BELLVILLE — When Tim Fry sets a goal, he firmly intends to reach it.
Fry, 47, attended law school after graduating from Clear Fork High School as a teen. But he gave it all up in 2000 when he decided to hang up his briefcase and move to Colorado where he bought a small biking business.
“I wanted to do something different,” Fry said about his decision. “Some people like to fight or care about what they fight for, but I wanted to build something up.”
Fast-forward 17 years and he’s made a name for himself in the mountain biking industry.
Earlier this year, his company, Mountain Bike Racing Products received the Advanced Industries Accelerator grant awarded by the Colorado Economic Development Commission. The grant helps small businesses bring their ideas to fruition.
Mountain Bike Racing Products is one of 18 Colorado companies that will share the $2.9 million in grant money. And whatever amount Fry’s business receives needs to be matched two to one. So Fry will be putting his own money into this, too.
He will use the money to manufacture a new type of front suspension fork used for mountain bikes.
Slowly but surely Fry’s business found success in Grand Junction, Colorado.
Fry and his wife, Christy bought “Bicycle Parts Pacific,” a bicycle parts manufacturing and distribution business. It was renamed “Mountain Bike Racing Products” and has since grown drastically.
“It’s a neat time to be a small business with a global presence,” Fry said in a short phone conversation before he had to catch a plane to Europe.
This time the trip overseas is to show his daughter, one of the couple’s two children, around. She wants to attend a college in Scotland. He’s been there before to conduct business matters.
Although based out of Colorado, his small business makes sales worldwide. He now has a sales manager in Europe. In Colorado, Fry employs 26 people.
His mother, Diana Butts and her husband, Stan Butts of Mansfield are incredibly proud.
“He’s always been determined,” Stan Butts said.
They say they didn’t doubt their son when he told them about his big career change.
“When he first took me out there, he said, ‘I know you think I’m crazy,’” Diana Butts said.
On the contrary, she was proud that her son was working to pursue his passion. She cited long hours and hark work that he’s put into building up the company.
Hard work is nothing new for Fry. He worked odd jobs in college to pay the bills.
He joined a fraternity as a freshman and knew then that he wanted to be president of the house. He later reached that goal during his senior year.
Diana Butts says he doesn’t always tell her when he’s been featured in a story, saying that he’s not hungry for fame and glory.
Butts talks nearly equally as much about how Fry gives back to his community, too. He serves on a school board and other area boards in Grand Junction area.
To learn more about Fry’s Colorado business, visit the website mrpbike.com.
