Our team members

Don Hendricks
Don started Don’s Bike Center in the Spring of 1996 with his wife and partner Julia. Don’s passion for all things bikes started at a much earlier age, somewhere around the age of 13 during the great era of the 10-speed bicycle. It was the late sixties; ten speed race bikes from Europe hit the states and began the great American bike boom of the early seventies. Don jumped on board with his first new bike, a Campy equipped Gitane Tour de France. Before long he was regularly climbing highway 9 out of Las Gatos, CA. Don became fascinated with long joy rides and weeklong tours during his High School Years. Motorcycles took over during his early career as a machinist but bicycles reappeared during his days as an Engineering Student. By the mid Eighties, mountain bikes began to make a real presence. Don saw them as a perfect re-entry to fuel his passion for bikes. His first quality mountain bike was a 1986 Panasonic 6500 Mountain Cat, a fully rigid bike. Mountain biking soon became his go to activity and remains so to this day along with frequent road rides. After a successful 13 year career as Bio-Engineer and Engineering Manager it was time for a lifestyle change. He and his wife and three kids relocated to Grants Pass, OR and started Don’s Bike Center. His passion for bikes exploded immediately. He soon learned the ropes of bicycle mechanics, sales, service, and most importantly customer service. Twenty Five years late he and his wife were able to retire as their son took over the business. Don takes great joy in leading bike rides with his friends and customers. He still loves both mountain biking and road riding, and tries to ride two to three times a week year round.

Ted Hendricks
Although I grew up around bicycles and the shop, my passion for bicycles began to take off when I started working for the shop in 2013. Initially it was a part time job while I was in college studying website development, but I quickly fell in love with bicycles and all of the different aspects of the job. While riding bicycles will always be the best part of my job, I also love selling, building, and servicing bicycles. As a salesman I love getting to share my passion with others and grow our community. It is rewarding to get to experience the joy of others when they get a new bike, especially when it is there first new bike. Even better is when we see our customers out enjoying their bikes and joining our rides. Electric bikes have been particularly exciting as they have gotten more people on bikes and are allowing more cyclists to ride together. As a mechanic it is satisfying to work with my hands and keep bikes on the road that fill others' hobbies and commuting needs. In 2021 I took ownership of the shop allowing my parents to move into a much deserved retirement. I feel incredibly grateful to the community for allowing us to thrive and sharing in our passion.

Eric Dickerson
Eric is our main mechanic and he's been with us since the beginning. Eric has actually been working in bike shops since he was just 14 years old. The first job he ever had was working at a bike shop in exchange for a new bicycle. The amount of experience he has means that he's ready to tackle any job. It's quite rare that someone brings in a bike with a problem that he hasn't already faced numerous times before. His specialty is custom wheel building.

Julie Hendricks
While she's not always been in the shop, she was in charge of accounting and marketing and played a crucial role in keeping the business successful through the decades. She loves riding bikes with other ladies and encouraging women into cycling. She has played a huge part in growing the female turnout for our group rides. Her favorite part of the business is being in the shop and seeing someone get a new bike, as there is usually a great excitement about them. Then she watches one of our salesmen shake their hand and thank them for the business. For her that's the best part because in many cases that's the beginning of the relationship with our customers. It's even better when they begin to come out on rides and become part of our cycling family.