TREADING FOR PROGRESS Preston Hollow Bicycles wants to change the industry Story by RENEE UMSTED Photography by YUVIE STYLES
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here’s a Miyata road bike in the window at Preston Hollow Bicycles. It’s made of steel and clearly old; Miyatas aren’t even sold in the United States anymore. But when Jason Henry got it in college, he thought it was “cool.” It was inexpensive, but worked as a racing bike, and Henry rode it in his first competitions.
“When you become a cyclist, whether you compete or not, you spend a lot of time on your bike,” he says. “You get this relationship with the item, and I have a relationship with that bike. We spent time together. It sounds kind of strange, but it’s really why a lot of people get connected to their equipment.” Henry has been riding bikes for
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decades, but he opened the bike shop just over three years ago. Bikes brought him to a career in the restaurant industry, which instilled a commitment to customer service. He started waiting tables to pick up extra cash to pay for races, usually in Texas and Louisiana. By the time he stopped racing competitively, he had progressed up the ranks and become a manager. “It wasn’t necessarily something I was passionate about. It was just something I was good at,” he says. “I think I enjoyed the service aspect of it the most, and getting to know people and take care of people and making that connection.” He spent 28 years in the industry, working for companies such as Flavor Hook, the group DECEMBER 2021
behind Neighborhood Services and Montlake Cut, and now-closed The Grape on Greenville Avenue. He, his wife Heather, and daughter Helena, accepted the working hours required of a restaurant manager and have lived in Preston Hollow seven years. When Henry had the opportunity to open a business of his own, he knew he didn’t want it to be a restaurant. Heather had a background in coffee shops, but Jason didn’t. Having been in the neighborhood for a while, they considered what was missing. Heather suggested they open a bike shop. “And I was like, ‘It’s funny you s a y t h a t . I wo u l d h a ve n eve r thought of that, but I’m not saying ‘no’ to that,’” he says. Figuring out the details took a few years. They landed on a spot
