On a Joliet street where bicycles have been sold for more than a century, a small shop is celebrating 130 years of turning the pedal and the wrench into something people return to. Its founding in 1894 places it among the earliest bicycle sellers in the nation, a survivor of the era that first made the bicycle a common road companion. Now, as electric bikes reshape the trade, the shop finds its footing not in scale but in the human act of repair and conversation. It is a quiet reminder that what endures in commerce is often the relationship, not the inventory.
Joliet's Sumbaum Cycle Marks 130 Years as the Nation's Second-Oldest Bicycle Store
You can't go in there needing your tire fixed.
Mark
A bike shop that's 130 years old. What's the real story here?
Mimi
Survival through change. It started selling cars and boats too, then narrowed to bicycles. It went from Schwinn for decades to Trek now, and e-bikes are about three in ten sales.
Mark
And the family angle?
Mimi
Ted Sari's father, Mibs, started there as a teenager in 1943, bought the place in 1951, and built the Larkin Avenue store in 1974. Ted has run it 37 years.
Mark
Sari says service sets them apart from Walmart or Dick's. Is that the whole answer?
Luke
It's his answer, and it's plausible, since a chain rack doesn't fix your flat. But the article doesn't give sales figures or compare against chains, so we can't say how much that service edge is worth financially.
Mark
What about the second-oldest claim?
Luke
That comes from the shop and Sari, who says a New Jersey store is two or three years older. The piece doesn't name that store or verify the ranking independently.
Mimi
Still, the Larkin Avenue location, the Sari family ownership dates and the 50,000 Schwinns all come from the shop's own history and Mibs's obituary.
Mark
Any sign of growth?
Mimi
A possible second shop in Shorewood, maybe within a couple of years, and an anniversary party in late summer or early fall.
Luke
Both are intentions, not commitments. Sari himself says Shorewood won't happen in 2024.
Der Puls
- Electric bikes now make up roughly three in ten sales, pushing a century-old shop to keep pace with a fast-changing market.
- Big-box chains with racks of cheap bikes press in from every side, and the shop answers with the one thing they cannot offer: repairs done on the spot.
- Walk-in traffic is picking up as summer nears, with customers crowding the counter and interrupting conversations to ask about e-bike classes and speeds.
- The owner is weighing a second storefront in Shorewood within a couple of years, while planning an end-of-summer gathering to thank the customers who have kept the doors open.
On a Joliet street where bicycles have been sold for more than a century, a small shop is celebrating 130 years of turning the pedal and the wrench into something people return to. Its founding in 1894 places it among the earliest bicycle sellers in the nation, a survivor of the era that first made the bicycle a common road companion. Now, as electric bikes reshape the trade, the shop finds its footing not in scale but in the human act of repair and conversation. It is a quiet reminder that what endures in commerce is often the relationship, not the inventory.
On Larkin Avenue in Joliet, a bicycle shop is in its busiest stretch of the year. May is National Bike Month, and Sumbaum Cycle, opened in 1894, is marking 130 years in business, a claim to being the second-oldest bicycle store in the nation. Commemorative T-shirts and jerseys are on sale for the occasion.
Owner Ted Sari has run the shop for 37 years, and the store has stood at 114 N. Larkin Ave. since 1975. The question customers ask most these days is about electric bikes, which now account for about three in every ten bicycles he sells. Trek e-bikes fill the floor, and during one interview, customers kept wandering in to ask about the three speed classes.
The shop's roots go back to O.F. Sumbaum, who began on Cass Street and once sold cars and boats alongside bicycles. The Sari family took over in 1951, when Ted's father, Gene "Mibs" Sari, bought the business he had started sweeping as a teenager. For decades the shop was a Schwinn house; today it is a Trek shop.
Sari points to service as what sets Sumbaum apart from department stores. People cannot walk in with a flat tire at a big-box chain and expect help, but here the staff often fixes several flats a day. Customers range from children's first riders to regulars who have come for half a century, and Sari credits those relationships as the heart of the business.
Looking ahead, he is considering a second store, likely in Shorewood, though not this year, and hopes to host an anniversary gathering in late summer or early fall. Until then, the shop keeps its doors open and its advice free: wear a helmet, use lights, and remember that most accidents happen close to home.
On Larkin Avenue in Joliet, a bicycle shop is in its busiest stretch of the year. May is National Bike Month, and Sumbaum Cycle, which opened in 1894, is marking its 130th year in business. The shop describes itself as the second-oldest bicycle store in the United States.
To mark the anniversary, the store is selling commemorative T-shirts for $20 and jerseys for $99. Owner Ted Sari has run the shop for 37 years. It has stood at 114 N. Larkin Ave. since 1975. With summer approaching, Sari says walk-in traffic is picking up, and the thing people are asking about most is electric bikes.
The e-bike numbers bear that out. By Sari's account, about three out of every ten bicycles Sumbaum sells in 2024 are electric. The store carries Trek e-bikes, most priced around $2,000, with some models reaching $10,000. Sari explained that e-bikes fall into three classes: Class 1 bikes reach 20 mph, Class 2 reach 25 mph, and Class 3 reach 28 mph. During a recent interview at the shop, several customers wandered in to ask about them, interrupting the conversation more than once.
The business began when O.F. Sumbaum opened a shop on Cass Street near downtown Joliet. In its early years it sold automobiles and boats as well as bicycles, before settling on bicycles alone. There is only one Sumbaum Cycle in the world. The shop still holds some of the original tools from that first store, along with business correspondence from Sumbaum that is more than a century old.
The ownership line runs through the Sari family. Ted Sari's father, Gene "Mibs" Sari (1929 to 2015), started working at the shop as a teenager in 1943. In 1951 he bought it and kept the name, and according to his obituary he owned it for more than 60 years. In 1974 he built the Larkin Avenue storefront on Joliet's west side. For decades the shop specialized in Schwinn bicycles, selling more than 50,000 of them over the years. Today the focus is Trek. Sari says the oldest bicycle store in the country is in New Jersey and predates Sumbaum by two or three years.
Asked what separates Sumbaum from the department and sporting goods stores that stock racks of bikes, Sari pointed to service. "You can't go in there needing your tire fixed," he said, adding that a Dick's Sporting Goods or a Walmart won't offer that. Sumbaum keeps about 125 new bikes in stock, sells accessories including helmets, gloves, jerseys, locks, baskets, lights and pumps, and does repairs and tune-ups with a long-time staff. They often fix several flat tires a day. Sari says his customers range from people who haven't ridden since childhood to regulars who have been coming for 50 years, and he credits time spent talking with people and building relationships as the core of the business.
Sari also urged all riders to wear helmets and use lights. "Safety first," he said, noting that accidents usually happen close to home, just going around the block.
Looking ahead, Sari is still weighing a second storefront, probably in Shorewood, though not in 2024. He said it might happen within a couple of years. He also hopes to hold an anniversary gathering for customers at the store in late summer or early fall. The shop is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. It is closed Sundays and Wednesdays.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
You can't go in there needing your tire fixed. You're not going to get that at a Dick's Sporting Goods or a Walmart.— Ted Sari, owner of Sumbaum Cycle
Talking and spending time with people and building relationships with people has been as important as it's ever been.— Ted Sari, owner of Sumbaum Cycle
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