The Old Bike Shop
In a past life, I raced bicycles. I don’t race anymore, I’ve grown older and now I don’t need prove anything to myself, I’m happy.
But, I still follow the sport; the internet is great for keeping up with the Euro-pro circuit. When I was a kid we only got monthly or weekly magazines, so races were long done, now I can read a live race report or watch live on the web…
Chris’ post about third places for cyclists brought back some memories from my youth. Some of the best places to hang out are bike shops. I have my favourites, but sadly they don’t seem to exist anymore.
The coolest shop when I was younger was Jake’s Bike Shop in Detroit. That place had everything, posters from all kinds of races from Europe, and North America. Old ones too, all yellowed and faded. The floors were wood and painted, the paint a little neglected and worn. It smelled like oil and grease, new tires and tubular glue (tubulars are racing tires/tyres that have the innertube sewn inside, they are glued onto special rims and provide a smooth ride - tubular glue smells like model airplane glue multiplied by a factor of ten). Jake’s had bikes that I don’t think they ever wanted to sell, some real beautiful hand-made bikes, there were advertising postcards and trading cards from Euro-pro teams and even little model team cars with little bikes and people. Jake’s had a couch and chairs and you could sit and watch videos of bike races and talk about bikes and it was awesome for a young teenager to wander around and soak it all in.
Tags: Alternative Transportation, community building, culture
Post Feedback
Growing up in the suburbs (yes, I’m a recovering suburbanite), we never had a bike shop to hang out at. We really didn’t have any place to hang out at, actually. I’m jealous of people’s upbringing who had amenities like this close to home. I’ve been to some great bike shops like Jakes (there’s an amazing shop in Montreal whose name eludes me - two storey, wood floors, carbon fibre-and-titanium everywhere, lounge area for espresso and dialogue. sigh…) and crave having a place like that for my kids to experience. Heck, for me too! There are so many experiences that we’ve sanitized from our daily lives, and the effects are what you see all around us. Nobody really caring about “place” any more.
trisports located behind devonshire mall is one of those hangouts. i think the owner may have closed up shop though but a friend of mine and a group of cyclists have regular meetups and just hang out around the place. i stopped by last summer and they were having a bbq outside with friends. not sure if he’s moved to another location or closed up permanently..can’t recall but i do know the group still meets up for regular rides.
Trisports is kaput. They used to be located downtown on Pellisier, but moved to south Windsor a few years ago. I don’t know whether it was the move that put them out of business or something else, but it’s strange in this day and age, with more-and-more focus on alternative transportation in light of every-rising gas prices, that a bike shop would go out of business when there isn’t a lot of them in the city.
Most bike shops have regular rides. At “my” bike shop (Bicycle World at the Dominion/Grand Marais intersection), owner Rob Renaud hosts regular Thursday mountain bike rides for all skill levels, though he did try and kill me one time when I went with him.
We got our bikes at an old shop on Tecumseh road near Lincoln, Joe’s went out of business around 2001-2. Great place while it lasted. And probably the only bike store we could walk into that could service casual cyclists like ourselves - the rest were all geared to hard core types like that Holt guy.
Now I usually go to Bicycle World… they service cyclists of at all levels and seem pretty decent to deal with, good prices.
JCS on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 9:52 pm said
“We got our bikes at an old shop on Tecumseh road near Lincoln”
Brian’s Bike Depot…also closed, unfortunately.
Where was Brian’s Bike Depot? I don’t remember that one. Or are you thinking of Dave’s Bike Depot?
Shopping at “Dave’s” (when it was on Ottawa St.) was akin to walking into a cat litterbox. I did it once and that was enough for me.
Bikes?
What’s wrong with you people, can’t you afford cars or SUV’s like normal people?
Sheesh!
Just kidding…
I remember going to Joe’s as a kid for my bike needs and then for skateboarding in the mid 80’s. Just another institution that closed in this city as we eat our own (I can save $5 if I buy it at Crappy Tire!).
Rob at Bicycle World is a great person with a great business. I bought my DaVinci there and built the thing up to race all over N .America. Without his knowledge and help I would never been able to do it.
Speaking of skateboarding, check out this story…
Well at least Windsor isn’t alone in the police ticketing circuit. Heaven forbid police officers go after real criminals! I know, I know, a law is a law but consider this. Would you rather an officer park in shadier parts of town enforcing laws that are a detriment to others or would you rather him take the time to ticket a person for riding a skateboard?
By the way check out the pictures of Fredriction. Interesting to see older buildings built right up to sidewalks with people walking around! Heck those “old rotten buildings” even have businesses in them!
In Windsor we knock these buildings down so we can build new structures with few doors to access any future business that may locate there. Not to forget that we kick out existing business to tear down those “old rotten buildings”. WE can’t even build an urban village without having “an anchor” (whatever that means) as if people will only locate there if a school, large business, gallery or something has to be there first. How about building row houses on one block and on another building a structure that would house not only residents but business as well?