Originally Posted by
devinfan
George hasn't gone, he's moved to Symington and Davenport. Some of my happiest biking memories are heading into Kensington to check out what he had. His personal Cinelli B was what got me on the quest to find mine. George is actually a very interesting guy. The best times to go were in the middle of Winter when you'd find him in that place in 20 below zero weather, unheated, talking to himself and checking through all his stuff, blowing steam. What else could you find?
Shifty characters there "helping" and drinking - check
Scary dog not on a leash - check
The occasional treasure, like the Huret Jubilee stuff I picked up off of him - check
The best time I ever went was one summer afternoon, and George was D - R - U - N -K. But amazingly, he was the sane voice in the crowd there, and he kept telling his "helpers" to stop swearing. Then amidst all the chaos and beer, this yuppie couple rolls down the alley, apparently sent there by some helpful local to buy a bike. They looked right away like they wanted to get the hell out, but it was kind of too late. Then George hauls down this POS from the rafters that he put together and is trying to sell it to this yuppie lady... I can't convey how funny it was but I was laughing so hard I decided to give up on the parts I had come to find and just enjoy the spectacle. Anyhow when you catch him on a good day he's a really cool guy and very helpful, but things can go south there during your visit. Definitely worth checking out.
Haha, i've been there a couple times when he was wasted.... it was funny trying to ask him for stuff. It was quite comical. I can definitely see where the yuppy crowd would be scared, C&V ain't for the faint of heart, you've gotta be able to search far and wide for what you want, go into the deepest of caves and the scariest of dungeons. Sometimes to only find the rusty POS CCM or Sears bike or sometimes hit the jackpot like that other post with the schwinn track bike he got for 200.
I saw george a few weeks ago working at uncle jacobs putting bikes together. He said he really needed the money so he was working there. I felt kinda bad cause Uncle Jacob would be a really sh*tty person to work for. I've been in there just to see what he has but would NEVER purchase anything from that guy's used bike shop. Uncle jacob is a sleazeball scumbag, i've have encounters with this guy before and a friend of mine who deals with alot of bikes says the same thing. He'll try to make arrangements on the phone with you to buy your bike for a certain price, but when you meet up he'll never actually pay you that actual price, he'll always try to lowball you or get it cheaper even if you've agreed to a price on the phone. And his prices are pretty outrageous for what he does to the bikes. I believe his story is that he used to run a pawn shop but realized how much money he could make selling used bikes so he ended up opening the bike store, this would explain a lot.
Every year on craiglist you see tons of posts criticizing his shop and whatnot, talking about everything from crappy customer service to him selling stolen bikes (i can't prove that, but it's what i see people on craigslist trolling and flaming him for). I do know he does buy bikes from Randyjawa, but he has to have other sources as well. in the end i still would rather support another bike shop, i'd go to Urbane cyclist or a bike co-op, or a craiglist listing, much rather see my money go to them that jacob.
anyways in the end, big thumbs down for jacob, and a big thumbs up for George at parts unknown, i'm glad he's got his shop up and running...