When you walk into the 10,000 sq. ft. home of Casa Bikes @ AMPED!, you’re overtaken by its size — it’s probably the largest bike store in the area — and its paradoxical homeyness. Row after row of e-bikes and cargo bikes are sprinkled with oases of couches and chairs set around tables. There are rotating art displays on the walls and on the floor, some of which light up when you walk by.
The dual-concept space blends Casa Bikes, an e-bike rental and retail store, and AMPED!, which gives cyclists and community members —especially underrepresented voices — a place to interact. It’s the brainchild of co-owners Charles James and Daisy Chiu, who formerly ran Crimson Bikes, and Elder Gonzalez, and situated right at the end of the Community Bike Path that runs from the Alewife Linear Park path (currently closed for renovation) through Davis Square to the Lechmere T stop, then into Cambridge Crossing, the substantial development in East Cambridge just north of the Museum of Science.
“We didn’t just want to build a shop — we wanted to create a place where people can come, connect and actually experience something together,” said James during a tour of the space, which had its grand opening in September 2025, mere months after REI’s first small-format retail store closed. “We wanted to inspire childlike wonder,” he added.
The rise and fall of Crimson Bikes
It’s a bit of redemption for the bicycle entrepreneur, who started Crimson Bikes in 2009 as a student at Harvard University, running it out of his dorm room. After a post-graduation detour into high tech work, James returned to Crimson Bikes up again in 2015, recruiting Chiu. They launched their first retail store in 2017 at the junction of Mass. Ave. and Mount Auburn Street.
Crimson Bikes became something of a de facto cycling center in Cambridge, often hosting waffle-and-coffee pre-ride meals for cyclists. Another goal of Crimson Bikes, James said, “was to make biking more accessible for all,” and increase its diversity, important to him as a Black person from humble roots in Mississippi. The model seemed to be working, as revenues went from $77,000 in its first year with a brick-and-mortar locale to more than $1 million in 2019.
Then came the pandemic, and its supply chain chokeholds. Crimson Bikes started having huge problems filling orders for new bikes, which led to scores of complaints to the Better Business Bureau and negative ratings and comments on Yelp, Reddit and the like. Financial and logistical complications, followed from its landlord and especially the company handling its website and payment processing. James tried to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but by the summer of 2022, the business had been liquidated. (It wasn’t the only local bicycle shop that was a casualty of the pandemic – Quad Bikes, Everli and Bike Exchange also closed.)
“I had nothing, no money,” said James, who was the majority owner of the shop. “My savings were drained. I was about to get evicted from my home because I didn’t have income coming in. So, I made myself a deal. I said, look — if you can figure out a way to go back to your roots, and if you can make $3,000 in a month, then you can continue down that path. But if you fail on that, you’re gonna go get whatever job you have to — Dunkin’ Donuts, anything.”
Changing gears
James borrowed tools from the public library and started an on-call, mobile bike repair service. He hit his $3,000 mark in three weeks and parlayed that income stream into the first Casa Bikes repair shop in Kendall Square in March 2023. That July, he borrowed money from friends to secure a small space in a newly constructed building near the Broad Canal, adding retail sales when bike and e-bike availability surged as the world emerged from COVID-19. James sold the vehicles on a commission model versus the more traditional wholesale model, where the retailer purchases and owns the inventory.
When the closing of REI was announced in March 2025, James again saw opportunity and reached out to DivcoWest, which developed the 43-acre Cambridge Crossing parcel and had managed the REI property. Being adjacent to bike-friendly infrastructure was “a natural fit,” James said.
DivcoWest officials were receptive. “This collaboration provided a great opportunity for a local business to evolve and grow, while bringing a dynamic, community-focused use to CX [Cambridge Crossing],” said Dennis O’Donnell, managing director-investments at DivcoWest, through a publicist. “AMPED’s experience aligns strongly with East Cambridge’s cycling culture, and we’re excited about the energy, programming, and innovative approach to urban mobility they’ve brought to the neighborhood and beyond.”
The Cambridge Crossing store sells more than a dozen brands of e-bikes, cargo bikes and e-scooters. Its original site in Kendall Square was temporality shuttered last year as the team settled in at the new locale and has since reopened as a rental and repair outpost.
The dual concept with AMPED! came because “we wanted to create a place for people to convene and experience something together while being in relationship with each other,” said Nolimi Rodriguez, creative director and curator of art and events. She hopes to establish an artist-in-residence program.
AMPED! has hosted events like a free (with suggested donation) LatinX evening (“Entre Mundos”) late last year, which featured four DJs (one in his late 70s) and three “sound baths” placed throughout the space, letting people wander from a pod of techno beats into an aural cone of tropical breezes.
It has engaged in other community-focused events and will host events every Thursday evening in the summer. It’s also working to organize bike rides and developing plans for educational outreach. For Bike Month, Casa Bikes is organizing a series of events, some with partners such as the Kendall Square Business Association. Along with DivcoWest and others it will host the CX Cycle Fest at Cambridge Crossing on May 20. Last year’s event featured a bike ride, bike exhibition and the opening of the Kittie Knox Cycle Center — a public repair center between AMPED! and the Lechmere T stop, named after the pioneering, biracial cyclist born in 1874 in Cambridgeport. On May 29, Casa Bikes at Kendall will host an open house to celebrate reopening.
Many in the local biking community say it’s good to have James and Chiu back. “Charles and Daisy have done a tremendous amount to support the local biking community,” said Chris Cassa of Cambridge Bicycle Safety, citing things like its community tune-up events and in-home service calls for larger bikes.
Richard Freierman, a member of the Cambridge Bike Committee, said he recently purchased a Velotric Tempo e-bike at the store. “It was great to have somewhere local with such a wide selection of e-bikes and a knowledgeable staff,” he said. “Charles and Daisy are super supportive, as is the entire staff.” Freierman also ordered an adapter to attach his Burley trailer, “this time for groceries, not kids.”
Given all that went wrong toward the end of Crimson Bikes, James often wondered if the bike community would ever take him back. “I could not have imagined the overwhelming, positive response from the local bike community,” James said.
Casa Bikes @ AMPED! is located at 181 Morgan Ave in Cambridge Crossing.
This story was updated to clarify that the Linear Park portion of the Community Bike Path is currently closed for renovation.
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