Fabled Fountain Valley Bicycle Pioneer Derailed Out of Business : Retailing: Two Wheel Transit Authority helped fuel the cycling boom. But its founder is forced by flattened sales to quit the race.

FOUNTAIN VALLEY —  Two Wheel Transit Authority, once one of the nation’s largest bicycle retailers and a company that helped fuel the cycling boom in Orange County, has reached the end of the road.

Paul C. Moore, president and founder of the company, said Friday that increased competition, an industrywide flattening of sales and problems related to the move of its operations from Huntington Beach caused insurmountable financial problems.

“It’s been a really great ride,” said Moore, as he fielded telephone calls and advised sales clerks in his second-floor office.

The company’s only shop--a two-story structure on Warner Avenue that employs 25 workers--is holding a liquidation sale this weekend. Once the merchandise, which is being discounted, is sold, the store will close for good. Moore said that could come as early as Monday.

The company’s financial problems mounted about two years ago, Moore said. He worked with creditors to try to pump new life into the operation. Although staff and operating costs were cut, lingering debts and obligations are too great to overcome.

Two Wheel opened its first shop 15 years ago in Costa Mesa, with the intent of specializing in touring bicycles. Later Moore moved to a large Huntington Beach store, which developed a reputation as a one-stop bicycling superstore, crammed with bins of merchandise ranging from every hue of handlebar tape to rows of bikes.

By the mid-1980s, the store had annual sales of about $4 million and more than 60 employees, making it one of the largest bicycle emporiums in the nation.

The company also gained a high profile. The Two Wheel name was a common sight at local bicycle rallies. The store became a gathering place for tanned young bicyclists in black riding shorts who came to eye the latest equipment and exchange notes with fellow enthusiasts.

“They did a lot of things right, the kind of things we encouraged our members to do,” said Fred Clements, a spokesman for the National Bicycle Dealers Assn. in Costa Mesa. “When dignitaries would visit and we wanted to show them an example of a good shop, we would take them there.”

At one point, Two Wheel had shops in Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley and El Toro. Moore said he closed the Huntington Beach store in 1987 as downtown redevelopment made it appear that Two Wheel would be forced out of the building anyway. The El Toro shop was also closed, having never been very successful.

He consolidated his operations into the Fountain Valley store near the San Diego Freeway. But there was stiff competition from four other bike shops within a block.

Sales leveled off, but the store was still saddled with high overhead costs. No longer generating its huge cash volume, Moore said he had a harder time staying ahead of the bills.

“We could never get a leg up on it,” he added, explaining that the store hung on because the bicycle market is so healthy that a turnaround seemed possible.

Clements said the store’s closing is “terrible news. They are probably the most beautiful store in the area.”