[Classicrendezvous] Re: Kraynick's in Pittsburgh

(Example: Production Builders:LeJeune)

Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 11:53:36 -0500
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
From: "Larry Osborn" <losborn2@wvu.edu>
In-Reply-To: <6c.4546327.272dba4d@aol.com>
Subject: [Classicrendezvous] Re: Kraynick's in Pittsburgh

At 12:37 PM 10/29/00 EST, you wrote:
>HI I'm Anthony Mezzatesta, a frame builder . I'm new to the site. I want
>hope in a shop I know in Pittsburg Pa called Kraynick's Bikes. The phone
>number is 412-621-6160. This guy has stuffed stacked, and I do mean piled
>high, through out 4 floors of his bike shop. He has things from the old
>Stuyvesant Importers in NY, who no longer exist. All names from Campy on up.
>(I don't think there's any Zeus because I always ask for that). I tried to
>see if he had an email address, but I didn't find one and haven't been in his
>shop in quite a while. I hope this helps some of you out there.

Greetings campers:

Just a bit more on Kraynick's in Pittsburgh, which was mentioned recently by Anthony Mezzatesta. Don't get your hopes up too high. It is indeed a whacky place, but not the Lost Dutchman Bike-Mine we all hope to find someday. It's been a couple years since my last pilgrimage, so anything I remember may have changed. But probably not too much. Don't expect to find a NR/SR gruppo. The best of the Stuyvesant inventory had been skimmed long before Kraynick got to any of it. However, I distinctly remember a pile of early Campy mountain bike brakes (Euclid?), a mountain of chainrings with oddball bolt circles, and a room full of medium level 80s vintage Schwinn frames on my last visit. Just received a message from Anthony saying that there was a bunch of Gippiemme stuff on his last visit. Inventory subject to change without notice.

I can best describe the place as almost total mayhem. Three or four floors of the sort of clutter your spousal unit/spousal equivalent would divorce/ditch you over if she/he ever discovered that YOU owned the building. With an inverse relationship between which floor items are stored on, and the probability that he will ever need them. Or maybe it was an inverse relationship with gross weight. A map would help, but discovering what was behind Door Number Three was part of the fun. I don't know if he does mailorder, but would be astounded if he did. Most of what I saw in any quantity was medium to low level stuff, with a few stray high end things if I dug deep enough. Drawers and drawers full of new and used little odds and ends if you have time to go through them yourself. I've had far better luck at the swaps, but must admit that it's probably time for a return visit.

Not my favorite neighborhood in PGH, and Jerry's personality can easily put him in the same league with the Lickton brothers and Crazy Dave when they get wound up (Oh, that's great. Personality commentary from a guy who puts the crank in "cranky"). Or maybe I just always caught him on a good day. I just make a point to not waste his time with chit chat. He's not a vintage bike buff. He doesn't even sell new bikes except maybe an occaisional recumbent. It's a one man band and he's just trying to keep the repair jobs moving out the door and sell whatever stuff he accidentally purchased at the last auction. If you're in the neighborhood, and he happens to be open, it's a fun place to rummage through. Store hours subject to the whims of the proprietor. Definitely self-serve. Definitely pot-luck. Watch your head! Watch where you step! Bring a flashlight. Every trip is an adventure.

Larry "shattering your fragile, crystalline dreams on the hard rocks of reality" Osborn Miles from Nowhere, WV