You can go home again - sorta
#1
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You can go home again - sorta
Finally getting around to writing about it now, but about a month ago, I did one of my periodic motorcycle trips to Greater Pittsburgh International Raceway for the MotoAmerica Superbike races. Only this time I added three days to the trip and headed back to Erie, PA for my first real visit there since moving away in 1977 (I'd passed thru for an afternoon back in the early 90's). Boy has that town changed! Mostly for the better.
High point of the trip was going back to my old employer, A.R. Adams Cycle. The second owner, and my boss, Merle has been dead for about ten years now, but the shop is still going under the sole proprietorship of the fellow who was his mechanic from about two years after I left the place. We spent a couple of hours sitting and talking (oh, he remembered who "Sunshine" was, as did Merle - spoke of me until pretty much his dying day) catching up on the decades. The shop is a lot lower key now than it used to be. While in the same building, essentially a five bay strip mall, it's on the right end in the smallest office, rather than on the left side in the largest where Merle and I opened the doors for the first time back in 1973 (the shop itself goes back to 1914, having been in two previous locations on both sides of Erie up to that time).
It turns out that Merle was planning on closing the business down and retiring, the proposed closing date turned out to be about three months after he died. Said employee bought the business from the estate and kept it going ever since. Essentially solo, both a combination of business and his own desire dialed the place down to a level that he could handle alone. In fact, he still had a lot of old stock still in boxes in the back storage area until the COVID boom hit which cleaned him out. The shop is still selling Schwinn, but Raleigh was dropped immediately after Nottingham sold the rights over in the early 80's and they were no longer being imported from England.
Took the time to stop by the other Adams Cycle in Erie, John Adams Cycle. Merle's nephew, the shop is still in the same location on West 12th Street and still family run now in the third generation. John, who I remember, is long gone, but his grandson is now running the place. Like pretty much every other bike shop I've been seeing, the place was gutted of inventory.
A nice trip, let down only by my being in a rain suit five days out of the six, and the two baseball games I'd planned on attending (Erie Seawolves and Pittsburgh Pirates) both got rained out on the day I'd planned on attending. Well, I know how the Electra Glide handles in the wet, now.
High point of the trip was going back to my old employer, A.R. Adams Cycle. The second owner, and my boss, Merle has been dead for about ten years now, but the shop is still going under the sole proprietorship of the fellow who was his mechanic from about two years after I left the place. We spent a couple of hours sitting and talking (oh, he remembered who "Sunshine" was, as did Merle - spoke of me until pretty much his dying day) catching up on the decades. The shop is a lot lower key now than it used to be. While in the same building, essentially a five bay strip mall, it's on the right end in the smallest office, rather than on the left side in the largest where Merle and I opened the doors for the first time back in 1973 (the shop itself goes back to 1914, having been in two previous locations on both sides of Erie up to that time).
It turns out that Merle was planning on closing the business down and retiring, the proposed closing date turned out to be about three months after he died. Said employee bought the business from the estate and kept it going ever since. Essentially solo, both a combination of business and his own desire dialed the place down to a level that he could handle alone. In fact, he still had a lot of old stock still in boxes in the back storage area until the COVID boom hit which cleaned him out. The shop is still selling Schwinn, but Raleigh was dropped immediately after Nottingham sold the rights over in the early 80's and they were no longer being imported from England.
Took the time to stop by the other Adams Cycle in Erie, John Adams Cycle. Merle's nephew, the shop is still in the same location on West 12th Street and still family run now in the third generation. John, who I remember, is long gone, but his grandson is now running the place. Like pretty much every other bike shop I've been seeing, the place was gutted of inventory.
A nice trip, let down only by my being in a rain suit five days out of the six, and the two baseball games I'd planned on attending (Erie Seawolves and Pittsburgh Pirates) both got rained out on the day I'd planned on attending. Well, I know how the Electra Glide handles in the wet, now.
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Syke
“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
H.L. Mencken, (1926)
Syke
“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
H.L. Mencken, (1926)
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Syke,
Good to see you surface again! Last I heard from you you were recovering from a garage fire. Post some pics of the new Syke bike caver! Smiles, MH
Good to see you surface again! Last I heard from you you were recovering from a garage fire. Post some pics of the new Syke bike caver! Smiles, MH
#5
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Ashland, VA
Posts: 4,420
Bikes: The keepers: 1958 Raleigh Lenton Grand Prix, 1968 Ranger, 1969 Magneet Sprint, 1971 Gitane Tour de France, 1973 Raleigh Tourist, 3 - 1986 Rossins, and a '77 PX-10 frame in process.
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__________________
Syke
“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
H.L. Mencken, (1926)
Syke
“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
H.L. Mencken, (1926)
Last edited by sykerocker; 09-21-21 at 07:06 PM.
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