Biker cafe opens on Billings West End

Cycle-N-Hyde is the only place in town where you can order a latte and sandwich while sitting indoors on a Honda 350 motorcycle.

The café and apparel shop opened earlier this month at 3178 Gabel Road as an homage to biker culture. The walls are covered with Route 66 road signs and miniature display bikes. At the back is the most eye-catching display: a round bar with four motorcycle bodies welded on bar stools.

It’s where customers can belly up and order… a latte?

“We’ve been told that all the time. ‘Bikers drink lattes?’ Yeah, they do,” co-owner Julie Gorder said with a laugh.

Cycle-N-Hyde serves sandwiches, salads, breakfast, coffee and homemade chili. Gorder is the cook, and the business has five employees.

It takes an unusual partnership to run this unique business. Cycle-N-Hyde’s co-owners are Victor Cantrell, Gorder’s ex-husband, and Kelly Gorder, her current husband.

But all three agree the arrangement is working. Cantrell, who attended his ex-wife’s wedding three years ago, built the interior along with Kelly Gorder.

Gorder, 45, and Cantrell, 47, also have three children and two grandchildren together.

“He’s going to be my family forever,” she said.

The three also share a love of motorcycles. Kelly, 45, swung by for lunch last week on his Kawasaki Vulcan from his job as airplane mechanic.

Cantrell, owner of the truss company Pride Industries, also owns several bikes and has been riding since he was a teenager.

Julie came late to motorcycles. She feared them after Cantrell got into a wreck years ago, but said she learned to love the lifestyle from her second husband. Now, she rides her own Kawasaki Vulcan.

“I like the sound. I do. I like ‘em loud,” she said.

The 1,800-square-foot Cycle-N-Hyde is split about evenly between the

café and the apparel. The shop sells shirts, chaps, sunglasses and other biker gear. None of it, however, contains the iconic Harley-Davidson logo, which Julie says keeps the prices down.

The trio initially wanted to just sell apparel. However, adding the café has propped up the business, Julie said.

“We decided to combine the both because we like the motorcycle apparel stuff but we need something to keep the business going,” she said.

Cantrell is already thinking big. If the business takes off, he said he could see other franchises popping up.

It’s unlikely they could look exactly like the original, though. The top of the bar is stainless steel with a Ride to Freedom sign beneath a set of handlebars. On a shelf near the ceiling sits Sidecar Sid, a skeleton wearing a do-rag sitting in the sidecar of a bike. Another bike is on a shelf on the apparel side.

“It’s a new building, so we were able to design it ourselves,” Cantrell said. He estimates they spent under $100,000 to get the business ready and saved thousands by doing the work themselves.

Cantrell added that he’s happy to be on the Gabel Road corridor, a growing area in Billings. FedEx is building a ground hub facility a few blocks away that will employ 120 workers, and PayneWest Insurance recently started construction on a $3 million facility.

Julie said she hopes Cycle-N-Hyde could become a destination for employees on the far West End. Already workers at Denny Menholt Chevrolet at 3000 King Ave. W. have made multiple lunch orders, she said.

Julie formerly owned Tiny Tots Daycare Center and helped Cantrell run his truss building business. She doesn’t have experience in the food industry, but said she enjoys cooking and serving at home.

“I just always liked having a bunch of people over and cooking for them,” she said.

Biker cafe opens on Billings West End