I stopped into the shop that was my first lbs, back when I first learned to ride a bike. It was also the first bike shop I worked in, at age 14, and worked there till my early 20's, give or take some time at college.
The owner has always had a schwinn fetish. For the last decade he's been doing restorations, which has become his primary love. Here's just a few pics of what was in the shop today.
The owners son grew up around the shop. He's just 17, rides mostly bmx, though he bought a mountain bike of mine and made it into a dirt jumper.
Here's a bike he built tho' in his spare time. The chrome frame webbing is custom welded by him, his first (and darn good) attempt at welding. The seat they had sewn by a local cleaners (who also does hemming,etc). After getting quotes from motorcycle shops and and embroiderers ranging from $100 to $1000, this local cleaner (2 blocks away) did it for $10 bucks.
Here's an orange Krate with disc brake, in process. Steve (the owner) says he's worked on more Krates in the last 2 years than back when they were selling them new.
Custom made Indian for a customer with an old Indian Motorcycle. He just finished it, and I hope to get a picture of the bike and the motorcycle together at some point.
Steve, the owner, either tracks down original equipment, modifies other stuff, or completely fabricates items. The frames he sends out to be painted, but the pinstriping and detail work (including the indian tank and head badge paint) he does himself. When at all possible, he just cleans original equip rather than restores, but if you could see some of the befores, it would blow your mind.
Most are original--the phantom is a "57 or '58, complete original down to the tires.
A couple are replicas mostly from the '90's(last pic, for example). The krate, stingrays, and fastbacks are all originals.
Here are his personal paramounts. One of the hanging ones is the anniversery bike with gold plated fork. I'll get some nicer shots of these another time.
Here's the front case with a bunch of random stuff in it (its impossible to see, but there is a picture in there of my friends broken manitou fs frame, which he crashed and folded the downtube in half), and his 1958 Town and Country Tandem.
The shop is in lovely ( ) Bayonne, NJ. Eddy's Cycle City.
A true mom and pop shop, nothing to look at from the outside, not much on the inside. There are more restorations and repairs on the floor than new bikes.
For years I've been telling Steve (the owner) to shut down the new bike sales, keep doing repairs, turn the bulk of the front sales floor into a museum, and REALLY focus on restorations, which is his real passion and love. He doesn't advertise--everything he does is word of mouth. He doesn't charge near what he should, considering the time he's spent getting some of the bikes to the level they end up. Its a true labor of love.
Steve's a talker, too. He knows his schwinn stuff, primarily balloon tires and krates and the like. But his pretty darn knowledgable regarding most other balloon-related bikes, as well as a decent amount of lightweight stuff. If he doesn't know it he usually finds it out. He'll pour over photos for hours looking at a hub to make sure he's got the right one. Current stuff, he doesn't bother to stay too up to date. His son does most of that these days, and he certainly doesn't stay in business with new bike sales.
The real shame as I noted is that I don't have any before pics, and tho' he's got a book with most of the work he's done, he never really concerned himself with taking that good of photos. I always volunteered to shoot some pics as he finished bikes, but its not something he always thinks of once a bike is done, and even though I live in the same town again, I tend to only stop by once in a while.. One of the reasons I shot a bunch when I was in today, and these were just some quick snaps. Some of these bikes were so pretty its hard not too.
Bayonne is one town over from Jersey City, which is right across from manhattan. If anyone's ever in that area, and you've got a love for the balloon/krate eras (or older schwinn stuff in general, he does have 6 or 7 paramount road bikes as well) stop in the shop. Tell Steve Dave sent you. Believe me, even if you didn't, he'll talk to you for hours and pull out every bike he's got for you to see. I stop in for 5 minutes and am still there 2 hours later.
Thanks for the lead, neveride. I've been lusting after a Schwinn cantilever cruiser frame for a while now. Given that I work in Soho, I can't believe that there's such a gem of a place so close (yet so far!) from me. I'm so definitely going to stop by one day. And I'll definitely going mention the name 'Dave' and expect some fat discount or something!
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