Brick and Mortar: Bicycle House
Former Georgian national champion Besik “Beso” Gavasheli opened Bicycle House in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 2021 to create the shop he never had as an athlete. We asked him how it started, why Scott fits, and what keeps riders coming back from across the country.
What’s the story behind opening your shop?
Cycling has been part of my family and my life for as long as I can remember. My father was also a professional cyclist, so I grew up around the sport.
I grew up in the country of Georgia and went on to race professionally myself. I became a seven-time Georgian national champion in mountain bike cross-country and a two-time national champion in the individual time trial. At my highest level, I reached the top 80 in the UCI mountain bike world ranking and represented Georgia at World Cups, World Championships, European Championships and many UCI international races.
Those years gave me the opportunity to experience cycling at its highest level, and that experience still influences how we run Bicycle House today.
Bicycle House opened in 2021 during a very challenging time. We started small and faced plenty of obstacles, but we always knew the direction we wanted to go.
The goal was never to create just another bike shop. I wanted to build the kind of place I would have wanted as a professional racer: knowledgeable, passionate and focused on every detail.
We’re still growing, we’re confident in our direction, and I believe some of our most exciting chapters are still ahead.
“I wanted to build the kind of place I would have wanted as a professional racer.”— Beso Gavasheli
How did your relationship with Scott begin, and what made it the right fit for your shop and your customers?
My relationship with Scott started long before Bicycle House. During my professional racing career, I raced and won national championships on Scott bikes, so I already had a personal connection with the brand.
When we brought Scott into Bicycle House, it felt like a natural fit. Performance, engineering and attention to detail have always been important to me. Scott also gives us a great range, from someone buying their first serious bike to a rider looking for a Foil RC, Addict RC, Spark RC or a high-end custom build.
Today, Scott is one of the most important brands in our store, and we carry a strong selection of bikes on our floor.
What should a first-time customer expect when they walk through your door?
We don’t just sell bicycles. We sell care, feeling and a deep understanding of bikes and the people who ride them.
For us, making the sale isn’t the most important thing. What’s important is selling the right product to the right person. Whether it’s a beginner buying their first bike or an experienced rider building a $30,000 dream bike, they receive the same attention and respect.
We want to understand how someone rides and what they actually need. And our relationship doesn’t end with the sale. We want customers to know we’re here for them afterward.
“What’s important is selling the right product to the right person.”— Beso Gavasheli
What’s something about your shop or customers that would surprise people?
People might be surprised that we don’t really think of Bicycle House as only an Ohio bike shop.
Ohio is our home, but our customers already come from across the United States, and we’ve even had customers come to us from Canada and Mexico. Social media has taken that reach even further, with some of our builds reaching hundreds of thousands (and occasionally millions) of people.
Our long-term vision goes far beyond our local market. We want Bicycle House to become a destination for cyclists looking for special bikes, high-end builds and, most importantly, people they can trust.