Ah, Casa de Oro Cycles..... I stumbled into Bill Holland's bike shop in the Casa de Oro neighborhood of Spring Valley sometime around 1975 with my Schwinn Superior (that I had just finished spray painting in my dad's garage, next to the water heater) wearing my Converse tennies, crew socks and CAT hat. I didn't know then that my life was about to change forever. I was looking for a Huret Jubilee rear derailleur in an effort to lighten up the ol' Schwinn. I had heard that if you wanted exotic bike stuff, this was the place to go. Located in a corner of an obscure little strip mall, it was about 1000 square feet of retail space. Not exactly what the big dogs at Schwinn wanted their biggest dealer's storefronts to look like. This was when Schwinn was pushing to have everybody's store conform to their idea of what a bike shop was supposed to appear like. (you know the look). Walking into the small shop, I saw mostly upper end Schwinns and some token Varsities and Continentals. On the upper right wall were frames that I had never seen before but had read about in magazines such as Bicycling! and Bike World. I can still see the names now....Colnago, Gios, Masi, Grandis, Platano, Holdsworth, Mercian, Lippy, Eisentraut....The glass display counter had all of the state of the art components of the era....Campagnolo, Cinelli, Shimano Crane, Phil Wood, TA, Hi-E....The left side of the place had all of the best touring gear available at the time....Kirtland, Eclipse, Blackburn....Looking around, I saw shaven legged bike racers in wool team jerseys hanging about amid cycletourists in Bata Biker shoes with little mirrors hanging from their eyeglasses. This was as close to bike nirvana as I had ever been! Soon I was making the 50 mile round trip to the shop as often as I could. I just wanted to be there. After a few months of this, Bill thought he should hire me as a mechanic or start charging me rent! I quickly became one of the gang and started getting involved in local time trials, racing, and some long distance touring. I found a whole new crowd of great friends in that shop and I learned how to wrench bikes by working on the best stuff. Bike mechanics all over San Diego were envious because it was the best place in town. We had customers coming from all parts of Southern California for the excellent service and cool ambience of this little Schwinn store. We didn't sell many Sting Rays, but we sold more Paramounts than all other Schwinn stores in the county combined! Bill bought the shop in 1972 when he was just 19 years old. It was mostly a tricycle and lawnmower shop then. It only took a couple of years for him to turn the place into SD county's biking epicenter. Bill's secret is an unwavering dedication to making sure the customer is happy combined with an honest, knowledgeable and patient approach toward everybody who walks through the door. I learned everything I know about customer service from my few, short years at CDO. By 1979, we were moving in a more focused direction toward framebuilding and painting. The shop was sold and it was only a couple of years before it went toes up. The magic was gone. I learned that special people is what creates mojo and atmosphere in a retail establishment like a bike shop; without that, it's just business. I would not be in the bike game today if I hadn't gone hunting for that derailleur way back in '75. BTW, the Jubilee was out of stock that day so I settled for the Crane. Bill and I share shop space that is no more than 200 meters from the old location. I can open the front door and see the the little corner shop in the strip mall, and when I close my eyes I watch people in bright colored Cool Gear jerseys and Blackbottoms shorts wheeling in their fine lightweights with 13-17 corncob clusters (like we all used to ride), and I can still smell the Campy grease and the Kucharik chamois fat. (sniff....sniffle) A lotta great memories there. Yeah....good times! Thanks Dale, for letting me reminisce for awhile.
Joe Bell
Casa de Oro
Sprint Valley, Ca.
> In a message dated 12/4/2003 12:29:28 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> randerson2@grey.com writes:
>
> << The bike shop? (the shop sticker, from "Casa d'Oro Cycles" in Spring
> Valley,
> CA is still intact.) >>
>
> Perhaps this is only peripherally to do with vintage bikes, but I had
heard
> through suppliers for years that the was or had been a Casa D'Oro in
southern
> California.
>
> Obviously the reason for the conversation in the first place was that we
> hoped we had thought up a unique name when we dreamed up cycles de ORO.
>
> Anyhoo, I was visiting Brian Baylis last year and we drive over to see Joe
> Bell's paint facility.. Joe gave me a very nice tour and that included an
> adjacent showroom, that Bill Holland for his (exclusively now I think)
custom
> titanium bike frames.
>
> Joe told me of Bill's involvement in the cycle biz and his help to JB. How
> Bill had a regular bike shop but had gradually downsized to finally focus
on the
> Ti frames. The old Bill Holland shop was Casa D'Oro! Small world, eh?
>
> Dale Brown
> cycles de ORO, Inc.
> Greensboro, North Carolina