The iconic Fort Myers Cyclery, after 28 years, has new ownership.  

Michael Wian took over the store at the northwest corner of Hill and Cleveland avenues from Michael and Diane Holm in September.  

The $815,000 sale between the Holms and 3630 Cleveland Avenue LLC closed on Sept. 18, according to property records. Michael Wian’s father, Edward, is listed as the agent for the LLC. 

“I’ve been working in the bike shop since 1969, so it was time to hang up my toolbelt” Michael Holm said.  

He started working in his father’s bike shop in Sarasota when he was a teenager and got his first glimpse of Fort Myers in 1973 when his dad sent him to help for two weeks at a bike shop owned by the Riching family.  

He returned to Fort Myers in 1995 and signed a five-year lease for Riching’s building on Courtney Drive. The Richings declined his offer to buy the building when the lease ended.   

“It was a blessing, the fact she didn’t sell me the property on Courtney,” he said. Instead, he found the building on Cleveland Avenue where close to 38,400 vehicles pass daily, according to Lee County’s 2022 traffic counts.   

The bike business didn’t change much during his ownership. The biggest change came when Schwinn, one of the most recognizable names in bikes, stopped selling to bike shops. Otherwise, most of the competition came from mom-and-pop businesses.   

Holm saw bike fads come and go. When he started, 10-speeds were the rage, then came BMX bikes, mountain bikes and hybrids. The newest rage is electric bikes, more popularly known as e-bikes, which caught Wian’s attention.  

“I like the way the bike industry is going [with] the electric bikes, and it’s moving people who haven’t ridden bikes for a long time back into cycling,” he said. “I think the e-bikes are fascinating to me.”  

Wian, who just turned 30, worked with his dad before his father sold his truck business, Tri-County Motor Sales, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a couple of years ago.  

Wian began searching for what to do next. He knew he wanted to live in Southwest Florida, and the bike business piqued his interest. Then he discovered Fort Myers Cyclery was for sale.   

Owning a bike shop is not unlike his father’s business, Wian said.  

“I don’t think it’s different at all,” he said. “Sales, service, parts, it’s kind of the same on a smaller scale.” 

Wian hasn’t made many changes, as he didn’t want to make his customers uneasy.  

He kept his three employees.  

“It’s the same shop, the same employees besides the ownership, the same level of customer service,” he said.  

Wian said he has no plans to do anything with the adjoining lot that was included in the sale. He does plan to give the building a paint job, better branding and a new logo.