"What remains of Stuyvesant is now on far West 14th. The aforesaid Sal was Sal Corso. Corso Bicycles, out of that same address, was (also) an importer and Campagnolo distributor (to other shops). Sal, an Italophile, guessed wrong on Shimano and refused to carry it.

Tom Avenia's Harlem shop was the inspiration for that famous and fabulous Sempé cover on an old New Yorker of a lone figure in a shop looking up at bikes overhead.I think it was Tom who opened the shop/a shop in Haverstraw.

Gene's is deservedly out of business. Someone told me it charged him $45 to true a wheel. I took a perfectly good wheel there after unscrewing a single nipple several turns, asked a salesman could it be ""repaired or fixed or whatever you guys call this."" He took it, looked at it solemnly for awhile, said he would have to take it in the back room, and emerged a few minutes later to say he thought maybe it could b e saved, but that it would cost around $40.

""Gosh,"" I said. ""What if we just did something like this?"" ...Whereupon I put a spoke wrench on the offending nipple, gave it a few turns.

Another time I went to buy a SR seatpost. The salesman opened a Campy box and proudly produced one and announced the price. It was scarred and clearly a used seatpost.

I allowed as how it looked used.

""Well, OK, I'll knock the price down ten bucks for you.""

""That's great!"" says I. ""Then it'll cost only $20 over everyone else's new price.""

The store whose passing I lament was on Bond St. (East 3rd.), next to a firehouse. It was the very short-lived creation of Oliver ""Butch"" Martin, a two-time Olympic rider and one-time Olympic women's coach. ""Butch"" had a terrific inventory, but, sadly, little interest beyond getting laid. When last heard of, he moved to Carmel, NY to coach Cindy Olivari."