A fresh face in the market may lead to serious competition in Ames bike stores.

Bike World is now open, after it bought inventory from and moved into the space of the former Two Wheel Travel, 300 Main St. Bike World is bringing a fresh face to the Ames bicycle market.

“Hopefully we’ll bring better variety and better pricing than was here before,” said Steve Lauber, general manager of Bike World Ames.

There are two Bike World stores in Des Moines — one in Merle Hay Mall and the other in West Des Moines.

The Ames store, which opened March 18 draws inventory from the same warehouse as the Des Moines stores. Lauber said he thinks this will give Bike World Ames an advantage over Ames’ largest bike shop, Michael’s Cyclery, 320 Main St.

“Two Wheel Travel had a real tough time. They were a really small store competing against a bigger store, ” Lauber said.

But managers at Michael’s Cyclery are not worried.

“Actually, I’d expect business in both stores to increase a bit,” said Ron Ritz, general manager of Michael’s Cyclery. He said since the new store is less than a block from Michael’s, any advertising for one store will bring new customers to both stores.

Ritz expects Bike World Ames to be disadvantaged by its small size and short history in Ames.

“We have the largest bicycle store facility in the upper Midwest,” Ritz said. He said Michael’s also has the longest history of bike service in Iowa, which gives Michael’s an advantage over local competition.

Bike World Ames employs six people, one of whom worked for Two Wheel Travel. Lauber expects to add a few more employees in the near future.

Since Bike World moved into the new location, it has done minor repairs and rearranged extensively. The old Two Wheel Travel awnings are still up, but Lauber said they will be replaced soon.