No discussion of NY bike shops would be complete without mention of
Conrad's originally on 47th and 2nd Ave.; now on Tudor City Place near the U.N.
Conrad and Sarah Weiss started as a drapery business, Darnoc (Conrad
backwards), and rented out bikes because business was slow.The bike business did
very well, and they eventually dropped the drapery business. They ran a
mostly high end shop with many imports including Cinelli, Campagnolo, and many
European marques .I got my first pro bike there, a Grandis, in 1979, which
I now run as a fixed. They were visited by Eddy Merckx, and still have a
great photo display of him in their shop. Conrad passed away many years ago,
and the shop is now run by John and Yi, who have been there since the
early days. John is a great guy and very knowledgeable. Yi is about as good a
mechanic as I have ever dealt with. Sarah still comes into the shop and
holds court a couple of times a week. They still carry top end stuff, but know
a great deal about vintage bikes.
Josh Berger
Bronx, NY
USA
_cino1947@aol.com_ (mailto:cino1947@aol.com)