M
Mark South
Guest
"James Thomson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> > > I'm not sure that the mythical English village LBS is any more real.
>
> "Mark South" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > They do exist. Infact, the classic example to me is in central
> > Cambridge: University Cycles. The parts pile starts behind the
> > counter and just keeps going.
>
> They exist, just as ancient shops piles high with dusty obsoletia may exist
> in Paris, but they're the exception rather than the rule.
You only need to locate a couple though.
> I don't think most people would think of Cambridge as a village,
Ask people from Oxford ;-)
> and in any case it has a
> particular set of circumstances that make the local bicycle market quite
> unusual.
Yes indeed, the fact that nearly all of it is geared to foreign students who
want a bike like the ones where they come from.
I picked Cambridge because I know the area well. There are village bike shops
around Cambridge, but University Cycles has the champion collection of old bits.
> > > Many of the shops that cater to the new utility cyclists
> > > date from this period, and sell mainly Dutch bikes.
>
> > The Dutch being the people who never stopped making utility
> > roadsters like the now-famous Behemoth.
>
> Right. My point was that the shops now serving the utility cyclists of
> Paris will, in many cases, never have sold bicycles based around French
> standards, just as many of the British bike shops that emerged in the
> nineties have never sold cotter pins or Sturmey-Archer toggle chains.
Accepted.
--
Mark South: World Citizen, Net Denizen
news:[email protected]...
> > > I'm not sure that the mythical English village LBS is any more real.
>
> "Mark South" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > They do exist. Infact, the classic example to me is in central
> > Cambridge: University Cycles. The parts pile starts behind the
> > counter and just keeps going.
>
> They exist, just as ancient shops piles high with dusty obsoletia may exist
> in Paris, but they're the exception rather than the rule.
You only need to locate a couple though.
> I don't think most people would think of Cambridge as a village,
Ask people from Oxford ;-)
> and in any case it has a
> particular set of circumstances that make the local bicycle market quite
> unusual.
Yes indeed, the fact that nearly all of it is geared to foreign students who
want a bike like the ones where they come from.
I picked Cambridge because I know the area well. There are village bike shops
around Cambridge, but University Cycles has the champion collection of old bits.
> > > Many of the shops that cater to the new utility cyclists
> > > date from this period, and sell mainly Dutch bikes.
>
> > The Dutch being the people who never stopped making utility
> > roadsters like the now-famous Behemoth.
>
> Right. My point was that the shops now serving the utility cyclists of
> Paris will, in many cases, never have sold bicycles based around French
> standards, just as many of the British bike shops that emerged in the
> nineties have never sold cotter pins or Sturmey-Archer toggle chains.
Accepted.
--
Mark South: World Citizen, Net Denizen
