Our History
Scott’s Cycle was founded in 1914 by Harry W. Scott he owned the business until 1965 when he sold it to the current owner, Larry Lewis. Scott’s Cycle used to be more than a bicycle shop. The original shop carried lawnmowers, motorcycles bicycles and was also a locksmith.
February 10, 1992, the neighboring restaurant, Webber’s Bar & Grill caught fire and burned Scott’s Cycles historic building to the ground. A week later, Scott’s reopened to it’s temporary location which was one block up the street. It was with the help of loyal customers and the community that such an incredibly fast reopening took place. We were located at 147 Commercial St NE while we rebuilt our home. Almost a year later on January 1, 1993, we moved back home to our current location of 147 Commercial St SE. With the help of community our family was able to move the entire store in one day.
In 1995 we found out that Schwinn bicycles was going out of business which was pretty devastating to our store because of the history we had with this bicycle company. Around the same time our next chapter started in we were asked by Trek to carry their bicycle line. We were so excited to carry a bicycle line that was family run, just like us.
Sadly during the summer of 2006 there was another fire scare when the neighboring McMahan’s furniture store caught fire. The Salem Fire Department did a fantastic job of keeping the fire contained and preventing it from spreading to other buildings on the block. However, Les Newmans, an outdoor clothing store, suffered from water damage and was unable to reopen next door. It was a sad loss to the Salem area community. We felt very lucky to have only suffered from smoke damage this time.
In the year 2014 we celebrated our 100th birthday, we were able to look back and be thankful of what Scott's has been through in the last 100 years. We have been through fires, Schwinn bikes going out of business and much much more. Now moving forward we are still a family owned store with the next generations starting to become more and more involved in the store. But through out all these years we still have the same mindset which is to help our customers find the perfect bike to fit their wants, needs and dreams.