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PHOTO COURTESY TAKAYESU FAMILY Four generations of the Takayesu family: Giyei Takayesu, sitting, founded the family's bicycle shop, then turned the reins to son Gisai "Buster," standing at left. Buster's son Ben now runs the shop with his sisters. Ben's children Ryan, Grant, Darren and Matt try their bikes.

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3 generations from
its start, McCully Bike
still focused on customers

Back in 1923, Giyei Takayesu opened a small bicycle shop in Waipahu with little more than $500 and a uncompromising commitment to customer service.

More than four decades and three generations later, that focus on the customer continues to serve as the backbone for the Takayesu family business, which is now known as McCully Bicycle and Sporting Goods.

"My grandfather and my father always said that the customer is always right," said Georgine Morita, a member of McCully Bike's board and Giyei Takayesu's granddaughter.

McCully Bike's focus on personalized customer service has helped the company survive in an era of Big Box retailers and Internet sporting goods retailers, said Marty Plotnick, president of the marketing analysis firm Creative Resources Inc.

The company also has remained very involved in the local community though the sponsorship of children's sports leagues and teams, Plotnick said.

"They have a sense of community that is absolute compared to your Big Box retailers," said Plotnick.

McCully Bike's roots go back to a time when Hawaii's economy was dominated by the big plantations and patrons were on a first-name basis with store owners.

According to Morita, Giyei Takayesu, an Okinawa native, came to the isles in 1909 to work as a laborer at Alexander & Baldwin Inc.'s Puunene sugar plantation on Maui. After his contract was up, he moved to Oahu where he found a job pumping gas and repairing cars at the Waipahu Garage.

He saved $250 and borrowed another $250 to open his own Waipahu bicycle store, which was then known as Takayesu Bicycle Shop, according to a family history compiled in 1993 by Georgine Morita's daughter Nicole Morita.

The store was located on Waipahu Street and Depot Road near the Oahu Sugar mill and the Takayesu family lived in the downstairs portion of the building.

Back then, prices for a bicycle ran between $16 and $40 but Morita said her grandfather often allowed some 10- and 12-year-old children to purchase bikes on credit. Morita said he remembers seeing kids came into the store weekly to make their payments.

"A lot of people come into the McCully store and say they remember the Waipahu store or they say that they got their first bike from my grandfather or my dad," Morita said.

The company began to grow during World War II with the expansion of the nearby Schofield Barracks. And over the years, the company's line has expanded to include fishing supplies, tennis equipment, running and other sporting goods lines.

The elder Takayesu, who died in 1995 at age 109, turned over the company to his son Buster, who later opened the company's Honolulu store on McCully Street before moving to its current 8,500-square-foot location on King Street.

Buster, now 92, retired about three years ago and his son Ben now manages the business with the help of his sisters. Morita said that several of her nieces and nephews -- the Takayesu family's fourth generation in Hawaii -- work in the main sporting goods store today.