Of all the business owners currently considering a move downtown, lured by promises of low rent and an inner-city renaissance, few may be better suited than Gene Kirk and his Break Away Cycles, where owner Kirk sells and repairs bicycles and offers pretty much any bike accessory available.

The tie-in with the popular downtown Riverfront Trail alongside the Flint River, used frequently by hikers and bikers alike, is a natural lure, but so, too, is the younger, upwardly-mobile, artistic group that frequents the downtown area.

Those facts are not lost on Kirk, an Albany native who has turned his love for biking into a lifetime pursuit.

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