Hold Fast or Not At All

JOHN LUX, OWNER OF LEBANON’S DELUXX BIKES, GIVES IT EVERYTHING HE’S GOT

BY RACHEL CURRY PHOTOGRAPHY BY KARLO GESNER

Try putting John Lux into a box, and you’ll be left with a container that won’t close. As owner of Deluxx Bikes, a bike shop in downtown Lebanon, Lux follows a prescription for business ownership built on honesty, respect, and passion—but that’s just a sliver of the story.

Sitting in a rather impressive catcher’s squat while piecing together a high-performance Syncros road bike with electric gear shifting, Lux says, “I don’t sell bikes. I sell freedom.”

He reminisced on his days as a young kid in south Lebanon in the summertime, hopping on his bike first thing in the morning and staying out until the streetlights came on. It was that or hang around the house waiting for his mom to assign him chores.

“Your bike was the only way you were getting to hang out with your buddies,” he says.

That sense of freedom has transcended time. Lux has run Deluxx bikes for more than a decade and a half (he’s not the kind of guy who can spit out the exact date, or even year, he opened shop, because he’s always looking ahead). Between selling and repairing bikes of all kinds, he manages to find time to ride for a couple of hours every day. Don’t believe him? Just look at his knuckles. Aside from a tattoo that reads “hold fast,” he’s got a semi-permanent cycler’s tan line across the tops of his fingers that doesn’t lie.

Over the years, Lux has competed in his fair share of races—BMX, road cycling, you name it. Through all of life’s tribulations, he’s come out with a need to keep training, even if it’s not for a race. Lux emphasizes, “You’re only going to be as good as your last ride.”

From wide-eyed newbies to experienced riders of any age, Deluxx Bikes has options for bikes and gear that suit everyone. Urban, road, and mountain bike brands include Bianchi, Jamis, and Scott. He also has DK and Verde BMX bikes–not to mention historic USA level BMX jerseys framed on the wall from his own Deluxx Bikes team–as well as Serfas e-bikes.

As for the shop itself, you’ll find Lux in there during all seasons and almost every day of the week. That’s nothing new. It’s been 10 years since he finished chemotherapy for stage three non-Hodgkin’s large B-cell lymphoma, a blood cancer for which he only took off 14 days in total for treatment. While he does see himself potentially doing something besides running Deluxx Bikes in his later years, he appreciates it for the life it has created.

“I stay humble because it can all go away tomorrow,” Lux says.

Lux has a self-deprecating disposition, going so far as to call himself an “acquired taste,” but he relishes in the fact that he’s an eccentric individual. “I’m probably the only bike shop you’ll come into that has two boxes of civil war books behind the counter,” he says. There’s yet another piece to his complex flavor.

Growing up around his dad’s automotive garage, where World War I and II veterans sat and talked in the front room, Lux saw a side of the world that shaped him. “For an 11-year old kid to sit in a haze of Chesterfield and Lucky Strike smoke, you get to see people’s personalities. Maybe that’s why I’m so into history,” he says. “In the end, we’re all in the same fight.”

Today, Lux remains extraordinarily proud of his son, who carries his name and plans to be a history teacher after graduate school.

While Lux may be all about bikes from a certain vantage point, any customer of his quickly finds out you get a “no bulls**t” version of quick, quality customer service that highlights the other parts of him, too. It would be a dishonest portrayal to publish an article of Lux with no expletives, even if censored.

As for customers looking for a shop that they can trust, Lux advises, “Don’t buy a bike from a guy that doesn’t ride. This is a very passion-based thing.”

And don’t be afraid to talk to him—about riding, about history, about anything, (yes, even the Grateful Dead). “I got the gift of gab,” Lux says. “That’s the one thing going for me.”

Deluxx Bikes

720 Cumberland St, Lebanon, PA 17042 717-274-2508 | deluxxbikes.com

@deluxxbikes