Mineola Bicycle Changing Look

Written by Victoria Espinoza

Mineola residents may have noticed a few changes going on to their favorite bicycle store.

Mineola Bicycle, Fitness and Mower on Jericho Turnpike has been undergoing renovations for the past two weeks, looking to open up the store’s floor plan and make their displays more pleasing to customers. 

Managing salesperson Tony Lettini explained that the store, which has been around for the past 75 years, has stayed almost entirely intact since it opening in 1958. “This is essentially the original store,” he said.

Audrey Meinking, a member of the original family who opened the store, decided it was time for some new ideas. 

The majority of the renovations are taking place on the sales floor, where it was opened up more so customers can see the entire floor without having to look through rows and rows of bike racks. Now a large amount of the bikes are hung from the walls of the store, and all most bikes on the floor are kept at eye level so that a customer’s field of view is not drastically reduced, with all the high racks now in the middle of the display floor.

The racks which previously were covering the windows of the front of the store also made it much harder for customers to get a good view of the interior of the store if they were glancing in as they walked or drove past. They now have fewer bikes hanging from them so that you can clearly see what Mineola Bicycle looks like from the outside.

On the exterior, all of the display windows have been replaced, with new brick footing to give the outside appearance a new look as well. According to the storeowners, the original windows of the store used to slant in because of the rain, so these new windows have also given the store a bit more room to display the bikes.

When asked about complications that have arose due to renovations taking place while the store remains open, Lettini said that with any renovations there will be a lot of extra added work to do, however they’ve made it work, explaining that “the new factors just need to fit into the old, it’s basically a puzzle that we’re almost finished with.” 

When the puzzle is finished, Lettini believes that it will not only make Mineola Bicycle better, but also brighten up the neighborhood by adding value to the store and also making the business more visually appealing.

“Hopefully the changes bring more new people into the store,” he said.

Another beneficiary of the renovations will be the members of their Mineola Bicycle Club, one of the biggest bicycle clubs on Long Island, with up to 80 people meeting up on Saturday and Sunday mornings to ride together.

“It’s always good to change things up a bit when you have such a big following like this,” Lettini said of his loyal customers.

Mineola Bicycle only has a week left for renovations and then they will see if the new changes pay off.