Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Bike Shop Tales: Brands II

I thought all bike shops were like Advantage Cyclery in terms of brands carried, but I was very wrong about that!

One of the crazy things about the old shop was the various brands that were represented. In fact, there were so many, I can't even remember them all! Not like some shops where you have one to maybe five brands represented. Nope! Advantage Cyclery had literally at least a dozen brands in the shop. Really!

Here's a rundown of the ones that I can remember. It's a big list!

  •  Mongoose
  • Diamondback
  • Raleigh
  • Gary Fisher
  • Specialized
  • GT Bikes
  • Marin
  • Scott U.S.A.
  • Barracuda
  • Bridgestone
  • Bianchi
  • Bontrager
  • Guerciotti
  • Park Pre
  • Muddy Fox
  • KHS
  • American
  • Cinelli (mtb)
  • (Some brand Riteway used to carry similar to Trek's Jazz line, can't remember the name)
  • Dyno
  • Miyata
Told ya it was a big list! Now not all these were in the shop all at the same time. Advantage could be aged by the brands that came out of the shop. The early Advantage years, before I worked there, were marked by Park Pre, American, Bridgestone, and even earlier by Muddy Fox, KHS, and Miyata. While I worked there we had the GT, Mongoose, Gary Fisher, Bianchi, and Diamondback brands fully represented and supplemented by Scott, Raleigh, and Barracuda. Yeah........we had a lot of bikes!

Not only that, but Tom, the owner, had a penchant for framesets. So we would have odd ball frame sets hanging on the wall all the time. Orbit was one of the frame sets we had with a wild pink and purple paint job in two sizes. We had Alan, Colnago, Guerciotti, DeBernardi, and other roadie frame sets hanging from the wall all the time. I wasn't much of a roadie, but this was a cool aspect of working there.

Then there were the accessories. Tons of stuff from all sorts of brands were hanging from the walls there for sale. Pumps, saddles, grips, bar ends, and tires of all sorts and sizes. Water bottles, water bottle cages, and all sorts of gadgets were too numerous to mention. You know, I can't remember ever doing an inventory count while I worked there. It would have taken a decade I think!

Next Week: Back In The Shop Area........

5 comments:

Captain Bob said...

There was always something cool to look at there. I even saw my first Pro Flex at Advantage.

Rich said...

Don't forget the Joe Breeze bikes....sweet steel and great paint.
I'm sure I'll think of a few more.....

Ari said...

Back in the day I purchased a Team Miyata Moutain bike that Greg Herbold had used on the Dave Letterman show. It was constructed to resist an atomic blow.
ari

Travel Gravel said...

American and Muddy Fox?! In Iowa? That is(was) progressive ownership. That is an owner who wants to put real bikes under people. I have a friend named Terry Grimes, not the frame maker of the same name though. He always wanted a TG frame to put together. Speaking of way back stuff, are you the one who drew up the Volga's Vengeance flier in about '96? Under the handle "Ted Hed"? I found one in a folder of old stuff the other day and thought it might be your work. Later! PS Word verification is "ratio" 2:1 right?

Guitar Ted said...

@Travel Gravel: Yep! That Volga's Vengeance drawing was by me. I still have the original drawing too.:)