Anybody know the connection between bike shops and locksmiths/key making. Just saw a photo of my hometown circa 1945 and there was a "Bicycle and Key" sign on a storefront.

Also the local Schwinn store when I was growing up made keys. And the Schwinn store in the next town over made keys as well. Any Idea why these two businesses go hand in hand?

Small town hardware stores were pretty broad in their coverage of products -- sort of an outgrowth of the old general store. In the 1960s I bought a Sony tape deck at a hardware store in Huntington Beach. Conversely, the only bike shop in a smaller town was often a Schwinn dealership, and it was natural to expand to fill whatever voids were not being covered by the local hardware stores. If a kid lost the key to his bike lock, it would be handy to have locking and key making / rekeying capabilities at the bike shop.

In the 1970s when I worked at a Peugeot-Nishiki dealership in Los Angeles, the proprietor used to joke about wanting to answer the phone, "This is Big Al's bike, mower, hardware, key, and thrift shop," as a reaction to the local hardware stores that were trying to cash in on the bike boom.

Sorry I can't help with the connection but it is curious. I spent a lot of time at the Lock and Key ogling the bikes in the early 1960s.

I worked at Cycles & Sports on Wisconsin Ave, DC, in 1980-1; mainly a Raleigh dealer, though we also sold Ross, Kalkhoff, Kent, Bridgestone Kabuki, and maybe some other brands. I was a sales and stock clerk, not a mechanic. We had a key making machine, a pretty cool item about the size of a medium TV set. On the wall behind it was a pegboard with a hundred or so different key blanks. If the customer wanted a key made, you found the appropriate blank, and clamped it in the appropriate slot in machine. You clamped their existing key into another slot. You had to be careful to align the shoulder of the key just right, and the shoulder of the blank the same way. When you turned the machine on, it moved sideways. A guide blade followed the notches of the existing key, lifting and dropping as it moved; and the grinder followed its path precisely, cutting the exact same pattern onto the blank. Copying a broken key was more difficult, but by no means impossible. It was pretty fun. Lots of brass shavings!

My local bike shop used to have an FFL license, do gun transfers, and had a gun safe in the back. I think bike shops are like any other small business, always looking for a profitable side gig to bring in extra cash.

Many of the recent-immigrant-run convenience stores also do overseas money transfers, wedding pictures, sell jewelry, hardware, whatever. They're the ones who get the most creative these days at finding new ways to make money.

Bike shops have quiet spells while lock shops seldom do. The key biz is great for traffic and improves the bottom line.

Bikes and skateboards.
Bikes and fitness.
Bikes and keys.
These days, bikes and coffee.
My favorite from the old days, bikes and bait.

I don't recall the key-making, but I do remember a lot of cycle & mower shops back in the day. Bought my Schwinn Apple Krate from one back in '69.

I remember the hardware store in my small town in the 60's had sporting goods (hockey sticks, baseball gloves), and record albums in addition to bicycles and keys. I wouldn't call it a bike store though... just cheap kids' bikes, and no mechanics.

Anybody else's local bike shop also sharpen ice skates? Our local Schwinn dealer was the only place around where we could bring our hockey skates to get sharpened.

Yep, my local bike shop growing up was always, and still is, "... Bike and Mower." That said, the distribution of their showroom floor space has always been about 80% bike and 20% mower. Not sure which side contributes to it more, but the smell of fresh/new rubber when you walk in is glorious.

Drugs, you forgot drugs. And that includes generic antibiotics, which are actually a big issue for the rest of us...

Let's not forget the best combo of all, bikes and beer.

I worked at Bicycle Workshop in Cambridge, MA (Now Cambridge Bicycle) in 1980-1981. We sharpened ice skates in the winter. I hope the reason is obvious.

There was a guy in my hometown with a very small shop who repaired bicycles, strung rackets, sharpened skates and waxed skis. He didn't sell anything, just doing the after sales maintenance. I understand that he's still doing it, though these days skate sharpening is a year round business.

I think they dropped the key making but West LA Bike & Hobby had a wall of plastic model kits.
Spent hours deciding on how to spend $2.00 on a model car kit.
For a few years the hobby side was busy enough to have a dedicated person to run it.

There was a tennis shop next door to the bike shop I worked at.
After Wilson stopped the production of the T-2000 metal frame racket, the tennis shop would bring over a pro's rackets to bend them back into an oval.
Had a habit for a time of whacking them against the court if he missed a shot he felt he should have made.
We used a rim flat spot remover tool to work the head back into an oval.

The shop where I bought my first real bike also had a press for t-shirt transfers. They were the only one in town where you could get novelty shirts done.

The shop where I bought my last new bike sells ski equipment in the winter.

I saw a post office/gun shop in Montana once many years ago, wish I had taken a picture. Brought a whole new meaning to the term "going postal". Also saw a Honda Motorcycle Dealer/LDS Bookstore combo in Monticello, UT. Last time I went through Monticello they were still in business as both businesses.

My first new bicycle as a kid came from a lawn mower repair shop. Guy didn't even have a franchise to sell new lawn mowers, but he had his own "brand" of bicycles. Who knows who actually made them.

Is this the pic from the Old Milwaukee FB page?

There's all kinds of stuff going on in that picture- the Schwinn sign, the different beer signs... I can't find it now- but I spent a LOT of time perusing that picture.

Wasn't there a similar thread about bike/lawnmower shops?