BIKE SHOP AND BERKSHIRES

The offending helmet.

Bob the Bike Store Man and the new helmet

Ten years for a helmet I don't think of as being old. Scratch, crack, or pieced strap only means
I've just gotten to know the thing. Bob Taylor of Taylor's Bikes had a different idea.

"Throw out that helmet. It's old and ain't worth a damned." Somewhat defensive although not entirely surprised that politeness is secondary to honesty in Mass....it would never come down like this, i tell myself, in polite WV. But I'm into it.

"I paid more than a $100 for it," I said."

"You paid too much." he said.

"What's going on with cycling here?" I ask.

"My grandfather started over 100 years ago. He started with harnesses. He brought in some of the first bikes for people in North Hampton. The Smithies, that's what we called them, came with their English style bikes from their oversees tours. We were the first to have Maytag washers and did goods with that. we did good in the 80's here.

"Now There are 16 bike shops in this town. There are only 3 in the city of Cambridge. It's ridiculous they are all trust fund bike shops. You go down In front of the College on Saturday morning and there will be 100 guys and girls in Lycra. Now they're a bunch of posers. They stand around and look at each others equipment and pose. $5,000 some of them have in the latest stuff. Bikes have changed more in the last ten years than they had in the previous 100."

Yankees shoot from the hip. I put on my new helmet and headed for the Berkshires.