http://thenewcaferacersociety.blogspot.com/

A new blog of note this morning...

I was thinking about bicycles yesterday...what the man at the bikeshop close by...a road or two away from ELLIS ROAD...had told me:

Basically there had been up to 20 bike shops in CLACTON during his youth and now there was only his and another one which as far as I can remember...didn't specialise in bikes (or repairs)...

So what had happened?

i found it incredible that times had changed so much from say the 1950s...

Culturally, people needed to buy more bikes and needed repair shops...back then...and now?

Well, trying to buy a bike was a nightmare at first...online that is...only a few companies and no 'good deals' - not really...so simply a case of 'multinationals' taking over the market?

The odd thing was that MI5 ran one of those internet companies...now why would JONATHAN EVANS and CO be interested in selling bikes? This company had some of the highest prices too - and for all makes of bike...

What is going on here?

Why did the 'cornershop' bike and repairs store disappear?

Where do people go to get their bikes repaired nowadays?

HARWICH had a brilliant bike shop but just before I 'left' for good...the guy closed up shop and left the country...on the grapevine I was told that nobody quite knew why...he suddenly just did it and then disappeared.

The HARWICH shop guy - was rather like the guy who runs the CLACTON one...experts in their field...the HARWICH shop had every single part you could imagine...the guy running it knew everything there was to know about any and every bike...

if I were living in HARWICH now...where would I go when I needed my bike repaired?

If the CLACTON shop closes down...I suppose the next place would be COLCHESTER...