I'm sure NYC has lots of good bike shops, or at least a handful---I of course wouldn't know---but I have a thing for Dave Perry, and kind of a long history, although it's all recent news to me. He attended my book talk when I was in NYC and was super gracious, really nice. He introduced himself and I recognized him barely but knew his name from his Bike Cult book of many years ago. I hooked up with an old Bstone cow-orker now living in Brooklyn, and we were walking in that part of town (lower east side, I think it is) and saw the same purple Zeus bike that I'd seen earlier outside the place I spoke at. It was outside a bike shop (BikeWorks NYC), which Dave said was his, so we went in and ----- if the do sell aluminum or carbon, I didn't seen any. It's small, but a really good shop. I talked to Ben and --- either Willard or Travis, sorry, another mechanic--and Dave, and I asked him where he grew up and he said Redwood City, CA, and then for me (maybe won't be to you) it got interesting. He said he raced, and I knew of a Dave Perry (2x district champion on the road), and it was him. We know lots of the same people. The thing about Dave is, he is SOOOOOOOOOO unracy, or at least not racy in an annoying way. He knows that world and those bikes and I doubt there's anybody with a broader range of bike knowledge than Dave. But you'd never know it, because he's so low key, as is his shop. It's like finding Bob Dylan owning a record store and working the counter, stocking the bins. I like NYC and I've always thought it would be good to have a dealer there, so I have been talking to Dave about it. He has no room, but he likes the bikes, and we sold him that Sam so he could get a feel for them. It seems like a good fit, but I have too much respect for Dave and for myself (and too much pride) to beg. We aren't looking for dealers at all, anyway. WHen we sell to a dealer, we cut our margin to essentially nothing so the dealer can make the money--the alternative being to raise the prices to make room for us AND the dealer to make money, but then a $2300 bike would cost $2600, and when our normal way is to sell direct, it just doesn't make sense. Still, I hope he becomes a dealer, and he is the only dealer in the country we don't have that I really pine for....but whether he is or not, I totally recommend him--as do others, I see. He grew up in Redwood City, CA, about an hour-by-car from here, and we raced at the same time. There were some overlapping years of it, anyway. I
On Thursday, October 18, 2012 7:37:08 PM UTC-7, Jimmy Hutch wrote: > > I spied my first look at a beautiful Sam Hillborne while visiting > Bikeworks NYC this afternoon. Bikeworks NYC (http://bikecult.com/works/) > had a new Sam with double top tube, albatross bars, bar end shifters and > cork grips on display. It was only the 3rd Rivendell I have seen up close, > the first being my AHH, the second an Atlantis belonging to a guy from > Pittsburgh who was in NYC for the 5-borough bike tour. I had to buy my AHH > having never seen a Rivendell, so if anyone is in the market, I highly > suggest stopping by to see the Sam in person. > > I dropped my AHH off for some routine maintenance and they were > very accommodating. I'll report back on the quality of service when I pick > it up. > > -Jimmy > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/hvZ8IchJBpwJ. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
