After eight months, Mike Wanner chose to start his bicycle business anew from the letter A.

Read the previous story here.

His 12-year-old business Mike’s Bikes officially became All Around Bikes on Sept. 11, Wanner said.

A Northern California chain called Mike’s Bikes that trademarked the name in 2011 sent Wanner a cease-and-desist letter earlier this year to change his business’ name because of name+ and trademark infringement.

“It’s little disappointing because it’s something I’ve been marketing for 13 years,” Wanner said.

“It’s kind of like getting a divorce. There’s a lot of history there that we have to start over on.”

Rather than spending money in legal fees, Wanner opted to rename the business. To turn the change into a positive, he held a renaming contest to no avail.

“None of the contest names were really viable,” he said.

“It turned out to be a funny jokey thing after a while. Two-thirds of the names were Michael’s Bicycles, which legally I couldn’t do.”

So he and his wife, Carrie, came up with All Around Bikes.

“We wanted something that started with an A that would appear in the front of everything,” Wanner said.

Wanner created a new logo with a similar font and bicyclist as his old logo. Stickers, T-shirts, signage, business cards, letter heads and more have been changed with social media and the website set to change, too.

“It’s going to take awhile to get used to it,” Wanner said. “When I answer the phone, I want to say, ‘Mike’s Bikes.’”

When Wanner first received the letter from attorneys with the 11-store franchise, he checked with other unaffiliated Mike’s Bikes. One answered that they received a letter while another did not.

“I didn’t do a follow-up because I figured it’s not worth my time,” Wanner said.

In February, Vijay Toke, co-managing partner of Hiaring + Smith, representing the California cycle shop, said that business is trying to prevent others from infringing on its name its used since the 1960s and is simply enforcing trademark rights.

As a courtesy, Wanner implemented the changes before the February 2014 deadline Mike’s Bikes gave him. Wanner said that, despite the new name, his business maintains the same services.

He’s also made All Around Bikes, at 150 West Sequim Bay Road, the premiere seller of Kona bikes from Ferndale.

For more information on the store, call 681-3868 or visit here until a new site is up.