Your bike is dead. Don't cry or yell at me

Thoughts on a reasonable price for the Ridgid vise?
https://www.bidspotter.com/en-us/auction-catalogues/bscpau/catalogue-id-bscpau10174/lot-77bbfcc7-d769-40a4-8ba3-ad7a002bf087

what was the resolution on hosting the harris site?

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entirely my fault

The lot with the stems and other misc parts probably has some gems (if you’re an insufferable bike nerd).

There might be, but in spite of Sheldon Brown, Harris was mostly a neighborhood bike shop, so I suspect it’s mostly low-end stuff for hybrid repair.

$3,325.00 final.

Na, I didn’t really see anything, and I’ve seen my share of neighborhood shop bins.

I’ve been on the other end of one of these, when the exhibit and tradeshow booth design place I used to work at went out of business. The objects were different but the pictures were very familiar.

Anything worth reasonable $ that was also “used” and not in new packaging was likely removed by staff members or sold to long-time customers who staff knew collected that sort of thing. I’m sure staff had their pick of tools and parts to pull off the shelves before the auction house got there to take pics and make up the bid lots.

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yeah I was thinking that any decent shop would have nerd employees picking up the good stuff before auction

that’s why I just wanted dozens of rolls of black cork tape :slight_smile:

I forgot to check back and now bidding is over. Oh well.

Harriet has been and will continue to take care of it for now.

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Does anyone know how the heck they went out of business in this environment? Was it because they couldn’t get stuff?

…looks like they DID have stuff though…

“CROATOAN”

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I stopped there in (I think) 2001. I needed a B-17 and a Carradice (as was custom at the time) and hoped to meet Sheldon. He wasn’t there, but I chatted with one of the owners who was working behind the counter. He seemed amazed that people from far away would want to visit the shop and said something like “we’re not sure what Sheldon is doing with that website.”

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I would be happy to own that website printed out in a binder.
I’ve probably printed about a third of it out over time, stained the copies with grease, and trampled them to powder on the garage floor.

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Exactly. The owners never really understood the influence of Sheldon and just ran a little neighborhood bike shop. They didn’t strike me as bike nerds.

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I think they just wanted to retire. Although it seems like the shop has enough name recognition they could have sold the business rather than shutting down.

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All that said, Harris has sold interesting bikes for a long time. My wife grew up riding Terry bikes that she got there. Recently, they’ve been popular as a Brompton dealer for the Boston area.

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Moulton dealer too

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Harris report:

I snagged the Ridgid vise in the auction. I went to the shop to pick it up this afternoon. I just finished mounting it on my workbench.

While I was there, I saw one of @igor’s stickers on their old computer.

And managed to scrape off and save a Sheldon Brown Ride in Peace sticker

Pretty much everything sold at auction, but there was a pile of stuff under one of the shop benches that they said was up for grabs. I now have a lifetime supply of ferrules. Also snagged Chris King hub tools and some facing tools and a box of acid brushes that I’ll post in the classifieds later.


The big lot of parts that @jimmythefly was eyeing was being picked up by someone from Cambridge Used Bicycle, which seems like a worthy home.

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Those CK hub tools will be worth double if that’s Sheldon’s handwriting on the box.

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