I love a beautiful bicycle as much as anybody does. All you have to do is look at Dee-Lilah or Zebbie, my Mercian Vincitore Special and King of Mercia, to see how I care about fine workmanship and finishes. At the same time, I appreciate and respect the technological refinement of modern bikes and components. I avail myself to as much of it as I find useful--and affordable.
But I also understand that what if the current bike boom, fueled by COVID, is to continue, it won't be on the wheels of bikes sold in boutique shops for more than workers in the developing world make in a couple of years. Wherever the bicycle is seen as an integral part of the transportation network, let alone as a way of life, people are riding utilitarian machines (think of Dutch city bikes) to work or school, or bikes that are sportier, if not much pricier, to the park, seashore or market. And, in such places, bike shops and mechanics concentrate on keeping those commuters and recreational cyclists on the road (or getting them there in the first place). They don't spend much, if any, time working on the electronic shifting systems of $12,000 bikes.
In other words, those mechanics are like Joe Haskins who work in shops like the one that bears his name. He bought it from its founder, his aging uncle, in 1958, when the shop was still known as Tampa Cycle--and he was 17 years old.
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| Joe Haskins. Photo by Kelly Benjamin |
He never left, literally and figuratively. Over the years, the shop moved to several different locales, all within the same area of Tampa--and, most important of all, serving the same sort of clientele: basically, anyone who needed a bike or repair. Sometimes his services had nothing to do with bikes or cycling: Former Tampa Bay Times reporter Alan Snel (who writes the Bicycle Stories blog) noted, "every mayor has their downtown pet projects, but the essence of a city is the neighborhoods and small businesses like Joe's bike shop that help everyday residents with everyday issues."
So, when the driving force/guiding spirit of such a business retires or passes away, as Joe did last Saturday, it leaves a hole in the community. But it seems that the shop will continue: During the past few years, as Joe's health declined, family members stepped in to keep the shop's unwritten mission alive.
Tampa's All Love Bike Crew will honor his memory with a ride on Sunday. Somehow I don't think that many Crew members will be riding $12,000 bikes or $300 helmets.
