Have i told you my story from when we visited our friend Bart who had one of the only Soviet bikes in the states? This is a “bike shop plus bike” story.
The parts were all Campy knockoffs … made in the 80’s with parts copied from the 60’s! It had a broken rear spoke, drive-side, so I took it to the local bike shop. It was a high end place, impressive, w vintage stuff in the window. I asked a clerk if they could loosen the freewheel for me so i could install the new spoke. The clerk looked at the name on the hub and said “We don’t have a tool for that.” It was written in cyrillic. I said Of course you don’t. It’s Russian but check it out: it’s an exact knockoff of Campy. Isn’t that cool? You can just use a Campy tool to loosen it.” He said “We won’t use the incorrect tool.” I was stunned and said “There isn’t a single tool in the brand of this freewheel in the whole USA. But, um, it’s a copy of Campy so no problem, like I said.” It was my first time in a bike shop where I felt like maybe I needed to check a clerk for a pulse. The dude also wasn’t even slightly interested in seeing one of the rarest bikes he’d ever had near his shop. (The rest of the bike was outside.) And he was happy to turn away money. I was flummoxed on a few levels. And desperate for help. Plus I had an awesomely cool story! I’d been going to bike shops for decades. Shop rats love cool stories! Well, thankfully I was in my comfort zone since I was in a bike shop, so I just walked over to another clerk and asked him if he’d use the Campy freewheel tool for me. He said sure and forget the charge, that other guy, shrug. In a minute I was on my way and soon had the bike back in good shape.
I used that bike on the local training ride that night. The other dozens of riders had modern carbon bikes. Oddly, nobody in the parking lot had the slightest interest in seeing the only Soviet-knockoff Campy bike they’d ever see in their lives. Later, after i’d been at the front of all the jams on this bike — with its cottered crank and 5sp freewheel amid 9-speeds — a few of the lead riders marveled a bit at it. But before then none of them were going to be caught looking twice … at such a rare bike. Who’d ride such a bike? Better not look! I recall I used a pice of plumbing pipe to make a longer seatpost so i could fit it.
