When the corner of Tenth and Grant was All Ears, employees were hired for musical taste. When it became Wedge Furniture, managers looked for design-conscious workers. The hiring requirements of 401 E. Tenth Street's current inhabitants are a little more niche-oriented.

"Everyone who works here has pretty much ridden everything from road to BMX to mountain to road to cyclo-cross bicycling," said Brad Titzer. "It's pretty much a requirement. We're big bike nerds and big coffee nerds."

Titzer owns Revolution Bike & Bean, the combination bicycle sales, repair and full-service coffee shop. The one quality that unites employees at this unconventional revolution is passion.

Titzer walked into an Evansville bicycle shop, as he tells it, the day he turned 16 to ask for a job.

Vince Heichelbech, Revolution general manager, lived in a "desolate" dessert to work as head mechanic to Poison Spider Bicycles in the "Mecca" of mountain biking, Moab, Utah.

One former employee, Alex Harrington, quit his job at Revolution after graduating college and has since cycled through China, Tibet, Nepal and, now, India.

"It's definitely a lifestyle more than a job," said Titzer. "We wouldn't be doing this if we wanted to make money."

Titzer has been in the bicycle industry for 15 years, with time spent in competitive racing.

"I began racing at the White River State Park when I was 12," he said. "I was riding an old Raleigh far too large for me. I was like 5 feet tall on a bike built for someone 6 feet tall."

Heichelbech was a bicycle messenger in Indianapolis before moving to Moab.

"I enjoyed a big shop, but when you've done the same thing for so long for someone else, why not do it for yourself?" he said.

For Titzer, Heichelbech and others at the shop, bicycles and cycling are involved in everything 8-5 and after.

"Every vacation I've taken over the last 10 years involved my car and a bicycle in a rack on top," said Titzer. "It's my passion."

All of this harkens back to his work philosophy of loving what you do.

"I really feel like when you're selling something you're selling a part of yourself," said Titzer. "If you don't know something, we will take care of it, we will teach you. It's all about sharing and disseminating knowledge."

That knowledge is more diverse at Revolution Bike & Bean than perhaps any other place in town.

"I spent literally hours searching for the right bean," said Titzer.

The "right bean" he settled on is an organic Italian bean that's certified "fair trade" — meaning it has passed U.S. requirements that ensure equitable standards for international labor, environmental and social policies. It is red roasted in the French style in Cincinnati and shipped to Revolution every morning. By the time it is ground into slow drip coffee, the roasted bean is never more than four days old.

The coffee side of Revolution serves mochas, espressos, lattes, chi and coffees in three flavors. Titzer plans to serve breakfast sandwiches in the future.

Spanning the wall behind the coffee bar and across the room from road bikes weighing less than two-and-a-half pounds are cycling DVDs. They range in attitude from the Zen art of cycling to the more dare-devilish. In some of these videos, cyclists race down mountain terrain and across bridges at 40-50 miles per hour. Titzer likens it to "motorcycles without motors."

DVDs, like Disorderly Conduct, show breakneck bridge jumps for a good reason. This kind of biking, pushing the bikes as hard and fast as they can go, in part advances technology within the industry. What was originally used for BMX bikes is now used in the design of road bicycles, according to Titzer.

"Suspension bikes were rare 15 years ago," he said. "They've been refining this technology for 13 years."

Titzer, Heichlebech and the Revolution staff have worked with many types of rare bicycle technology and, according to Titzer, have experience that's one-of-a-kind, even for Bloomington.

"We sell these bikes and can fix pretty much everything right here," said Titzer. "You can read a lot of stuff, but to really appreciate it, I mean, I've ridden every kind of suspension bike on the market except for two or three. It's the sheer dedication to the sport. It's our passion."

Elizabeth Dilts can be reached at edilts@indiana.edu.