The snow is mostly gone here in Newport, RI. Hopefully we’ll get some Spring like weather soon, but it still feels like mid-March. I liked this article in the WSJ on vintage mountain bikes. It was around this time of year back in the early 90s we’d ride on the trails behind Babson College in Wellesley, MA. I still have my Specialized Rockhopper hanging in my garage in Newport and have no plans of ever getting rid of it even if it’s a bit outdated.
Frederick Dreier writes in the WSJ:
Mr. Martin now sells used bicycle gear for professional and amateur cyclists. He also liquidates excess inventory from bike shops. In 2014 The Pro’s Closet employed a staff of 30 and recorded nearly $7 million in sales. Mr. Martin says he is cognizant that the online marketplace has become a haven for bicycle thieves. He requires sellers to include photo identification and to provide a verbal history of the bicycle. He notifies the police if he is alerted that the shop has a stolen bicycle listed.
In recent years, classic bikes owned by retired professionals and collectors began passing through Mr. Martin’s store.
Mr. Martin purchased several of the classic mountain bikes for himself and created a small museum in his warehouse. Today, Mr. Martin’s showroom displays a dozen or so bikes, including the 1990 Yeti FRO bicycle ridden by mountain biking’s first female world champion, Juli Furtado, as well as the 1991 Specialized Rockhopper that Ned Overend, mountain biking’s first male world champ, rode. Mr. Martin also owns a nickel-plated 1983 Breezer III built by Joe Breeze, one of mountain biking’s pioneers.
