflict is unresolved and flagged below.

Description

Bike America is an independent, family-owned bicycle retailer and service shop operating in the Kansas City metro under the domain bikekc.com, whose own pages render the name as “Nick’s Bike America.”12 It is one of the metro’s longer-running specialty bike businesses and one of the few remaining full-line independents on the Missouri side after a decade of closures in the local trade.

The Lee’s Summit store sits at 522 SW 3rd Street.1 A search-surfaced local-paper report states the Lee’s Summit shop had been in downtown Lee’s Summit since 1994 and moved to the 3rd Street address on 23 September 2019, a move made for easier access.3 A second store at 9514 Nall Avenue in Overland Park appears on the company’s own store locator with a working phone number.24 A review-site listing for the Overland Park address is headed CLOSED, however, and the conflict is not resolved by anything located this pass.5 Anyone routing to the Kansas store should call first.

Bike America’s public argument for itself is about assembly and fit rather than price. Its own advantage page states plainly that “Bicycles aren’t like toasters or suitcases. Bikes are shipped in boxes and they must be assembled and tuned,” that “All our new bikes are assembled by professional bicycle mechanics,” and recommends shopping at a specialty bicycle store.1 The shop is a Guru Bicycle Fit location.1

An unusual line of service: the shop states that it repairs wheelchairs as well as bicycles.6 For a metro with thin mobility-repair provision outside the medical-supply channel, that is a genuinely notable service and not a marketing flourish.

The brand mix — Cannondale, GT, Niner, Salsa, All City — matters for tier purposes. None of these are the house brands of a vertically integrated retail chain, and the shop does not appear on Trek Bicycle’s own Kansas City metro retail store list, which names only Lawrence, Lee’s Summit (634 NE State Route 291) and Shawnee.7 The Trek Lee’s Summit store is at a different address from Bike America’s.

Goods and services

  • New bicycles — Cannondale, GT, Niner, Salsa, All City1
  • Electric bikes1
  • Professional assembly and tuning of all new bikes sold1
  • Bicycle fitting — Guru Bicycle Fit1
  • Repair and service16
  • Wheelchair repair6
  • Parts and accessories1
  • Financing1

History

The clearest ownership record located is trade-press reporting from May 2018, in which Bicycle Retailer and Industry News profiled the Kansas City retail scene and described Bike America as co-owned 50/50 by Nick Alberts and his father Jerome, operating two locations including a 27,000-square-foot Overland Park store, and put the business at roughly 32 years old at that date — implying a founding around 1986.8 Alberts is quoted in that piece: “I bend over backwards for my customers. And I also negotiate.”8

A separate, search-surfaced summary of a 2019 Lee’s Summit local-paper article gives a different set of dates: family ownership “since 1983,” a family move out of the grocery business into a small Overland Park bike shop “about 24 years” earlier, then a larger Overland Park store, a shop in Olathe, and the later purchase of the Lee’s Summit store, which had been in downtown Lee’s Summit since 1994.3 These figures do not reconcile with each other or fully with the trade-press account, and the originating article could not be re-read this pass — the publisher’s domain no longer serves it (see method note). Both accounts are recorded; neither is adopted.

The same 2018 trade-press piece is a useful census of what the metro has since lost. Turner’s Cycling and Fitness, founded 1960 in Mission and one of the largest Schwinn dealers in the Midwest, closed in June 2019.8 Velo+ in Lenexa and Volker Bicycles on West 39th Street have both since lost control of their web domains, which now serve unrelated content. Bike America’s continuity through that period is the substantive point of its history.

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Bike America — official site, “The Bike America Advantage” — asserts: the company operates locations in Lee’s Summit, MO and Overland Park, KS (9514 Nall Ave, Overland Park, KS 66207); “Bicycles aren’t like toasters or suitcases. Bikes are shipped in boxes and they must be assembled and tuned”; “All our new bikes are assembled by professional bicycle mechanics”; the shop recommends shopping at a specialty bicycle store; nine stated advantages covering professional service, fitting, test rides, expert staff and post-purchase support. Site header renders the business as “Nick’s Bike America”; brands listed include Cannondale, GT, Niner, Salsa and All City, plus electric bikes, financing, and Guru Bicycle Fit. Primary currently-operating proof. (Fetched 2026-08-14.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  2. Bike America — official site, “How To Find Us” store locator — asserts: two locations are listed, Lee’s Summit, MO and Overland Park, KS; Overland Park at 9514 Nall Ave, Overland Park, KS 66207, phone 913-381-5431; Lee’s Summit hours M-Th 10-7, Fri 10-5, Sat 10-6, Sun 12-5. Overland Park remains listed as an active location on the company’s own locator as of this fetch. (Fetched 2026-08-14.) ↩ ↩2

  3. Lee’s Summit Tribune, “Lee’s Summit Bike America Moves To Location With Easier Access,” 12 October 2019 — asserts: per the search engine’s surfaced summary, Bike America has been family owned since 1983; the Alberts family left the grocery business roughly 24 years before 2019 and opened a small bike shop in Overland Park, Kansas, later moving to a larger Overland Park location, opening a shop in Olathe, Kansas, and buying the Lee’s Summit store; the Lee’s Summit shop had been in downtown Lee’s Summit since 1994 and moved to 522 SW 3rd St on 23 September 2019. The article could not be re-read directly — the lstribune.net domain now serves unrelated commercial content (see method note). This citation is search-surfaced only. ↩ ↩2

  4. Bike America — official site, Overland Park store page — asserts: Lee’s Summit main store at 522 SW 3rd St, Lee’s Summit, MO 64086 [sic — see note], phone 816-524-1819, hours M-Th 10-7, Fri 10-5, Sat 10-6, Sun 12-5; Overland Park at 9514 Nall Ave, Overland Park, KS 66207, phone 913-381-5431; brands Cannondale, GT, Niner, Salsa, All City and electric bikes; financing; Guru Bicycle Fit; “we service wheelchairs, too.” (Fetched 2026-08-14.) ↩

  5. Yelp listing, “BIKE AMERICA - CLOSED,” 9514 Nall Ave, Overland Park, Kansas — asserts: the listing for the Overland Park address is headed CLOSED and was updated August 2026. Cited solely as evidence that a status conflict exists with the company’s own store locator; a review-site closure flag is not by itself proof of closure. ↩

  6. Bike America — official site, “We Service Wheelchairs, Too” — asserts: the shop’s service department repairs wheelchairs in addition to bicycles. URL confirmed present in the site’s own URL map; page title carries the assertion. (Site map retrieved 2026-08-14.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. Trek Bicycle — official Kansas City metro store index — asserts: Trek’s own company-operated retail stores in the Kansas City metro are Trek Bicycle Lawrence (2525 Iowa Street), Trek Bicycle Lee’s Summit (634 NE State Route 291, Suite 13A) and Trek Bicycle Shawnee (10412 Shawnee Mission Pkwy). Bike America is not among them. Consolidator check — negative. (Fetched 2026-08-14.) ↩

  8. Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, “Wheeling and dealing (or not) in the Kansas City retail scene,” 23 May 2018 — asserts: Bike America of Overland Park is co-owned 50/50 by Nick Alberts and his father Jerome; the business was about 32 years old at that date (implying a founding c. 1986); it operated two locations, with a 27,000-square-foot Overland Park store; Alberts is quoted, “I bend over backwards for my customers. And I also negotiate.” The same article covers Velo+ (Lenexa, sold by founder Vincent Rodriguez to Marco DeAngelis and two partners in 2017), Turner’s Cycling & Fitness (Overland Park, founded 1960 in Mission by Charley Puhr’s father, later a Giant dealer) and Elite Cycling (Leawood, then roughly 40 percent triathlon business, manager Scott Stevens). (Fetched 2026-08-14.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3

Categories

On the record — ks.city/registry/bike-america · record updated 2026-08-14