A few of us (myself, my wife Rita and Jamie Swan) from Long Island
ventured into Manhattan to attend the June meeting of the BVVW (Brooklyn
Vintage Velodrome Wheelmen) a few weeks ago. We found the evening's
meeting location, Emey's Bike shop, with no difficulty.
http://tinyurl.com/
Immediately, we had the answer to a question we were pondering on the train ride in. This was no "normal" shop with Specialized this and Lightspeeders that spread out amongst the racks of brightly colored Lycra jerseys. Oh no, this place had that magic mix of jumbled piles of all sorts of vintage parts under foot and the few bike racks that could fit were jammed with eclectic vintage bikes and frames. As we made our way to Emey's back room, our eyes were wide open and our hearts beating fast as we tried to ID as many treasures as we could in the dim light. Claud Butler track, a Frejus here, a Carlton there, Bob Jackson, Raleigh Pro (some of these in my size!) I have to get back to that shop. (Emey is very nice and has all the neighborhood dogs trained to stop in for a treat while out for their walk. NYC note, The bike rack outside the shop has a ball peen hammer, an adjustable wrench and a screwdriver chained to it along with a air hose. All you need for a quick repair.)
We were joined by the merry bunch of regular BVVW members (I don't
remember all their names, except "Frejus John", Mike Lebron) and Joe
Bender-Zanoni showed up too! http://tinyurl.com/
John Pergolizzi was our entertaining host (Omnipotent Despot?) for the
evening and had prepared a table full of old Campagnolo oddities and
historical examples. http://tinyurl.com/
We cabbed it across town to John's Pizzeria, had a great meal, and then strolled down the street to Rocco's for coffee and dessert. While we were sittin there, deep within the pastry shop, Jamie captures a glimpse of a guy, in a wool jersey, riding by on a classic Campagnolo equipped bike (good eyes), and someone runs out to check it out.
Lo and behold, it is Ken Denny on a Masi. The shop lets him bring the
bike in and he joins the bunch for a coffee. The Long Island crew had to
skip out at this point to catch a train home. I wish we could have hung
around to really get chance to talk with Ken and the crew some more.
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We had a fantastic time. There are more BVVW meetings in our future. John Pergolizzi really does a great job of picking a topic and sharing the info (and fun and enthusiasm). Thanks John.
Paul Lee
Huntington, Long Island, NY