Chuck,
Please keep in mind that to someone who's grown up in western PA, or the midwest/south/take your pick of anywhere short of NYC, LA, Miami or a couple of other like places (you know, flyover country), that these cities are not the real world. They are some incredibly rich, over-stylish, way too cutting edge alien planet.
To most of us living outside these areas, a 70's bicycle shop was a mom and pop operation, and the high quality places sold Schwinns - and probably didn't have a display Paramount on the floor.
What you're describing for LA 30 years ago is now filtering into other cities that are nowhere near as hip. Hell, Richmond now has one or two that are bordering on that description.
George R. "Syke" Paczolt Montpelier, VA
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 23:49:49 -0700 From: Chuck Schmidt <chuckschmidt@earthlink.net> To: Classic Rendezvous Bike List <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Subject: Re: [CR]Boutique buying in the classic era -- Not quite the same!
Message: 7
I guess it all depends on your definition of chainstore and boutique... you weren't ever in L.A. back then? For the ultimate late 70s L.A. bike boutique there was Taylor Platner's Ernie's Bike Shop in Brentwood. They had De Rosa, Merckx, Pinarello and literally not a single clincher or inner tube in the store, only tubulars (sewups) for sale. They were happy to be called elitist.
And of course even back then Bikecology had three stores on the Trendy Westside that carried Masi, Colnago, Mercian, Bob Jackson, Ron Cooper, Allegro in the late 70s early 80s.
Then in the mid 80s there was the famous "Bike Shop Wars" on Warner Blvd. in Huntington Beach, California where Bikecology (5 stores), Buds (five stores, one called BikeTech), and 2 Wheel Transit (three stores) went toe to toe. Alan Goldsmith, Bill McCready, Paul Moore had an old fashion throw down and it made for some interesting case studies in the trade publications. These were the life-style stores you're talking about... LA SoCal style! There were three flagship style bike shops in a two block area (Performance was around the corner in the 90s).
Example of the SuperSale from the Bike Shop Wars:
http://www.friedman.co.nz/
Conrad's in NYC next to the United Nations was another 70s boutique style store; they had nothing but the best of the best (is Sara still around?)!
The more things change the more they stay the same...
Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, Southern California
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