LAKELAND — Steve Bent has probably done more than anyone else in Polk County to get people pedaling.
Bent, owner of a bicycle store in Lakeland’s Dixieland section that dates to 1961, has sold countless bikes to multiple generations of local residents. That extended cycle ends March 28 as Bent’s Cycling at 1058 S. Florida Ave. closes its doors for the final time.
Bent, 71, has carried on a four-generation family tradition of cycling and providing bikes and gear to other riders. Starting in the early 1900s, Bent’s great-great-uncle, Gordon Bent, and his grandfather, Norman Bent, operated cycling shops in Green Bay, Wisconsin, The Ledger reported in a 2011 profile.
“So, this family’s been selling Schwinn bikes since 1898,” Bent said.
Bent’s father, Roland, opened the store at its current location 65 years ago.
“We’ve had second-, even third-generation people that have been coming in, buying bikes for years now,” Bent said. “It’s cool. People, all the time, say, ‘I got my first bike here,’ and you look at them, they’re, like — dang, you must be 60. And grandparents come in and they’ve got their grandkids, and they’ll mention having bought bikes way back from Dad, back at the beginning. So that’s been an ongoing thing for many, many years now.”
Though Bent’s store is closing, its lineage will continue through a new bike shop in Dixieland.
Zachary Kulp, the manager of Bent’s Cycling, is opening Lakeland Bicycle Co. on April 4 a few blocks north in a former antique shop at 923 S Florida Ave., on the opposite side of the road. Kulp, 24, said he started working in Bent’s store almost 10 years ago.
“He’s been the face of the store now for several years, so I’ll be down at the new store on Saturdays — maybe not every Saturday, but I’ll be down there helping him out,” Bent said. “So it’s maybe a soft closing.”
Bent does not yet have a buyer for the 6,140-square-foot building.
Taking over a coffee shop
Roland Bent opened Bent’s Schwinn Cyclery in 1945 in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Steve Bent recalled being volunteered by his father to work in the shop when he was 12.
The family eventually moved to Lakeland, and Roland Bent opened Bent’s Schwinn at 1058 S. Florida Ave. in 1961.
The building, constructed in 1923, according to Polk County Property Appraiser records, was divided into two spaces at the time. A uniform store occupied the north half, and the other had recently held what Bent described as “a beatnik coffee shop.”
“I remember, I was 6, and it was a mess,” Bent said. “Plaster was falling off the walls here and there, and there were mushrooms and flowers painted on the walls and ceilings. And there was a stage that was built where they had performers.”
One wonders whether Gram Parsons, the budding folk/country singer from Winter Haven, ever performed there.
Roland Bent made a pitch to the building’s owner, who lived in Tampa: six months of free rent if he repaired and cleaned up the interior of the store. Several years later, Roland Bent bought the entire building and converted it into a single, open space. In 1970, he gave the building’s exterior a “facelift,” Steve said.
Steve Bent speaks proudly of his late father as the “driving force” behind the creation of the Lake Hollingsworth trail in the 1960s. The project required the approval of residents around the lake, whose properties extended across the road to the shoreline.
In his campaign for a paved trail, Roland Bent went after work and knocked on the doors of houses all along Lake Hollingsworth Drive, lobbying for the idea. When the groundbreaking occurred, Bent stood between Lakeland’s mayor and a state representative for photos, Steve said.
Steve Bent graduated from Lakeland High School in 1972 and earned an associate’s degree from Polk State College (then Polk Community College). He studied engineering at the University of South Florida without earning a degree.
As a road cyclist, Bent earned a spot in the 1976 Olympic Trials in Saranac Lake, New York, hoping to make the team for the Montreal Games. Plagued by tendinitis, he failed to make the cut.
Enduring some lean years
Bent took over management of Bent’s Schwinn as his father’s health declined, and he bought the store in 1982. Business had peaked in the 1970s, when the store was selling about 1,500 bikes a year, Bent said. But as people found modern 10-speed bikes with drop handlebars uncomfortable, sales declined, he said.
“When I bought the store from dad in ’82, we were on a downslope that continued for years,” he said. “Lots of bike shops went out of business. It was a long winter for cycling.”
Demand eventually rose, as more people got interested in mountain bikes and the success of American Lance Armstrong at the Tour de France (before his doping scandal) also spurred interest.
Though the building’s façade still says “SCHWINN BICYCLES,” in honor of the family heritage, the store long ago began stocking many other brands, including Cannondale and Specialized. In recent years, Bent reacted to an unavoidable trend and started carrying electric bikes.
Bent also sold helmets and cleated bike shoes, along with all manner of bike accessories, such as bike racks, gloves, lubricants, odometers and energy gels.
By Bent’s rough estimate, the store has sold about 32,000 bicycles over the decades. While the shop has long catered to serious and competitive cyclists — Bent recalled once making a special order of a $17,000 Specialized bike for a friend — many sales have been to people just looking to pedal around the neighborhood.
“And I mean, that’s what I’ll miss most about the bike shop is Mom and Pop coming in, and they haven’t been riding for years, maybe, and they’re interested in a bike,” he said. “And it’s fun talking to them and getting them — they’re already excited because they came in, but getting them more excited and getting them started on a path that maybe they’ll be a little healthy and certainly more active, anyway.”
Holger Roy of Lakeland has been a customer of Bent’s for more for 40 years. He recalled buying many bikes from the store, including Christmas gifts for his children and grandchildren, from bikes with training wheels to mountain bikes.
“I think he’s been an asset to the community down through the years,” Roy, 70, said of Bent. “Now he’s getting to where he’s my age, basically, and he’s just done with it.”
Roy said he has frequently brought bikes in to Bent’s shop for repairs or maintenance. He said word of the shop’s closing has circulated through the Lakeland cycling community.
Protege excited about new venture
The store’s vintage, pole-mounted sign along South Florida Avenue, a plastic rectangle proclaiming “Schwinn Bicycles” against a red, white and blue background, finally disintegrated in 2025 after decades of weathering and storm damage.
A few years ago, artist Gillian Fazio painted a mural on a storage building just south of the store, depicting an antique, high-wheel bicycle covered in flowers and the declaration, “Let’s RIDE.” Bent said he frequently sees people stop in the parking lot and take selfies in front of the mural.
Along with sales, Bent has always devoted space to a work area where employees carry out repairs and maintenance. Over the decades, some of Lakeland’s most avid cyclists have worked in the store.
Not content merely to peddle bikes and gear, Bent’s store has long promoted local cycling races. In the 1980s, the shop helped bring the Coors All American criterium race to Lakeland.
Bent’s shop has also been a hub for weekly informal races and group rides.
Bent himself has won many race titles, and he ranked first nationally in mountain biking for his age group in 2007 when a cycling crash left him with a broken hip, which required surgery and the implanting of three screws.
Six months later, he resumed riding. These days, he said, he rides mostly on roads rather than trails.
Lakeland Bicycle Co. will occupy about 3,800 square feet in one half of a standalone building. Kulp said his parents have helped him finance the venture.
Kulp, a mountain biker, plans to stock much of the same inventory, including Specialized road and mountain bikes. He will also carry electric bikes from Aventum. In “tying back to the legacy” of Bent’s store, Kulp will provide bike repairs and maintenance.
Bent has also bequeathed him the ovular “Bent’s” sign above the sales counter and the interior fixture with the affixed words, “Schwinn for Quality & Service.”
“I’m excited; I’m ready,” Kulp said. “It’s always been kind of like my dream to have my own shop. Once I started working here, I was like, ‘Oh, it’d be cool one day to own my own shop.’ The plan was to stay here and just take this building over. But, as you know, insurance is expensive. The building is old. It just didn’t make sense for either me or Steve, so that’s why we’re doing what we’re doing now.”
The planning happened rapidly, Kulp said, since he learned at the beginning of the year that Bent would be closing his shop.
“So, in the span of a month, I started looking for properties, came in on that deal, secured it, and since then, since roughly February, is when we started working on it,” Kulp said. “So since then, we’ve been just going crazy down there, getting ready.”
Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: After 65 years, Bent’s Cycling hits brakes. But manager opens new shop
Reporting by Gary White, Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
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