George's Cycles Blog

George's Journal #1 | George's Origins

In this first edition of George's Journal we take a look back at just how George's came to be and a little bit about who George was.

Welcome to the very first edition of George’s Journal, a new blog series we’ll be doing regularly that will highlight the history of George’s Cycles, Boise cycling, and the people who make up our amazing community here in Boise, Idaho.

In this first entry in the Journal we’ll take a trip down memory lane, looking back at over 50 years of history and the George’s Cycles origin story.

When Joyce and Bob Sulanke first moved to the City of Trees around 1970, they were already avid cyclists and had been part of the cycling scene in Lawrence, Kansas where Joyce had been teaching Latin and Bob was finishing up his PhD in mathematics. They spent a lot of time at a shop called Gran Sport. This shop was owned by a man named George Latham, and a lot of riders would refer to Gran Sport simply as George’s bike shop. The Sulankes are quoted from a 1974 interview from the publication Kansas Cyclist, “We would hang around George’s bike shop as therapy to offset the burden of our studies.” The academics knew back then what we all know now- a bike ride is good for the mind and soul!

In Kansas, the Sulankes started an 80 mile ride called the Octoginta (which means 80 in Latin) that has been an annual October tradition ever since, celebrating its 55^th year anniversary this year.

(George Latham's store, Gran Sport in Lawrence Kansas. George is the second from the left in the back row. Photo Courtesy of Steve Stuebner & Idaho Press.)

Bob got a job at BSU as a math professor which was the impetus for the move to Boise. They wanted the community of the bike shop that they had left behind, but it didn’t exist here yet. Joyce said, “When we moved to Boise there weren’t any decent cycling shops, so we decided to start our own.” As George had been the one responsible for their interest in cycling, they named it after him. They opened in a tiny shack on Warm Springs Road and wouldn’t have been able to keep the doors open if it wasn’t for Bob’s teaching salary. But their timing was perfect as a bike boom hit the US two months later. The shop grew from a hobby to a real shop, catering to the serious cyclist, carrying brands like Campagnolo and other European brands as well as newer products from companies popping up in California. Like, the newly formed company Specialized.

Bob and Joyce established themselves as a large part of the cycling community, sponsoring rides and races and creating the Boise Cycling Club. In 1972 they started an event you may have participated in—the Bogus Basin Hill Climb.

(George Latham Jr. “Our Guru”)

So why George’s? Well, the Sulankes say in the 1974 interview, “George is certainly the one responsible for our interest in cycling. ... so it was obvious it had to be “George’s Bike Shop”.

Since opening over 50 years ago that little shop on Warm Springs has changed a lot, from moving to a bigger location, to adding multiple stores, to the first ownership change in 1981 and the most recent in 2021. George’s continues to be one of the best bike shops in the Boise area, keeping that community building style that George instilled supporting the cycling community through team sponsorship, event planning and providing the people of Boise with top notch products and service.

For our next post we’ll look back at the beginnings of the Bogus Basin Hill Climb, past winners, how it got its start, and where it’s headed for the future.

If you have been riding the Hill Climb since the beginning please send an email to george@georgescycles.com with your story and some photos if you’d like to be included in the post! (We can’t guarantee all submissions will make it to print).

We’ll end with a funny fact: In Lawrence, Kansas, there’s a trail named after the late great George Latham, but here’s the ironic part—you can’t ride bikes on it. Although we will admit that a good hike is still in alignment with George’s “Outfitter to the Self-Propelled” motto.