This is not a commentary on Wal-Mart vs. Bike-Mart.
We all ride "department store bikes", every one of us (presuming we ride bikes at all). In our consumer-crazed culture, the whole world is our department store. But I'm not talking about global/macro economics, I'm talking about you and me. We bought our bikes at the department store (even if it came through Craigslist).
My favorite department store as a kid (and therefore burned into my personal identity as the prototype), was the large Sears on Ross Avenue that opened in 1947. A mammoth (for the time) structure, it was a giant Art Moderne block of sculptured limestone. The interior walls were covered in "social realism" murals depicting the American Spirit that had just climbed out of the Great Depression and won WW II.
That's where we are going to buy a bike.
On the ground level, near the automotive area (a freestanding, oddly Federal-style building), you entered through the attached Garden Department, and went into the Toy Department. Here are some bicycles. Is your bike a toy? Is it something you get out on nice days to play with? Do you take it to the playground and show it off to your friends? I've bought bikes in the Toy Department (and looking at my folding Sinclair "A-Bike", I still do), but let's keep going.
Once inside the main building, the ground floor is mainly soft goods, the second floor furniture, and radios and televisions. The basement is our destination.
Taking the escalators down, we enter the heart of Sears, the Appliance Department, home of Kenmore. But we're not stopping. We're headed towards the Sporting Goods Department. Here are more bicycles. My first real bike came from this department, a J.C. Higgins 3-speed "English Racer" (even though it was made by Puch in Austria). Are you an athlete? Do you get on your bike and ride "hammer and tongs", as H.G. Wells said? Is it your fitness craze, replacing softball, or soccer, or rugby, or running? Do you put in more than a hundred miles a week, in an effort to stay fit and healthy, while experiencing the adrenalin/endorphin surge that competitive sports affords? I've purchased my bike in the Sporting Goods department before, but not so much now.
But to me, the real heart and soul of Sears, the reason my dad and I went and where I lingered, was the Hardware Department... the home of Craftsman tools. Power tools, hand tools, tools to rebuild the world into a better place, to make something that improved your life and your family's life, or to fix what was broken.
Here's where I buy my bikes now, tools for transportation from "Point A, to Point B". Do I get to show them off? Sure. There's nothing like the pride of a craftsman showing a well built and maintained tool to his friends. Do I get to have fun? Absolutely! A Craftsman table saw was one the most fun tools I ever worked with (and far more dangerous than any roadway I've ridden on). Do I get to make something better? Yes.
I get to improve my community.
Which department is your bike from?
4 comments:
One of my bikes is from the Jewelry Department - it cost a lot of money and is pretty to look at but doesn't get out much.
I also recently bought a bike from the Toy Department but that one was stolen.
My most recent purchase I'd say was from the Used Car Lot - overpriced piece of junk whose purchase I regretted immediately but it does get me from A to B.
In the past, most of my bikes have come from the Sporting Goods Department but I got more utility miles out of that trusty old mountain bike than any other.
Yeah, my most expensive bike gets ridden the least. But when I get on it, I feel like I'm flying. I think it weighs less than my U-lock :-)
Stu,
How'd that Dahon work out? Was that one stolen, too? Was that the "toy"?
Sorry about your red Trek. Good bike. Someone stole my Dawes Galaxy years ago. A few months later, I saw an immigrant cyclist commuting on it (tell tale marking), and thought, "OK".
Yes, the Dahon folding bike was the stolen "toy". Unlike the Trek, it was stolen in the middle of the day, the first time I tried leaving it locked on a rack. Unfortunately, I had too much faith in people (and cable locks).
The Dahon was pretty nice but difficult for me to ride more than a few miles due to the small size. The folding made it slightly easier to take on the train and store in my cube but it was still a hassle for me.
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