Hi Josh,
I was involved in Conrad's transition from draperies to bike shop. In 1973 and 74 I worked as a mechanic at Hempstead Cycles in Hempstead Long Island. That was a very big bike shop that wholesaled bikes and parts to small shops all over NYC and Long Island. Conrad originally bought a half dozen or so Raleigh 3 speed bikes from us to start his rental business. I assembled and delivered those bikes. I think that we sold him a bike parking rack too.
At the beginning of the rental business they brought those bikes out to our shop for service. I guess that got annoying so they started servicing the bikes themselves. That lead into setting up a small shop area and taking in some neighborhood bike repairs. Conrad would come by our shop to pick up parts and ask questions about how to work on bikes. He was a really nice guy. It didn't take long before Conrad's evolved into half bike shop and half drapery shop. They were dabbling in the high end bikes a little but one particular deal put them on the map with pro bikes.
Our shop was one of the largest Schwinn and Raleigh dealers in the country and my boss (George Oslander) was a real wheeler-dealer. One day he got a call from the Raleigh rep saying that they were about to take delivery on a 40 foot container of Raleigh Professionals and Internationals. Raleigh USA was very over-stocked and they were looking to sell the whole container at a very good price. George snapped up that deal and immediately got on the phone to see if he could find somebody to flip it to. Conrad was the guy who said yes. I forget how many bikes fit in a 40 foot container but it is probably several hundred anyway... So Conrad took those bikes and pulled the groupos off them. He ordered dozens of high end Italian frames from their respective distributors... And he ordered cases of NR Italian bottom brackets and headsets. His shop was overflowing with full Campy bikes of every description and he had some killer deals on Raleigh Pro frame sets complete with headsets and bottom brackets. Some of the guys in our shop bought those frames for next to nothing... Conrad's and Hempstead Cycles continued to do business for many years after that.
Hey Dale, all this NYC stuff is really drawing me out from under my rock. I think that this might be the first time ever that I've used up my posting quota. ; )
Jamie Swan Northport, NY, USA http://www.jamieswan.net
On Aug 15, 2009, at 3:24 PM, Cino1947@aol.com wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 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)