Our History

Gung Ho Bikes was established in 1991. 

Penny and Jay were (and still are) big mountain bike enthusiasts. They raced their 26" mountain bikes every weekend. Mountain biking was really starting to boom and we were not impressed with the local shops around at that time!! Their first shop was in a garage in an alley in West York. They had 6 Fuji mountain bikes and a handful of accessories. They were open for two hours two nights per week. One night, someone broke in and stole all of the bikes.  For two weeks they tried to have the bike shop in their living room in their house. Two weeks later, they decided to try and live out their dream!  They moved to White Street in West York!! 

1992-1999 

They made the move to a strip mall location on White Street in West York.  Jay worked at his brother's business- Yorktown Pools during the day.   Penny was an accountant at a company down town.  Their days were busy working for someone else.  Marc Evantus (Clark’s brother) was their first employee, and ran the shop through the day. Jay and Penny would work the evenings along with their two young daughters, Ashley and Kate.  Kate was famous for rolling around in her walker picking every price sticker off any inventory she could reach. 

At White Street they carried climbing gear, kayaks, backpacks, camping gear & GT bicycles. As time went on, bikes were selling and gear not so much. 

Within two years, bike sales had grown enough that Jay could come in to the business full-time. They expanded square footage three times at this location as well as having a second location for two years. As monthly rents started to increase they started their search to buy a property. 

In 1999 they found the current location on Susquehanna Trail and moved in shortly after.  Things have changed a lot since we started.  We started with selling 26" steel mountain bikes with NO suspension and non-indexed thumb shifters.  Believe us as we sure didn't see electronic shifters-carbon frames and bikes with electric motors at that time.  But a bike's a bike and we still love them all.