POPULAR bike and snowboard shop Noahs Ark has expanded to now include a separate road bike store.

The new shop is situated in the same Brimscombe complex and will provide a more extensive range of equipment for road bike enthusiasts.

The older store will focus more on mountain bike equipment and specialists will be situated in each shop.

Owner of Noahs Ark, Chris Harte held a soft opening for the new shop on Saturday, July 1 and he believes the decision to expand has already been justified.

“The interest and takings after the first week of the new shop being opened was unbelievable,” said Chris, 69.

“I take my time to speak to a lot of the customers and the shop has been extremely well received.

“The roots of Noahs Ark has always been in mountain biking but there is now such a demand for road bikes that we felt the time was right to expand.

“I have people running the new shop who are very enthusiastic about road cycling and that was a contributing factor to the decision.

“Steve Hitchins who founded Stroud Cycle Club is the manager and he was another driving factor behind the expansion.”

Chris has owned and run Noahs Ark alongside his wife Charlotte since 1983 and he admits owning a bike shop was always his dream.

“When I was younger I always liked my bikes and thought running my own shop would suit me well,” said Chris who has worked at Noahs Ark for 34 years.

“It isn’t always the easiest profession and if you want to make a success of a business you have to work extremely hard.

“I actually trained as an architect, had a brief career in motorcycle racing and even dabbled in the jewellery industry before settling down with the shop.”

Noahs Ark is open six days a week from 9am-5.30pm but stays open until 8pm on Thursday.