Gaansari Gary interview

By Richard Masoner

Another quality bicycle shop bites the dust: Cycles Gaansari will close their Springboro, OH shop on April 29. Gaansari owner Gary and his family will then move to the San Francisco Bay Area in California in May, where Gary plans to continue with his previous life as a marketing/public relations consultant in the cycling industry.

I'm just a computer nerd with a blog; Gary Boulanger has a journalism degree. Gary has spent most of his working life interviewing big wigs in the cycling industry, writing copy for bicycling magazines and bicycle catalogs, and doing public relations and marketing for bicycle companies.

I asked Gary how he got into the bike retail business. His was an interesting trip.

"When I was in college I wanted to be in the music business," says Gary. "I was doing something like four internships at a time, learning more as an intern than in my college classes."

What did Gary do with his journalism degree?

"Work was very tough to find in the early 90s. I was really into soccer and I went to work for a Foot Locker store for a while, but I didn't like that kind routine. I went to work for a Schwinn dealer, Allis Bike & Fitness in Milwaukee. When they were selected by Bicycle Dealer Showcase to be one of the Top 100 bicycle retailers in the US, I contacted an editor at Bicycle Dealer Showcase to ask what that was about so I could write up a press release for the local media. We talked for a while and hit it off, and I started writing a column. I was the man in the street for them, so to speak, the guy working at the local bike shop doing product reviews, calling up people in the bike industry and doing interviews."

"I was hired by a company that made titanium bikes called Airborne to do PR for them. When Huffy bought them out they moved the whole operation to Dayton and that's how I ended up here."

"I didn't like working for a publically traded company, so I quit Huffy and started Cycles Gaansari in Dayton."

Gary has decided to shelve the Gaansari and Fisso brands for now.

All the best to Gary and his family!

Photo tour of the shop.

Fixedgear heard the news several weeks ago.