Chuck, An interesting stroll down memory lane. During my time living in the bay area, I used to shop Bikeology while on business in Socal. (Santa Monica Store). My 83 Cinelli has many items purchased from that store and I believe I still have the receipts in a file (pack rat). In Concord, CA, the Bicycle Outfitter opened up a boutique shop that at first, only carried high end clothes and accessories and then moved into the very best frames of the day. This had to be early 1980's. The Bicycle Outfitter moved into this trendy new mall in Concord, CA where Whole Earth Access was the anchor store. I think the Bicycle Outfitter is still around but the Concord store has long been closed. Orinda Spoke & Pedal was another shop in the bay area that carried the best of the best and it also came with an elitest attitude of the shop's owner.
In New York, Conrad's was kind of like a Cupertino Bike Shop I would
imagine. After Conrad passed away, his wife Sarah ran the store but
eventually sold it to one of her employees. Sarah still works in the shop
part-time for a few hours a day and the shop still sells and caters to the
high end customer. Sometimes the customer's repairs are far more
interesting than the bikes on the sales floor. Compared to the west coast
supermarket stores, Conrad's is a closet sized shop steeped in NYC cycling
history. Up until a few years ago, Sara still displayed her husbands
Cinelli with upright bars in the store window. Someone snagged it though.
Chuck, Pergo, you have that bike?
Mike Schmidt
Stirling, NJ
> I guess it all depends on your definition of chainstore and
\r?\n> boutique... you weren't ever in L.A. back then? For the ultimate
\r?\n> late 70s L.A. bike boutique there was Taylor Platner's Ernie's Bike
\r?\n> Shop in Brentwood. They had De Rosa, Merckx, Pinarello and literally
\r?\n> not a single clincher or inner tube in the store, only tubulars
\r?\n> (sewups) for sale. They were happy to be called elitist.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> And of course even back then Bikecology had three stores on the
\r?\n> Trendy Westside that carried Masi, Colnago, Mercian, Bob Jackson, Ron
\r?\n> Cooper, Allegro in the late 70s early 80s.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Then in the mid 80s there was the famous "Bike Shop Wars" on Warner
\r?\n> Blvd. in Huntington Beach, California where Bikecology (5 stores),
\r?\n> Buds (five stores, one called BikeTech), and 2 Wheel Transit (three
\r?\n> stores) went toe to toe. Alan Goldsmith, Bill McCready, Paul Moore
\r?\n> had an old fashion throw down and it made for some interesting case
\r?\n> studies in the trade publications. These were the life-style stores
\r?\n> you're talking about... LA SoCal style! There were three flagship
\r?\n> style bike shops in a two block area (Performance was around the
\r?\n> corner in the 90s).
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Example of the SuperSale from the Bike Shop Wars:
\r?\n> http://www.friedman.co.nz/
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Conrad's in NYC next to the United Nations was another 70s boutique
\r?\n> style store; they had nothing but the best of the best (is Sara still
\r?\n> around?)!
\r?\n>
\r?\n> The more things change the more they stay the same...
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Chuck Schmidt
\r?\n> South Pasadena, Southern California
\r?\n>
\r?\n> .