Enjoying the Ride: Bicycle Toy and Hobby
That quintessential picture of a bike with a bow on it under the Christmas tree is one that Americans have been seeing for decades. And if you ask any High Point parent where that bike under their Christmas tree came from, the answer wouldn’t be Santa Claus: it would be Bicycle Toy and Hobby.
Since 1927, Bicycle Toy and Hobby has been supplying High Point with one of their favorite pastimes: bike riding! And today, the family-owned business is on its third generation, still run by its founding family, the Jennings. As the oldest bike shop in North Carolina, Bicycle Toy and Hobby has changed quite a bit since its founding in the 20s. But what hasn’t changed is the Jennings family’s dedication to do honest work with an expert eye.
If you step into Bicycle Toy and Hobby today, one of High Point’s oldest businesses on Main Street, you’ll be greeted by a member of the Jennings family. Danny and Dolly, husband and wife duo who have run the shop since inheriting it from Danny’s father, Jesse Jennings, have become nationally known experts in the bike world. They have a massive inventory of both new bikes, used bikes, and biking gear – offering trade-in's, repair services, and more. But it all started with a few bike repairs.
Jesse Jennings, who worked for BF Goodrich, a tire company, in the 20s, started repairing bikes in the evenings to make a little extra money. He was so good at what he did, he asked his boss if he could carry a few bikes to sell out of the tire shop in his spare time. His boss agreed, but it soon became clear that Jesse wasn’t just good at selling tires – he was great at selling and repairing bikes.
“He was selling more bikes at his store than at the main store. Then the district manager came in, and Daddy got fired on the spot!” Danny recalls of his father with a laugh. But Jesse’s legacy was never meant to be in tires. When he moved to a small shop on Wrenn Street and later North Main Street in downtown High Point and started working at his bike shop full time, it was clear this was his true calling. Danny for his part grew up in the bike shop. During his junior high years at Ferndale, Danny would walk to the bike shop after school to work.
“It’s all I’ve ever done,” he says now, reflecting on the weekends and summers he spent working for his father. “And I still love bikes.”
Danny and Dolly (another High Point-native) eventually married and began to grow their family. Now, their bike fleet includes 10 grown children, who have all enjoyed the same hobby as their father and grandfather. Dolly, for her part, grew in her appreciation for biking after marrying Danny. If you ask her about her knowledge of biking before she met Danny, she’d say with a laugh: “I had a bicycle!”
“It was a different era,” she explains. “You had one or two bikes. Now you have a stable full!”
And for the Jennings, they outgrew the smaller shop in downtown High Point, and built their current location at 2000 N. Main Street. Dolly, who had just given birth to their ninth child, recalls moving into the new location with a 6-week-old baby.
“Wherever I went, the baby went,” she laughs. But that’s always been true for the Jennings family. What they do as a business, they do as a family. Today, the second and fourth oldest Jennings (Dale and Derric) both work in the shop: Dale being an avid road biker and Derric more of a mountain biker.
And with three generations worth of knowledge on everything from high-end road bikes to vintage bikes to bike repairs (even now to electric bikes) – the Jennings family earns nationwide travelers seeking their expert opinion and unmatched inventory.
“One person to us come from Denver, Georgia,” Dolly recalls. The family, on their way to a vacation up north, checked bike shops across the country as they traveled north in search of a specific bike. And Bicycle Toy and Hobby had it. “They came, took it with them, rode it for a week, on the way back to Georgia, came in here and we made sure everything was still perfect. And then back to Denver, Georiga they went!”
And while the Jennings are quick to say they are “High Point born and bred” (many of their children and grandchildren still in the area, working everywhere from High Point University to Welborn Middle School), they bring outsiders into our city from states all over the country.
Bike enthusiasts are also intrigued to stop by the shop to see Danny’s collection of antique bikes. Rattling off names like “the apple crate,” “the lemon peeler,” “the pig picker,” and “the gray ghost,” – Danny has secured a small museum’s worth of bike historical artifacts that tell the story of how much the bike industry has changed and grown.
“It was a lot simpler then than it is now,” Dolly says of the bikes made in the past. Road bikes came in a limited number of sizes and didn’t require the level of maintenance and expertise they do now. Which is why when someone invests in a bike they love from Bicycle Toy and Hobby, it’s a no-brainer to take it to the Jennings family for continued upkeep.
“You learn people’s needs, and you know what they need before they need it,” Dolly says. Dale and Derric, who work consistently in the repair room at the front of the shop, often have bikes up on rigs, working on them with meticulous attention to detail.
“I want people to know they can trust us,” Dolly says of the work her family does. "People will hand me a ticket and say, ‘Fix whatever is wrong.’ They know we’re not going to take advantage because that’s not what we do.”
"I want people to know they can trust us. They know we're not going to take advantage because that's not what we do."
Dolly Jennings, Co-Owner of Bicycle Toy and Hobby
Honesty and integrity have always been founding tenants of what the Jennings do, not to mention their dedication to serve and better their hometown. The family supports charity races quite often – from the Bobby Labonte Foundation charity bike race to the Tour de Tanglewood.
Their trustworthiness and dedication to their hometown mean that the Jennings are even trusted by some of the most crucial entities to High Point’s safety and success – the High Point Fire Department and the High Point Police Department. First responders in High Point trust the Jennings with the bikes they use to provide event management and emergency services, since bikes can easily weave into packed crowds and events that take place in High Point. They even add defibrillators on the bikes.
And that kind of trustworthiness leaves a long-lasting impact on our community. Kids who grew up in High Point who have moved away, often return to buy their children’s first bikes from Dolly and Danny.
“We have third and fourth generations coming in to get bikes now,” Dolly says. Danny and Dolly love to see that there are new generations of bike riders in High Point, building their own community of camaraderie around the hobby. Trails cropping up in High Point, like the ones at the Greenway, Piedmont Environmental Center, Ridge Fork Preserve, and more, have increased the demand for mountain bikes.
But Bicycle Toy and Hobby isn’t just multi-generational in its customer base, but also in its future. Dolly and Danny’s trustworthiness and hard work ethic has been passed down like a love of biking to their kids and grandkids. Nowadays, it’s not surprising to find one of the Jennings’ grandchildren working in the shop, fourth generation seeds being sowed for the shop’s future.
“There’s 15 of them,” Dolly laughs, thinking of her grandchildren. “Somebody will want it!”
But at 81-years-old, Danny doesn’t plan to leave his first love anytime soon. He’s still an avid mountain biker.
“I guarantee he can out ride you!” Dolly teases. And after 60 years of marriage, 10 kids, 15 grandkids, and more than 40 years of business ownership, you could say the Jennings know a thing or two about how to stay the course and enjoy the ride.
Discover our High Points,
The HPD Team
Photography by Zander Betterton