Jon Houk
Jon Houk
Jon grew up riding bicycles around the neighborhood and when camping with his family but purchased his first real bicycle in 1996 with paper route money, a new GT Zaskar. He spent many hours riding this bike, in addition to completely disassembling and reassembling and servicing this bike. He spent most of his junior high through college years focusing on competitive running but got into bike racing after college when he started racing cyclocross and mountain bikes in the Pacific Northwest.
He was lucky to have friends and family that were interested in bikes, and they ultimately helped convert his fitness from running to cycling. Jon explored many mountain bike miles with his friend Chris growing up, and then later with some college and bikeshop friends. When one of his closest college friends, Andy, injured his knee and had to retire from running, he convinced Jon to try mountain bike and cyclocross racing. Jon’s younger brothers had started bike racing years earlier so he ended up following them into the bike racing scene. Jon's favorite thing in the world is to ride bikes with his two brothers, Brandon and Mahlon. Jon figures he has about 28 years of running and/or bike racing under his belt so far.
After graduating from Whitworth College with his first degree (BS Biology) in 2003, he ended up working in bike sales at Gregg's Greenlake Cycle in Seattle. He sampled various biology-related jobs but kept coming back to the bike shop. Feeling the call to be a science teacher, he left Gregg's and went back to Whitworth for a Master's in Secondary Education. While teaching for 7 years, he returned to Gregg's during some of the summers. Engineering had always been intriguing and he needed a change of pace so he again went back to school, this time for an Electrical Engineering degree during which he worked part-time at Greggs as a mechanic. He finished his degree and moved to St George with his new wife Marjorie. While looking for engineering jobs, he ended up working at Red Rock Bicycles for two years before finally landing at IBB in 2022.
Jon loves riding bikes, and he enjoys the process of helping others to have a more enjoyable experience on their bikes. Through his years of racing and training he understands the importance of a well-fitting, well-functioning bike. He enjoys coupling both of these things at IBB under the Fit-Spec-Build program, where attention to detail and overall customer experience are the highest priority. This process takes time and energy but the final result is worth it, and IBB has found that cyclists of all types appreciate this level of commitment. IBB sells high end bikes and products because they are the highest quality and provide the best experience on a bike. IBB provides the level of service that the employees would want for themselves, and they are proud to stand behind it.
Jon’s favorite route is an all day mountain bike epic centered at Grafton Mesa because it provides an almost limitless amount of fantastic, techy singletrack. Jon has spent several Birthdays on such rides with his friend Josh, barely making it back to the car, completely exhausted and satisfied.