Easy Rider Bikes, Mount Pleasant

Just as bicycling itself is a solitary sport, the owner of Easy Rider Bikes, Marshall Walls, prefers to be the only one at the shop’s handlebars. “I’m not a control freak, but I have a high standard for work,” he told the Post and Courier in 2007. “Besides, I can do the work of about three people.” Walls’ confidence stems from experience: since 1984, he’s successfully maintained his one-man operation in the same 1,400-square-foot space he bought at the age of 25, when most adults choose to just go into hibernation. After a brief period selling Schwinn and Peugeot bikes, Walls devoted himself to service, and today he keeps wheels spinning smoothly with everything from standard tune-ups to restorations. Still, he keeps the essentials—helmets, seats, pedals, and pumps—in stock, lest bikers attempt to race down an oil-slicked hillside unprepared.