Beloved 101-Year-Old Bike Shop Closing

LAMORINDA, CA — Hank & Frank Bicycle will close its doors Sunday after 101 years in business, ending a Bay Area cycling institution that started in Oakland and spent the past 52 years in Lafayette.

Hank & Frank was founded in 1925 on East 14th Street in Oakland and reopened in 1974 at its current location at 3377 Mount Diablo Blvd. in Lafayette.

The late Dale Dryer bought the business from the widow of original co-founder Hank Stahl in 1957. Dryer’s son, Frank, acquired the business in 1991 and has run it since then, according to the shop.

The shop announced the closure in July. “After 101 years of serving Bay Area riders, families, and generations of cycling friends, Hank & Frank Bicycles will officially retire and close its doors on August 31, 2026,” the owners wrote on Facebook.

Frank Dryer said Friday that, yes, the store is closing. But he said he is retiring as of 5 p.m. Sunday. However, the business is for sale.

The purpose of that business since 1925 has been to help people experience the “freedom, confidence, connection, and joy” of bicycling.

“You have trusted us with first bikes, family rides, daily commutes, repairs, upgrades, race days, and countless memories,” the owners wrote. “That trust has meant everything to us.”

Dryer credited customers with transforming the business into something that extended beyond selling and repairing bicycles.

“From our early days on East 14th Street in Oakland to our 52 years in Lafayette, this community has made Hank & Frank more than a bike shop,” they wrote. “You made it a place of stories, relationships, and shared miles.”

The announcement prompted an outpouring of nostalgia from people who remembered the shop from childhood and later worked with the business professionally.

One commenter recalled convincing his mother as a child to take him and a friend to East Oakland to see the Haro Freestyle team at Hank & Frank on East 14th Street. He later worked with the shop as a representative for GT for five years and with Giant for the past 24 years.

“Definitely an end to a legendary Bay Area institution,” he wrote. “I will sincerely miss this place!”

Chris Ng recalled spending so much time looking at BMX equipment at the East 14th Street shop in the early 1980s that the staff eventually offered him a job sweeping, cleaning glass, and making runs to the corner liquor store.

“Man that was a fun time,” Ng wrote.

Mike Brain recalled returning from leading a three-month Bikecentennial tour across the United States in summer 1981 and riding to Lafayette to ask Dale Dryer for a job.

Dryer needed a manager for the company’s San Ramon store, Brain wrote, and hired him. Six months later, in February 1982, Brain came up with the idea of opening a mobile bicycle repair service during idle periods at the shop in Contra Costa County.

The Hank & Frank team invited customers to visit before Aug. 31 to share memories, schedule service, or find another bicycle.

“We are deeply grateful for every customer, neighbor, employee, friend, and family who has been part of this journey,” the owners wrote.