Don wrote:
<<...Turin started as a Chicago Co-Op bicycle store, founded by Lee Katz,
http://turinbicycle.com/
Yes, that was a blast, wasn't it? Was it 4 years ago?
Lee is a brilliant guy, started & still runs Lake sports, still has interest in Turin although a partner is running it now.
There really was a Turin Co-op. One of the associated stores was near me in Chapel Hill NC called the Clean Machine. Chuck Lewis ran it, he was an extremely competent guy, luke warm with retail but brilliant behind the scenes. Clean Machine, at that time, was a mecca for high end bikes. He direct imported Mercians, had all sorts of Campy and cool parts, and even had a silver Cinelli Pista bike hanging in his window! What a rush to visit that shop!
The owner Chuck had been a school teacher prior to opening the bike store, and one of his students who he encouraged and supported in his cycling craft was McLean Fonvielle, the now deceased builder of Silk Hope and McLean bicycles. McLean went to Holdsworth in London to learn his craft and came back, set up his shop outside Chapel Hill, and sold his frames through the Clean Machine as well as my shop. The Clean Machine is still there although under new ownership and no longer focusing on the esoteric.?
Lee Katz also operated a wholesale distributorship initially called Neel & Katz, partnering with one-of-the-first USA pro racers, Mike Neel of California. I was his employee in the mid to late 1970s as a rep. The lines we offered were Rossin and Ciocc frames (this is before 10 Speed Drive Imports)Campagnolo, all sorts of frame building supplies, Sidi, Santini, etc. Right before I started they had been representing Galmozzi frames....
The Denver Turin store is still owned by the original owner from the old days (I am embarrassed to say I forget his name.)
Dale Brown cycles de ORO Bike Shop 1410 Mill Street Greensboro, North Carolina 27408 USA 336-274-5959 http://cyclesdeoro.com http://www.classicrendezvous.com http://www.carolinacup.com http://www.greensborovelo.com http://www.bikegso.org http://nbda.com
-----Original Message----- From: Donald Gillies <gillies@cs.ubc.ca> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Sent: Sat, 5 Jan 2008 10:07 pm Subject: Re: [CR]]Is any one familiar with Turin Bicycles in Chicago
Turin started as a Chicago Co-Op bicycle store, founded by Lee Katz,
At one time Turin had 2 shops in Chicago, one was close to the loop (my dad and I visited that one in the early 1970's.) I sat next to Lee Katz, the Turin founder, about 4 years ago at a CR dinner event in Carlsbad, California at a Mexican restaurant.
In the 70's, I think that Turin was one of THE TOP high-end shops in Chicago. I believe that Turin offered Schwinn, Raleigh, Colnago, and a store-brand called "Turin". The Turin brand was made by Mercier of france, according to Katz, and was sold by other bike shops in Illinois (such as Champaign Cycle in my hometown of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, my sister owned one of those bikes.) The low-end models resembled Peugeot's and there were no high-end models, I believe.
The symbol of the Turin shop (and the bicycle head badge) was Pablo Picasso's famous horse sculpture that was a gift to the city and sits outside of city hall (immortalized in the final scene of the "Blues Brothers" movie, where the swat team storms city hall.)
http://www.chicagoarchitecture.info/
Unlike the actual sculpture, shop badge was rendered in psychedelic colors ~ orange, gold, yellow, blue, etc. Lee Katz is now founder and proprietor of Lake Cycling Shoes
You might contact him for more information on the early days of the Turin bicycle store in Chicago.
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA, USA