How Lugg Helped The New Wheel Electric Bike Shop Move to Valencia Street in San Francisco

After 14 years in Bernal Heights, one of San Francisco's most beloved electric bike shops was ready for a change.

"After 14 years, this is our final week in Bernal Heights," The New Wheel founder Brett Thurber wrote on LinkedIn—a bittersweet goodbye to the Apparel Way service center that had become a fixture of the neighborhood.

But closing one chapter meant opening another. On January 2nd, 2026, The New Wheel's Service Center made the move from 49 Apparel Way to its new home at 1031 Valencia Street. And they called on an old friend to make it happen.

A Partnership Nine Years in the Making

Lugg and The New Wheel go way back.

The first Lugg for The New Wheel rolled out on October 15, 2016—a customer needed their extra-long bicycle picked up and brought to the shop for service, on-demand, within 30 minutes. No bike rack required. What started as organic word-of-mouth deliveries became an official partnership in spring 2018, and the relationship has only grown from there.

Since then, Lugg has completed over 1,500 deliveries for New Wheel customers across their San Francisco, Larkspur, Oakland, and Service Center locations. That's hundreds of flat tire rescues, new bike deliveries, service pickups, and everything in between—including one memorable Christmas 2018 delivery where a cargo bike was secretly dropped off at a neighbor's house as a surprise gift.

The New Wheel isn't just a Lugg customer. They're a Lugg partner store, which means their customers get access to flat-rate pricing for bike delivery. Bought a new Tern GSD? Lugg can bring it home. Got a flat on your Riese & Müller across town? Lugg can get it to the shop. No need to figure out how to squeeze an 80-pound e-bike into the back of your Prius.

Two Box Trucks, Four Movers, One Smooth Move

For the Valencia Street move, The New Wheel needed serious muscle. When Lugg offered to handle it for free, Brett didn't hesitate: "That is absolutely amazing." After 9 years and 1,500+ deliveries together, it was the least we could do.

At 8 AM on January 2nd, two Lugg Box trucks and a crew of four professional Luggers arrived at the Apparel Way service center. By 1 PM, the heaviest, hardest-to-handle items were loaded, transported, and placed in the new shop—leaving The New Wheel team to handle the rest on their own terms.

The trickiest part? The workbenches. The New Wheel's service center runs on heavy-duty equipment built for serious repairs, and those benches don't move themselves. But with four Luggers on the job and Lugg's Bay Area sales rep Sarah Agee on-site capturing the moment, the transition went smoothly.

Two San Francisco Originals

There's something fitting about Lugg helping The New Wheel with this move.

Both companies were born in San Francisco. The New Wheel opened in Bernal Heights in 2012, founded by Brett Thurber and Karen Wiener—two Bay Area natives who met at UC Berkeley and bonded over a shared belief that electric bikes could transform how people get around the city's legendary hills.

Lugg launched in 2014, founded by Jordan Brown and Eric Kruetzer, who started as the first Luggers themselves—running IKEA deliveries and letting word of mouth do the rest. What began as a scrappy SF startup has grown into a platform available in over 75% of the United States, but the Bay Area is still home.

When a San Francisco institution needs to move, it makes sense to call another one.

A New Home on Valencia Street

The New Wheel's new Service Center at 1031 Valencia Street puts them in the heart of the Mission—one of San Francisco's most bike-friendly corridors. The retail store is set to open on January 26th, 2026, giving the city a fresh destination for e-bike sales, service, and test rides.

For The New Wheel, it's the start of a new chapter. For the customers who've relied on Lugg to get their bikes to and from the shop over the past nine years—often with a flat tire, sometimes from the Golden Gate Bridge parking lot, occasionally as a Christmas surprise—nothing changes. The partnership continues, one delivery at a time.

Need to move something big in San Francisco—or anywhere else? Lugg is available in 8000+ zip codes across the U.S. Book on-demand movers and a truck in minutes at lugg.com.

Shopping at The New Wheel? Ask about flat-rate Lugg delivery for your new e-bike purchase or service pickup.

Interested in becoming a Lugg retail partner? Learn more at lugg.com/retailers.

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