The owner of a Hamilton cycle repair and parts business links expanding operations to basic methods of small business -- competitive prices, quality parts and establishing a clientele.

Young entrepreneur Mr. Paul DeCouto, 25, has for the past six years operating Cycle Care Repair, located next to the Somers Warehouse on Cemetery Road.

And that work led him last December to form a sister business, Cycle Care Spares located on Woodlands Road near Cemetery Road, with his younger brother Mr. Stephen DeCouto, 20, and their father Mr. Ernest DeCouto.

Mr. DeCouto owns the repair business while the trio own the after market parts operation. They declined to divulge sales figures but indicated the operations were moving in the right direction.

The shop repairs about 15 bikes per day. The number has increased since the opening of the nearby parts operation.

Steven traced his brother's interest in bikes back when an uncle showed him how to change a tire when he was eight.

At age 10, his father said, the youngster started working on bikes and bringing in parts through proper associations with foreign companies.

Both were signs of an mechanic/entrepreneur in the making.

He started working at the Island's Yamaha dealer then opened his own repair business six years ago on Cemetery Road adjacent to the Somers Warehouse.

Mr. DeCouto, trained as a bike mechanic in Daytona Beach, Florida at the American Motorcycle Institute and went to Bermuda College. He also has taken high performance lightweight bike course in Italy.

The business sponsors one of the riders in the Pee-Wee 50 class races at Coney Island and students from schools routinely are released to the shop for hands-on mechanical experience. But the patriarch of the family, a former insurance branch office manager, admits he tried to discourage his son by trying to get him to focus more on school studies.

He admits now the attempts to discourage his son were a mistake.

"He has always been out there working. I used to discourage him from his bikes when I should have stood behind it. It is a very good thing when a young man can stay focused on what he wants,'' he said.

The trio are currently making preparations to add cycle sales to the repair and parts operations.

"I've always wanted to be selling a line of bikes. We hope to compete in about two months with Yamaha and the Suzuki step through bikes when we bring in an Asian-made bike, the Prima 80, in about two months,'' said Mr. Paul DeCouto.

After the Prima 80 they hope to bring to the Island another bike from Prima, the Cagiva 50 cc sport bike. This model will compete with the Aprilia sport bike.

Mr. DeCouto is currently helping to design a 50 cc cylinder for the Prima 80, making that cycle available to a larger part of the Bermuda cycle market.

"Many of the parts we sell have to be adapted to fit the local bikes but the shop is equipped for all types of repairs,'' he added.

Working with after market products provides the best of both worlds, according to the trio of entrepreneurs. The parts are in most cases better than original parts to compete with name brand parts and because they do not carry the "genuine'' parts' name they are less expensive.

Mr. DeCouto believes the number of cycle thefts might drop if shops carried more spare parts. One of the businesses focuses will be a well stocked parts area. The company also picks up and delivers.

"People will buy the parts from shops if businesses had them in stock,'' he noted.

ADDING CYCLES -- Mr. Paul DeCouto, owner of Cycle Care Repair, centre, with his father Mr. Ernest DeCouto, left, and his brother Mr. Stephen DeCouto.