Treasure Hunt
My work takes me out through the back roads and off beat places that you just don’t get to see from the thruway or main routes across NY and CT. Yesterday I was headed for a meeting in a small town out near Cobleskill and having plenty of time, still basking in the Fathers day / Solstice glow, I decided to take the scenic route. Monday mornings are a particularly good day to be out on the back roads as that is the time to find post-yard sale free piles. So, I’m riding along, listening to a back log of downloaded podcasts, Tommy and Ray, snorting and dispensing advice about warped brake discs, when I come on the mother of all bike piles!
I stopped and was gazing at the pile when a guy in his mid 70’s comes out of the house and announces that he is not open yet but to “Hold on a minute”. In those few minutes, I started to grasp what I was looking at. I was only standing at the edge of a vast expanse of bicycle carpet. I mean bicycles stacked deep in every direction, disappearing into the mist. In the center of all this, three or four sheds and garages appearing to be supported on all sides by bicycles.
Shortly Harry (as he introduced himself) made his way over to the larger of the sheds and began to fumble with the lock. Harry is a short man with a very pronounced limp caused by a short leg. Harry informed me that he had never ridden a bike in his life. I was starting to tell Harry that I only stopped because I saw the bikes when he threw up the overhead door and my jaw dropped! Harry had bikes. There were bikes from the 1930’s up through the 1980’s not rusty old junk like what I saw outside but complete restorations. It seems that Harry ran a Bike shop for years and after the loss of he beloved wife of 36 years, he closed up shop and moved out here to the middle of nowhere. Harry gave me the grand tour and we went from shed to shed, boxes and boxes of parts, more and more nice bikes, tools, everything.
I finished my visit by purchasing a set of Mavic open pro rims laced to Shimano Ultegra hubs $65, an eight speed cassette $20, a nice pair of vintage road pedals (free) and dibs on a Brooks B-15 saddle that I spied up on a shelf.
I need to get back and see Harry again.
I stopped and was gazing at the pile when a guy in his mid 70’s comes out of the house and announces that he is not open yet but to “Hold on a minute”. In those few minutes, I started to grasp what I was looking at. I was only standing at the edge of a vast expanse of bicycle carpet. I mean bicycles stacked deep in every direction, disappearing into the mist. In the center of all this, three or four sheds and garages appearing to be supported on all sides by bicycles.
Shortly Harry (as he introduced himself) made his way over to the larger of the sheds and began to fumble with the lock. Harry is a short man with a very pronounced limp caused by a short leg. Harry informed me that he had never ridden a bike in his life. I was starting to tell Harry that I only stopped because I saw the bikes when he threw up the overhead door and my jaw dropped! Harry had bikes. There were bikes from the 1930’s up through the 1980’s not rusty old junk like what I saw outside but complete restorations. It seems that Harry ran a Bike shop for years and after the loss of he beloved wife of 36 years, he closed up shop and moved out here to the middle of nowhere. Harry gave me the grand tour and we went from shed to shed, boxes and boxes of parts, more and more nice bikes, tools, everything.
I finished my visit by purchasing a set of Mavic open pro rims laced to Shimano Ultegra hubs $65, an eight speed cassette $20, a nice pair of vintage road pedals (free) and dibs on a Brooks B-15 saddle that I spied up on a shelf.
I need to get back and see Harry again.
Comments
Post a Comment