By: Ben Moes
Introduction
In Part 1 of this series, we explored the mindset that guided the Wright Brothers throughout their research and development: their commitment to building on existing knowledge rather than discarding it, and their conviction that great technology augments human potential rather than replaces it.
Now, we turn to where their journey actually began. Not on the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk, but in a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio.
The Bicycle Shop Wasn’t a Side Hustle
It’s tempting to frame the Wright Cycle Company as a convenient means to an end; a revenue-generating distraction that bankrolled the brothers’ real ambitions. But that reading misses the point entirely.
The brothers didn’t open a bicycle shop to fund their aviation dreams. They opened it because, like flying, they genuinely loved cycling. They jumped into the bicycle craze of the 1890s the same way they’d eventually approach flight: with enthusiasm, curiosity, and a desire to do it well. Had they never built a single airplane, the Wright Cycle Company would still have been a worthwhile business. One that served real customers, employed real people, and brought genuine joy to their community.
This distinction matters. The shop wasn’t a placeholder. It was a business they took seriously in its own right.
What the Shop Actually Built
The Wright brothers didn’t just repair other people’s bicycles; they designed and manufactured their own models. Their Van Cleve and St. Clair lines were crafted to exacting standards, built to order with parts the brothers personally selected and, in some cases, improved. They invented the self-oiling hub. They engineered a smarter crankarm design. They were innovators long before they ever touched an aircraft.
Running two locations with employees at each taught them to manage operations, serve customers, and make a product people actually wanted. The tools, the space, the mechanical fluency they developed — all of it became the foundation for the experiments that followed. When they eventually needed to test wing designs, they rigged up an apparatus using their own bicycle and rode it into the wind. The shop didn’t just fund their aviation work. It equipped them for it.
Knowing When to Let Go
When the brothers became serious about flight, they closed the bicycle shop. Not because they had given up on it, or because it wasn’t a meaningful business, but because they couldn’t afford divided attention. This wasn’t an indictment of the business. It was a acceptance of their primary calling and recognition that focus is a finite resource.
That’s an important nuance. Closing the shop wasn’t a declaration that bicycles didn’t matter. It was a sign of respect for both pursuits and their own limits — an acknowledgment that half-hearted effort serves neither. The brothers chose instead to convert a portion of the business to a machine shop for their flying machines, and sold the rest of the bicycle business. Proof that their Bicycle business was fruitful in it’s own right: their designs sold for another 30+ years.
What Too Many Entrepreneurs Miss
There’s a tendency in startup culture to treat “main street” businesses — service firms, local shops, craft-based companies — as beneath serious ambition. The thinking goes: real innovators aim bigger. Real disruptors don’t get bogged down in the ordinary.
The Wright Brothers offer a direct rebuttal. The practice of inventing is not limited to scale, and bold ideas cannot happen without honed skills and practical resources. The bicycle shop sharpened their thinking, deepened their skills, and grounded their ambitions in the practical realities of building something that actually works. The lessons they learned serving customers, managing inventory, and solving mechanical problems were inseparable from the lessons that eventually got them airborne.
What aspiring founders miss when they dismiss these kinds of businesses is not just the income. It’s the education. It’s the community relationships. And it’s the satisfaction of creating meaningful value right now, rather than deferring all meaning to some future breakthrough.
Our Own Bicycle Shop: Moetion Technologies and the 3-Horizons Plan
At Moetion Technologies, we identify deeply with the Wright Cycle Company — and not just metaphorically. Our core mission is captured in three words: Dreams to Designs. We exist to help creators integrate new technologies into real products. We do this by providing the engineering expertise and collaborative partnership that aspiring builders often lack.
Like the bicycle shop, our consulting and design services business isn’t a stepping stone to something else. It’s the inseparable foundation that everything else grows from. And like the Wright brothers, we’re aimed at new horizons. Three to be specific.
Horizon 1 – A Solid Foundation
The first horizon is about establishing Moetion Technologies as the go-to engineering partner for bold new ideas. We want to help physical product startups thrive. We want to support larger companies looking to add exciting new technologies to their portfolios. And we want to be a partner in positioning Grand Rapids as a genuine hub for new technologies. This horizon is about being reliably excellent, building the foundation and relationships that make everything else possible.
Horizon 2 – Charting Our Own Path
The Wright brothers didn’t just service other people’s bicycles. They built and sold their own models, creating multiple ways to create value for their customers. In the same spirit, as Moetion grows its team of exceptional engineers, we intend to leverage that talent to develop and bring to market some of our own products — whether independently or through joint ventures with partners. Using excess capacity allows us to diversify our revenue while keeping overhead low, which ultimately benefits both our clients and our employees.
Horizon 3 – The Launch
This is our guiding light and the horizon I’m most personally invested in.
Throughout my career, I’ve been given opportunities I didn’t fully earn. Remarkable colleagues, transformative technologies, mentors who believed in me before I’d proven myself. At some point, it became clear that the right response to that kind of generosity is to pay it forward.
Moetion’s third horizon is to give our employees the chance to build their own companies. We will offer seed funding and sabbatical programs to support employees who want to launch their own ventures, with meaningful resources behind them. Not just a pat on the back. Those who take that leap will retain majority ownership of what they build. We’ll be the launchpad, not the landlord.
Our goal is that Moetion becomes the origin point for an entire family of new businesses in Grand Rapids and beyond.
The Bedrock Beneath Everything
Getting to Horizon 3 will take years. It will require growth, strong client retention, reinvestment in our own capabilities, and the patient development of team members who are ready to strike out on their own. It won’t happen overnight. But we are committed to the work.
Through it all, Moetion’s design and consulting services will remain our bedrock and will never stop being central to who we are. There will always be builders who need help. There will always be companies that want to create new technologies. There will always be problems that require engineers.
Like the Wright Cycle Company, we want to use our strengths to help others fly. But our business is not a means to an end. It is our foundation, and it always will be.
If you’re working on a new product, or know someone who is, or simply want to support others in their ambitions — we’d love to hear from you. Reach out, and let’s see how far we can go together.
Image Citations
- [1] Wright Brothers Bicycle Shop, Dayton, Ohio: NASA on The Commons. No Known Copyright Restrictions (U.S. Government Work). Via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wright_Brothers_Bicycle_Shop_%2816590683660%29.jpg
- [2] Wright 1901 Bike Test (lift-vs-drag test device mounted to bicycle wheel): NASA Glenn Research Center. Public Domain (U.S. Government Work). https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/wrights/biketest.html