I don’t pass by it much anymore, but when I do, the giant neon sign atop Western Cycle calls to me from the past. It reminds me of the excitement I felt when I was ten-years-old and dad and I went into the store at the corner of 124th Street and 104 A Avenue to shop for my first ten-speed bicycle.

In those days, cycle shops were my favourite places on earth, and Western Cycle was bursting with hundreds of bicycles, most of them calling my name. It was magical place of discovery with its assemblage of bicycles and accessories that, for a restless kid, held the key to freedom and adventure.

What I didn't know then was that the business had a history that stretched back generations, making it one of the oldest family-owned businesses on 124th Street. The story of Western Cycle began in 1934, when a young carpenter named Julius Pahal was given the task of dismantling an old abandoned church just off 107th Avenue near 99th Street.

In payment for his labour, he was given the lumber. From that old wood sprang a dream.

Undaunted by the depths of the Great Depression, Julius decided the time was right to open a business and so, using the old wood, he erected the structure that was to become Western Cycle & Hardware. Julius was joined by his brother Bill in 1937, and, when the Second World War broke out, the brothers took time tending the store while the other went into the service. Julius served with the Royal Canadian Air Force and Bill with the Royal Canadian Navy.

Right after the war, the brothers opened a second store off Whyte Avenue in Strathcona. In 1949, Bill bought the business and operated it along with his wife Evon and young son Jerry, who worked after school and on weekends.

Edmonton's population explosion of the 1950s fuelled demand for bicycles and hardware goods and repairs and the family soon ran out of room. They opened an expanded structure in 1957 and the cycle shop occupied a portion of the main floor.

When Bill and Evon retired in 1970, Jerry then purchased the store with the help of his wife Joy, and son Bill, who joined the firm full-time in 1979. Bill bought the business from his dad in 1999.

The famous sign – the one that called to me so urgently when I was a kid – was created by local firm Blanchett Neon and hoisted onto the roof in 1961. Like the business itself, it is a great Edmonton landmark, and one of the few that survives from the glorious age of neon.

Forty years ago, Edmonton boasted a number of neon giants. There was the A & W sign that poured root beer from a spigot alongside 109th Street near 103 A Avenue; the Minit Car Wash sign on Jasper Avenue and 117th Street with its floating soap bubbles; and a man, legs crossed, reading the Star Weekly on the Mike's News sign above the bustle of Jasper Avenue east of 101st Street.

The idea for the Western Cycle sign had its beginnings during one of the senior Bill’s trips to Edmonton. “He saw that bike dude at a bike store, and brought that image back to Edmonton, and told Blanchett Neon what he wanted, and they created it,” the junior Bill explains.

The coming of the big box retailers, an upwardly mobile population and growth in bicycle sales thanks to the mountain bike boom prompted the company to jettison the hardware side of the business in 1984. Now, Western Cycle is thriving, feasting on buoyant sales in BMX bikes and “comfort” bikes, with their wider seats, suspension, larger wheels and slick tires.

"The new era of bicycles are really tailored with the baby boomer in mind, because for a long time, people stopped buying bikes when they got to a certain age,” Bill says. These new comfort bikes make the bent-over-the-handlebars accouterment-scrunching days of the 10-speed a distant memory. Hallelujah!

“This boom driven by comfort bikes isn’t slowing down at all,” he reports. “They are not as delicate as the old ten-speeds, and so they are a lot better at handling potholes and rough roads.”

He says the store’s location has always been a plus, and with increasing density downtown and in Oliver, more people are looking at bikes as a way to get around day-to-day. “Many of our customers are parking their big cars, and they’ve opted for a lifestyle that allows them to walk and ride their bike to the supermarket.”

Bill figures electric-assist bikes could be the next big thing, the same way hybrid technology has found its market segment for automobiles. “As time goes on, I think the number of companies selling electric bikes, the ideas and technology, will make them a mainstay. I wouldn’t be surprised to see electric bikes dominate the market 10 or 12 years from now.”

Seventy-five years down the path, Western Cycle survives and flourishes. Cleverly steered by the Pahal family from the very first day, it is pedallling its way towards a century of success.