Hello All,
Back in the late 70s-1980, my friend was tapping into his inheritance and finishing college. Pretty cool, new BMW R9, Bultaco Sherpa T, Honda Goldwing and a Raleigh Pro. What to do with his degree in electrical engineering? Open a bikeshop of course! And who did he ask to join him on this misguided adventure? Me! We thought of a name, Niles Bicycle Repair. We both grew up and lived in Niles, Ca., a town that escaped modernisation and the urban sprawl that destroyed so many little communities in the SF East Bay. Without a wholesale license we dove deep into the world of FOB, JOBBER and POD. Out of all our wholesale connections the most fruitful was Stuyvesant. We would get monthly sale mailers (I still have most of them). We would salivate as we tore open the the mailer. Heres afew example of the prices: Cinelli 1/A stems $13.50 Mod 66 bars $9.65 Cinelli SC frame set $475.00 Regina 5 spd fw $8.88 Clement del Mundo $23.00 Sergal wool jersey ss $20.00 Campag NR groupos $365.00 We called this our "Corso Connection". Thankfully, we never opened the bike shop, I went into something completely different, and my friend just rode his motorcycles but we kept our connection until Louis (?) Corso demanded that we use his new sales rep in Marin County. His dad, Salvatore was always cool to us. That ended our 5 year journey into the Aladdin cave of very exclusive bicycle parts. Regards, David Martinez Fremont Ca US of A ps. I have pics of Tom Avenia and his shop (thanks norm). I'll share them as soon as I can get them scanned.