MARION — Jeff Patterson didn’t need to reinvent the wheel when he opened his new bicycle shop in Marion.

“This is bike shop number three for me,” Patterson said of Cranky’s Uptown Bicycles, which opened May 2. “It’s the latest and possibly the last.”

Patterson opened his first bike shop in Iowa City in 1994 after graduating from the University of Iowa with a degree in business. By then, biking had become a habit for him because it was the easiest way to get to campus from his apartment in Coralville.

“I didn’t think I’d own a bike shop,” he said. “But after I was out of school for a while I realized I didn’t want to wear a suit and tie every day.”

Patterson sold his Iowa City shop in 2000 after his wife took a job in Albuquerque, N.M. There, he managed different bike shops.

When his wife’s career took them to Rapid City, S.D., Patterson was ready to own a store again. He opened his second bicycle shop, which he called Cranky Jeff’s Bike Shop, a reference to the crank on a bike.

Patterson had five successful years at the Rapid City store before his wife took a job at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids. He sold the store to a customer and tried to be retired for 14 months. But retirement didn’t suit him, he said.

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