Anne Checking-Out Beer Jerseys at the New Big Shark Bicycle Store

Saturday night, Anne and I attended the grand opening of Big Shark Bicycle’s new store. There was free pizza and beer to be had. It is just up the street from the house, in easy walking distance from home. Located in the old Hi-Fi-Fo-Fum property, it and the adjacent old post office were dueling construction sites all winter and formed a gauntlet that I had to run every morning in order to get to work. Big Shark is finished and the post office looks to be done next month. Both new properties will be a boon to our neighborhood.

We both looked around, but didn’t buy anything. I made a joke to a sales rep that the neighborhood has just gotten a lot more dangerous. I don’t think that he caught my drift. I meant that having another high-end bike shop so close by would be dangerous to my wallet. Later, we spoke to the owner, Mike. Almost as if he had overheard my joke, he told me how much safer it is in the new local than their old place in the Loop. He recounted the first theft there. The store was still under construction, when a workman’s table saw was stolen right out from under him. Security cams captured the whole thing, including the workmen’s surprise at his missing saw. Mike said the next thing that the thieves took were the cameras. It turns out that Mike got his start in the bike biz just a couple of blocks away from where he is now. The old Touring Cyclist store must have been an incubator for almost every bicycle shop owner in town. I’m sure that I bought stuff from him back then, just like I’ll be buying stuff from him again.