Carla and I were on our regular trip to Toronto this past weekend. We
were only there for a short time and I was surprised when Carla
suggested we stop by my new favorite bike shop.
Be warned if you like carbon, titanium and all the latest technology
this is not the place for you. If you are a lover of old Italian steel
and consider yourself a retro grouch or if lugged frames are your thing
this might be the place for you.
The shop is called High Park Cycle and Sports on Dundas West. When we
entered I was reminded of what I thought a war zone might look like.
There is every sort of bike part stacked and hanging all over the shop.
The section leading to the back of the store, where the frames and
bikes are kept is choked with greasy boxes. The smell of old grease and
sweat hits you in the face.
We started on our way back when the owner began yelling at us that the
shop was not ready and while he yelled in broken english I offered
platitudes, knowing I just wanted to get a glance at the collection of
old steel frames. Carla looked like she would have just left him to his
tinkering I remained patient.
The owner Jan is wearing throw-back bike clothes that have seen better
days and his hands are permanently stained with grease. His hands look
hard and old.
I can see he is annoyed but I really don't understand why he is so
angry at a potential customer. I ask if he still has the Pogliagi track
bike we saw last year. Carla asks if we can go back and look over the
track frames. I can see him ease back a little and he waves us in with
a dissmisve gesture. "Go ahead".
I return to the front and ask him about a set of toe clips and he asks
me what for mountain bike or road. Aside from JD I don't know of very
many people who ride mountain bikes with toe clips. I am sure this guy
had no idea, or really cared.
He showed me the toe clips on his bike and I think after a couple of
questions were answered with some knowledge he began to soften up. I
went back to the bikes and I am sure he could hear Carla and I oohhing
and ahhing...
For anyone who might be interested in some of the stock... we saw among
others...an
Assino(track bike), coppi (track bike), peugeot(vintage road bike),
Gios (vintage road bike), gardin (vintage TT bike, small wheel in
front), bianchi (vintage road bike), Masi (vintage road bike), Cinelli
track bike, DeBernardi (vintage road), Mariposa, Steve Bauer, plenty of
Benotto's (track bike), plenty of vintage Colnago's, Rossin, Somec, a
vintage Pinarello,a Gitane, and a Moser. He had a lot of Italian
history right there! After a while he asked what I was looking for. I
could see he thought he might have a sale. I asked him about a Benotto
frame he had hanging on the wall. He told us it was from the early 70s
and I could see it had never been built up. The frame was my size and
he was asking $1200. I have priced out custom frames and a basic steel
frame goes for about that. A lugged frame is quite a bit more. So his
prices though seemingly high were fair considering most of these bikes
went from very good to mint condition.
We established what my baseline was and he asked me if I planned on
building up the bike myself. I told him I would like to. He offered to
do a good deal of what I was looking for as a full build.
He now became more talkative and when Carla asked him how he had so
many great old frames he told us he has had them for years and he was
in no hurry to sell them off. He told us his bank account is hanging on
the wall. We talked for a few minutes more and I promised to have a
list of what I was looking for next month.
I could see that this is a place of cycling passion. The technology was
frozen in time when Tubular tires were still the norm and weight
wasn't the end all of a bikes performance. The bike was judged on
it's quality.
Jimbo(san)