"His death and the potential closing of the shop is an irrevocable loss. It is one thing to recall how Frank and his mechanics would fix a flat for peanuts - in Manhattan! - but the shop was a place where bikers who could their own flats would come up with other repair jobs just so they could hang out with Frank and his crew."
"One of Frank's earliest commercial accounts was with the bike manufacturer Schwinn, so it was natural that his shop became one of the home bases of the city's flourishing Puerto Rican Schwinn Club, which comprises bike enthusiasts who trick out their rides with pennants, sound systems and Puerto Rican flags and ride slowly around the neighborhood and nearby East River Park."
Frank Arroyo, owner of Frank's Bike Shop, died in mid-December at 81 after nearly 50 years on the Lower East Side. He opened the shop at the far eastern end of Grand Street in 1976. The shop offered extremely low-cost repairs, often fixing flats for peanuts, and served as a social hub where bikers lingered to hang out with Frank and his mechanics. Frank's Bike Shop functioned as a cultural institution comparable to the Nuyorican Poet's Café. Annual Christmas window displays delighted neighborhood children. The shop supported the Puerto Rican Schwinn Club and supplied vintage bikes for film and commercial shoots.
Read at Streetsblog
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]