This post on the Ann Arbor Townies group, observing the recent closure of Great Lakes Cycle on Stadium Boulevard, put me down a little AADL Community Collections rabbit hole trying to remember all the old bike places in town.
Michael Staebler’s Coal Office and Bicycle Shop
This one was the earliest, I think, on Washington Street near Ashley.
Though named for its founder, German-American investor and Ann Arborite Michael Staebler, it was apparently actually run by his son Edward. I’m very curious about what this store’s net carbon footprint was.
Ann Arbor Cyclery
More familiar to some is Ann Arbor Cyclery, which was a fixture for decades on Packard Road.
Sometime after the above photo was taken, it moved up the street to its final location, a site which had previously been a grocery and a pet supply store. A combination of new local competition from the REI store at Cranbrook and possible tax trouble led to its closure in 2010ish. Today it’s the Packard location of Argus Farm Stop.
Campus Bike & Toy
Campus Bike & Toy was another downtown fixture. It shared its William Street location with a variety of other interesting businesses over the years, including an early version of Schoolkids Records. Later, its site was the last retail location of David’s Books before they went online-only, and today it’s Asian Legend restaurant.
Nobilette Cycle Cellar
On the north side of downtown, Nobilette Cycle Cellar served the athletic bicyclist. The ad above was one of their last anniversaries on North Main Street. Within a couple of years they had moved downhill to 220 Felch Street, which is today the site of Ann Arbor Distilling Company.
South of Downtown but also not far off Main Street was…
Mike Kolin’s Cycling Center Inc.
I can’t tell you much about Mike Kolin’s that these photos don’t already tell you, except that it was in the east storefront of the little building on the Hoover block that is just about the only thing not owned by a utility or the University. Soon its neighbor Purchase Radio Supply’s old building will be history. An apartment building is planned for the site; it will cater to students who love locomotive horns.
Stadium Bike
Don’t know anything about this place either, but I love the aesthetic. This site is currently occupied by McDonald’s.
Also Worth Noting
I don’t know much about any of these beyond the photos but it’s intriguing to see so many bike shops in locations I tend to associate with car traffic.
More recently we saw a few stores close:
Two Wheel Tango, with stores on the west side and east side. Closed suddenly, apparently due to pressure from its main brand and costs incurred by expanding at the beginning of the Great Recession. The west-side store is a physical therapy clinic now; the east side is occupied by Fraser Bicycle, a Detroit-area bike chain.
Performance Bicycle, a regional chain and mail-order catalog that had expanded to our area relatively recently, began a complete wind-down under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, including all its physical locations and its website. Its IP was purchased at auction in February, and the site is back online under new ownership but with no relation to the physical locations.
Midwest Bike and Tandem, on Plymouth Road in the Courtyard Shops. Moved to Brighton.
Great Lakes Cycle was up and down Stadium Boulevard over the years – in Boulevard Plaza (in back behind the Arbor Farms/Barnes Ace Hardware), later in the old Ace Hardware space (most recently Advance Auto Parts), most recently in a spot close to the road between Liberty and Jackson Road. That location has closed. Oscar, the owner, sold his inventory to another local specialty chain, D&D Bicycles & Hockey, who shares retail space on Jackson Road with Sun & Snow outfitters; the space, once the very first location of national tire chain Discount Tire Company, will be occupied soon by the Wags & Wiskers pet supply store.
Besides D&D, there are a number of local stores still going strong. Presented in no particular order:
- Sic Transit Cycles, and its neighboring custom bike-fitter FitMi, in LowerTown
- The Local Bike Shop A2 on Fourth Avenue downtown
- Student Bike Shop on Maynard Street downtown
- Urban Rider Cargo Bikes in Kerrytown
- Wheels in Motion, which was around before all of these and may outlive us all. I still have a gift certificate from the early 90s for Washtenaw Cycle (its previous identity). One of these days, I’m going to try to redeem it.
I’ll add other Ann Arbor ones if they occur to me or I am corrected (I will be corrected). There are great bike stores in other nearby cities too, but it’s almost 11pm, I’ve been working on this for hours, and the name of the site is A2 Retail dot Space. Thank you.
In the early 2000s, in addition to the big Packard store and before the Jackson Road location, Two Wheel Tango had a location on Hoover (where the dance studio is now — I think Two Wheel was just in half the building).
Huh, no kidding! That was before I moved back to town. That building on Hoover has a real history with bikes. That helps explain the massive wooden ramp from the side door to the sidewalk.
Before Great Lakes was on Stadium, it was at the corner of Main & Madison (owned by Hank Bednarz at that point). Before that, GL was on Hoover. I don’t remember the address, but I’m guessing it was where Mike Kolin’s was. I worked at GL in about ‘88 when it was at Main & Madison. Then I went to Washtenaw Cycle as one of the first employees in the early ‘90s. Worth mentioning is that WC was a spin-off of Campus Bike & Toy. Then the owner had another location in Brighton and then Fenton. Now the owner (and his son) run Wheels in Motion next door to the old WC location, and they now have a location in Plymouth. Anyway, awesome job putting all this together. Kudos to you!
Thanks Eric! That’s very helpful history. I was going through a box in the garage and found a $50 gift certificate for Washtenaw Cycle & Fitness that I earned for working on a campus event when I was a student. So, you, know, three or four years ago. I have been tempted to take it to Wheels and see if it’s still good, or even if they would just want it for their archives. Do bike shops have archives?
As long as it doesn’t have an expiration date, I would imagine they’d honor it. But it’s been many years since I’ve worked there. On a side note, I found an AABTS newsletter from 1985 that has Great Lakes listed with the same address as Mike Kolin’s, so it did indeed become GL at some point before it moved to Main & Madison (and then to Stadium).
I worked as a mechanic at Cycle Cellar in the Felch St location with owners Steve Lansky, Steve Bennett, Mark Nobilette, Peter Lawless (manager), Brian Creager, Tim Peitch, and some others I can’t remember. I recall space was $8 a square foot and we had loads of it but it was horrible for retail with no foot traffic or visibility. As a young mechanic it was fun to get an occasional bit of work from Mark back in the frame building shop, even if it was just cutting up tubing. I still have a lot of their tools and packaged parts from when the shop closed down.
That’s awesome, Paul. Thanks for sharing these details on Cycle Cellar and I apologize for not approving this comment sooner. I’ve been very busy with activities outside the blog and haven’t logged in for a while.
What was the bike shop in Hoover, by the rail road tracks, (North side of the street)? Late 70’s and early 80’s. The shop name was the owner’s name and he had been a professional cyclist.
Hey Craig —
Mike Kolin’s Cycling Center. Here’s a photo of the storefront:
https://aadl.org/node/260877
Sorry I didn’t include it in the original post!