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The wheels are in motion for a new bicycle shop to open in Park Slope this spring, The Brooklyn Paper has learned.
Brooklyn Bicycles will open at the corner of Ninth Street and Sixth Avenue in May, offering yet another cycling store for residents of a neighborhood that city records suggest has the second-highest number of bike commuters in the borough.
Co-owner Tony Gallucci promises to put service first.
“From what I’ve seen in Brooklyn, a lot of rude and pretty obnoxious people work in bike shops,” said Gallucci, who has years of experience at cycling stores in Manhattan. “We want to open a place with more friendliness.”
The new shop, which will take over the 1,400-square-foot space that formerly housed a Curves gym, will carry a wide range of men’s and women’s commuter cycles, sport hybrids and road bikes that cost less than $2,500, according co-founder — and Prospect Heights resident — Henry Carter.
Brooklyn Bicycles won’t be the first retailer in the neighborhood, but Carter claims he’ll reach a distinctive niche of recreational Prospect Park riders, bike commuters, and beginning cyclists — groups he says are under-served by neighborhood bicycle stores.
“There are definitely other bike shops around, but there’s no place that fits the needs of most cyclists,” Carter said.
Not surprisingly, some Park Slope bike shop employees disagreed, and cautioned the entrepreneurs behind Brooklyn Bicycles that running a cycling shop can be harder than winning a stage in the Tour de France.
“It’s easy to open up a shop,” said Al Cabbad, a salesmen at R and A Cycles on Fifth Avenue. “but to stay open is very difficult.”
A daytime call to On the Move — the tiny Seventh Avenue bike shop closest to the planned Brooklyn Bicycles location — was picked up only by a recording device. The shop, which keeps limited hours, did not return the call.
Rivalries aside, the new shop could result in better selection for Park Slope shoppers, said Chris Dixon, of Dixon’s Bike Shop on Union Street.
“You’ll be able to get more stuff in the neighborhood instead of going online, so it’s a good thing for Park Slope at the end of the day,” he said. “If everybody has a little niche, we’re not against them.”
©2009 Community Newspaper Group
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