Ron Gurth wrot: """ I was in Princeton, NJ the last couple of days on business in the area, and came upon Kopp Bicycle Shop, on Spring Street. Sign says "Established 1891" and an article in the window and their local advertisment says its the oldest operating shop in the US. <snips>
Anyway, any debate as to whether this is really the oldest shop still operating? """
This exactly was debated in Bike retailer and industry
news a few years back, I think Kopps and Hearns
Cycling in Asheville, NC both had decent claims, there
were some details that memory has lost I think Kopps
had the best claim, but I recall some uncertainty
about the exact starting date , but Hearns is
definitely 100+ years old (1896), just around the
corner from the hearns locksmith that it presumably
started with:
http://www.hearns-cycling.com/
It is a nice little shop, they used to have a neat decade by decade schwinn bike display (the OT kind) on the walls with the year/model/weight listed, but that was gone last time I checked. They usually have a pretty nice window display too, they are almost invariably closed on sundays when I was passing back through Asheville to knoxie after cross races, so I rarely got to go inside. I find it unbelievable that they do not make more of the fact that they are nearly the oldest shop in the US, they are pretty small and low profile, but they are right downtown and the foot traffic for antiquey crap, I mean goods, in Ashville is unreal. Even my bike shop owner buddies in knoxville were unaware of Hearn's heritage and they had been going to Asheville on rides and vacation for at least a decade.
I am sure Dale or Jeff Archer knows the scoop a bit better for the NC end of things.
I think there were a few others listed in the at or near 100plus range, but I can't recall what or where they were. I can't seem to find the article on the BRAIN website, but I am sure someone has it. It may have been circa 2000 or so.
Kopps was my brothers LBS for a while and I enjoyed going there alot when visitng him. Both they and hearns sponsored a few cross races in their areas. Thus good shops.
I proudly own tubes of phils grease bought at these shops AND velosport in berkeley, although I used the last of the Velosport grease last week.
Later
Tarik
Tarik Saleh
PO Box 208, Los Alamos, NM 87544
tsaleh at rocketmail dot com
Bicycles, bicycles, bicycles:
http://www.engr.utk.edu/
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