Believe it or not, someone has actually come up with a use for those "pie plate" "spoke protectors" that were found on so many Bike Boom-era ten-speed bikes.
I saw this display at Brooklyn Bikes and Boards, which is located a couple of blocks in back of the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
It's located in the same storefront as a shop I used to frequent: Bicycle Station, which was owned by Michael Rodriguez. Before he owned that shop, he owned Open Road, just around the corner from the Bergen Street apartment where I lived. A former lover was convinced that I moved there for that reason. I deny it.
Mike was one of the better mechanics I knew. And, as it happened, his build and his riding style were much like mine, at least in those days. So his recommendations usually worked well for me. As you might expect, I bought a couple of bikes and a bunch of parts and accessories from him. And, we did more than a few training rides together.
Brooklyn Bikes and Boards is, like many other shops in this town, cluttered. And they seem as if they know what they're doing: They seem to be catering to a clintele that's younger and more self-consciously, or at least more aspirationally, hip than I am.
Anyway, the owner--whose name I didn't get--was happy to let me take the photo. And, I have to give "props" to someone who can do anything at all with those "pie plates." In one of the shops in which I worked, we used them as Frisbees. But I think that BBb display is a better--and safer--use for them!