Remembrance of Bicycle shops past

Owning a bike shop is a tough gig.  Scratch that.  Owning a successful bike shop is a tough gig.  I was reminded of this when I swung by the new shop in town, Orange Pedal, on California Ave.  I met the owners and like all bike people, they seem nice and I wished them all the best in the future.  More bike shops is a good thing.

It was interesting to see that they are carrying the latest incarnations of the Bottechia bike company.  I used to own an SLX lugged Bottechia with some beautiful chrome and a cool black and white paint scheme.  It was my first "real" racing bike and I loved that it was Italian, has a full campy NR group on it, and sewups.  I bought it as a hand me down frame from a racer in Lincoln, Nebraska, who worked at "my" bike shop, the venerable Deluxe Bicycles that no longer exists.  The owner gave me the above mug as a gift.  I think I bought 4 bikes from them when I was still in Nebraska.

The best thing about the shop was their knowledge and willingness to teach their clientele.  It was that shop that gave me my first taste of the joys and frustrations of dealing with mounting, riding, and patching tubular tires.  That skill is going to come in handy as I'm starting the process of refurbishing a 1979 Della Santa I acquired and the original equipment has sewups on it.  I'll call it a good fall winter project and I'm looking forward to building up some new/old wheels.  Pics to come...

 

This is the frame I had but not my bike.

And my new project bike!