Harris Cyclery closes

Dewey

Dewey

Well-Known Member
Region
USA
City
Arlington, Virginia

Harris Cyclery

www.harriscyclery.net www.harriscyclery.net

Harris Cyclery in the Boston suburb of Newton, MA, has closed. For many years this store employed the legendary Sheldon Brown, the most knowledgeable bicycle mechanic in North America, and hosted his website sheldonbrown.com which is a goldmine of arcane knowledge about both vintage bicycles and regular bicycle maintenance. Harris Cyclery were one of the few bicycle shops that carried a stock of useful spares for vintage bikes in proprietary sizes such as Sun CR-18 rims in Raleigh 26 x 1 3/8”. Concerns about the future of the Sheldonbrown.com website are real, there’s just too much useful information to lose, although some one tweeted it is backed up on the archive.org website
road.cc

Updated: Sheldon Brown’s website to continue despite bike shop where he worked closing down

Site the late bike maintenance guru built has been a go-to resource for more than 20 years
road.cc road.cc
 
Last edited:
I've used Sheldon's information for more than a decade. When he died, he left a huge void. It was one of the first, truly trusted sources for the home mechanic. I hope the website continues with ad revenue. You can do any bike repair with Sheldon Brown's site and Park Tool's site.
 
Good news. Sounds like things will be okay for sheldonbrown.com

Road.cc jumped the gun and posted their article before getting details. :)


Full text:

Ah, the hand-wringing. It seems to have started with a post on the road.cc blog by someone who posted an inquiry on our Facebook page but didn’t wait for our response.

Harris Cyclery has closed after a 70-year run, hit hard by pandemic supply issues. Sheldonbrown.com got its start when Sheldon worked at Harris Cyclery, and we are very grateful to Harris Cyclery for its support. But, since 2010, sheldonbrown.com (except for the /harris pages) has floated its own boat, through online advertising.

We don’t know yet what other affiliation we may find, or whether we’ll go it alone, but you may rest easy. Ride your bike, and feel free to come to us for help keeping it in top shape.
Click to expand...
 
In the past few years, I outfitted 3 of my newer bikes with the top tier German dyno lighting systems & dyno hubs and a good bit of the parts to make that happen came from Harris Cyclery, via online internet shopping. They were very reliable to deal with.

We live in not-so-hot times these days with so many family businesses in every state going lights out due to the virus restrictions going on for over a year in many states. Here we are, in an unprecedented bicycle boom and shops like Harris Cyclery doesn't have product on hand to sell thanks to overseas manufacturing shut downs. This really is an ongoing tragedy and I fear it's only going to get worse before we are finally cleared of this nightmare.

2 weeks ago, it occured to me that I could not locate a Schwalbe Jumbo Jim 26 x 4.0 fat bike tire for sale in the United States. I checked everywhere on line; no luck. I contacted Universal Cycles, my go-to source for tires and the reply I got back stated that the US will not have stock on hand for the JJ 4.0 until April......2022 at the earliest. Stock on hand for many items we took for granted are drying up. And in turn, when a seller has nothing to sell, but bills and taxes to still pay; it suddenly makes it clear the tremendous pressure our bike suppliers are under these days.

My back tire wear cannot hold out for another 10 plus months of riding, so I ordered the tire from an Euro on-line bike shop. It seems Europe has plenty of them in stock, but be prepared for the shock of paying for shipping from Europe to the United States.
 
Mike TowpathTraveler said:
In the past few years, I outfitted 3 of my newer bikes with the top tier German dyno lighting systems & dyno hubs and a good bit of the parts to make that happen came from Harris Cyclery, via online internet shopping. They were very reliable to deal with.

We live in not-so-hot times these days with so many family businesses in every state going lights out due to the virus restrictions going on for over a year in many states. Here we are, in an unprecedented bicycle boom and shops like Harris Cyclery doesn't have product on hand to sell thanks to overseas manufacturing shut downs. This really is an ongoing tragedy and I fear it's only going to get worse before we are finally cleared of this nightmare.

2 weeks ago, it occured to me that I could not locate a Schwalbe Jumbo Jim 26 x 4.0 fat bike tire for sale in the United States. I checked everywhere on line; no luck. I contacted Universal Cycles, my go-to source for tires and the reply I got back stated that the US will not have stock on hand for the JJ 4.0 until April......2022 at the earliest. Stock on hand for many items we took for granted are drying up. And in turn, when a seller has nothing to sell, but bills and taxes to still pay; it suddenly makes it clear the tremendous pressure our bike suppliers are under these days.

My back tire wear cannot hold out for another 10 plus months of riding, so I ordered the tire from an Euro on-line bike shop. It seems Europe has plenty of them in stock, but be prepared for the shock of paying for shipping from Europe to the United States.
Click to expand...
Sad, but true.

I too use Universal. Their Lancaster location was close enough to visit for me. They closed the showroom at the beginning of the pandemic and haven't reopened. I wonder if it will ever reopen.

Try Chain Reaction Cycles for your Schwalbe JJ, if not too late.

International update | Chain Reaction

An information update for customers outside the UK.
www.chainreactioncycles.com www.chainreactioncycles.com

They are fantastic to deal with. It's a UK store, they have a US site and free shipping for orders over $99.
 
Mike TowpathTraveler said:
Here we are, in an unprecedented bicycle boom and shops like Harris Cyclery doesn't have product on hand to sell thanks to overseas manufacturing shut downs. This really is an ongoing tragedy and I fear it's only going to get worse before we are finally cleared of this nightmare.
Click to expand...
Very true, the news about the extended Shimano factory closure in Malaysia is alarming, they make derailleur parts, wheels, pedals and brakes. Kent International's factory closure in Malaysia is a blow for its retailers particularly Walmart
 
J.R. said:
Sad, but true.

I too use Universal. Their Lancaster location was close enough to visit for me. They closed the showroom at the beginning of the pandemic and haven't reopened. I wonder if it will ever reopen.

Try Chain Reaction Cycles for your Schwalbe JJ, if not too late.

International update | Chain Reaction

An information update for customers outside the UK.
www.chainreactioncycles.com www.chainreactioncycles.com

They are fantastic to deal with. It's a UK store, they have a US site and free shipping for orders over $99.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that tip, J.R. about Chain Reaction. Just placed an order for one tire with them. Last week, I got a JJ from BikeInn. Though the service was nearly as fast as Universal does, shipping with crazy high.

I'd suggest to anyone reading this that if they feel their tires or tubes or other expendable parts are need in replacement in the coming months, that it's best to act now cause we really don't know how deeper this bike parts well is going to dry up on us.
 
Mike TowpathTraveler said:
I'd suggest to anyone reading this that if they feel their tires or tubes or other expendable parts are need in replacement in the coming months, that it's best to act now cause we really don't know how deeper this bike parts well is going to dry up on us.
Click to expand...
Brought my bike to my local bike shop today for a service, they're an independent Giant dealer using QBP for parts supply, they couldn't find the tires I wanted in the inventory system so I'm going to try out a pair of budget tires they had in stock, Panaracer Tour with Tuffy tire liners.
 
Dewey said:
they couldn't find the tires I wanted in the inventory system
Click to expand...
I feel bad for anyone looking for any out-of-stock parts now.

I sourced everything I wanted last year right after the pandemic summer.

Hoarding bike parts feels somewhat justified when you know it's all gone out there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back