Geneva Cycle Shop celebrating 50 years

GENEVA – Geneva Cycle Shop is marking its 50th year with a two-week celebration that runs through April 15 at the store, which is at 12 E. State St., Geneva, owner Elis Giannini said.

He will offer snacks and refreshments on Saturdays, April 4 and 11, he said. The store will be open from 4 to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday. It is closed Sundays and holidays.

Giannini, 75, works by himself, making bikes for customers based on their size and what model they want.

“The bulk of my stock is not assembled,” Giannini said. “A third to a fourth of my bikes are not assembled yet. It’s like a warehouse. They’re stacked to the ceiling – 350 to 400 bikes – that are not assembled yet.”

Giannini said he assembles one or two bikes of representative size, and if a customer needs a different size, he builds it for them.

“My showroom is not that large,” he said. “I’m like a wholesale warehouse.”

Giannini said he did not always sell bicycles; he started selling motorcycles first.

“I started in the family garage directly across the street from where I am right now,” Giannini said. “I was a motorcycle dealer for the first 20 years, Ducati, European motorcycles. Then in the mid-1980s, motorcycles just stopped selling. In the parlance of the street, they fell into the toilet.”

Giannini said the bike path had just been built, so he started riding a bicycle. He said he decided to sell bicycles until motorcycles came back.

“Motorcycles came back in the ’90s, but I never went back,” Giannini said. “I was a lot more comfortable selling bicycles.”