American Cyclery
 

Last week I spent the day in San Francisco and had some time to kill. So of course, I searched for “bike shop near me”.

I’ve had a couple of really poor experiences at bike shops in San Francisco. I was really hoping this wouldn’t be another one of those cases. Finding community on the forums has been really fulfilling. Finding community within cycling in person has been something that I’ve been looking for - unfortunately, with a whole lot more strikeouts than home runs. I’m really happy to say that my trip to American Cyclery was a very positive experience and a serious breath of fresh air. They’ve got so much cool stuff and the staff is especially friendly. They are clearly people who are passionate about bikes. It seems like they are especially passionate and knowledgeable about the CnV bikes that we all love. I can’t wait to go back. I’m not very close but when I am in the city I certainly plan on stopping in. If anyone is in San Francisco or close, you should definitely stop in and support this shop. Even if you aren’t close, worth traveling to support them!

Bradley (the owner) is a sometimes poster here as well as on the Classic Rendezvous chat group.
He's a nice guy and certainly knows a lot about both the C&V stuff plus contemporary lines his shop sells.
He's running a business but strikes the balance of service with a smile while keeping the lights on and rent paid, not so easy a trick in SF these days!

BTW he has occasional sales to clear out the "old stuff' which accumulates especially in the downstairs basement. That's a good time for those of us who are looking for "something rare" to pay a visit.
Maybe if I get a heads-up that one is coming I'll try to make sure to add news to the "Swap meets in SF" thread

Bradley is dedicated to keeping the classic bikes alive. A labor of love I'm sure. His shop is classic too, having been started by Oscar Juner in 1941. Oscar was a 6-day racer in the 30s. I visit Bradley when I'm in the area.

Oscar Juner -- cyclist, bike-shop founder

Bradley has a good connection with Jim Porter at Merry Sales and hooked me up with him to manufacture the long cages for Campy derailleurs that I wanted to make about 13 years ago. They have sold very well. I hacked one out by hand but it was too much work. I modeled it after the Euclid cage. They are 15mm longer than a Rally cage and suck up more chain. Jim had them done by his people "over there" and sells them under his Soma brand. They fit NR, SR, and GS, but I can modify them to fit old GS and old Record too. I have them on a dozen bikes myself.
New long cages to fit Nuovo/Super Record, Nuovo Gran Sport, old Record, and old Gran Sport derailleur. | Flickr

My Cinelli with old Record with the long cages and a triplized 151 crank.

1961 Cinelli - see amazing new info in description below. | Flickr

^^ Click on the “1961 Cinelli” link above and take notes. Awesome restoration. In my view, THAT is how a bike should be restored….There is plenty of authenticity, but with beautifully performed modifications for the bike to be ridden and enjoyed…

Thanks! One of my more satisfying restorations. That bike did Eroica in 2012, on those woodies with those same tires, and they are still on the bike. We did the middle distance, 81 miles I think it was. I don't think I've changed anything on the bike.
It was a spectacular 3-week trip, where we did lots of riding around Gaioli before the event, and some after including near Montalcino, Badia di Lucca, and around the wall at Lucca, and at the end of the ride we came back to Florence and rode for a day with Roberto Poggiali, a well-known racer from the 50s through 70s, and a gregario to Gimondi and Moser, and a Direttori Sportiv for a couple of teams, and he also had his own shop in Scandicci called Tutto Ciclismo. My friend Amy who was with me on the trip rode a Poggiali bike (Not Pogliaghi!). I had met Roberto through a fellow I found on flickr, Marco Borri, who had several of his bikes in pictures, and who supplied me with original decals. Turns out Roberto was his next door neighbor! Marco and I still chat on a regular basis. Especially during Covid. He was a great source of information about how bad it really was in Italy. Luckily he speaks very good English as my Italian is meager.
We also got to meet Antonio and Giovanni Cermenati, who made the Cerchio Ghisallo wood rims. They have just closed up shop, sadly.

Fun story - a couple days before Eroica, we were riding south of Gaiole, and we were about 10 miles away from the cars when my Regina freewheel started coming apart. It was the splined Regina body, and those sometimes crack all around through the splines. It had not quite spilled its guts yet, and I was able to lay the bike on its side, slide the wheel out, and keep it intact. I cut some leftover sewup boot material into the shape of washers that would fit over the axle and fill the space between the freewheel and the frame, and carefully slid the wheel back in, and rode the 10 miles back to the car. Then went to the Eroica swap meet and found a guy with a freewheel, and the tool to be able to swap my 13-31 cogs over onto it, as I really wanted those for the event.
Lots of pics here.
Collection: Italy 2012

Fabulous story. THAT is why we ride…..

Bob, I know for sure that you are the only person that I've ever met who could repair a freewheel using cut up remnants of an old sewup. Although I have gone on tours both with and without you present, I am completely aware that my non-Bob-present tours are far riskier than those with a Bob to pull off repair miracles on the side of the road.

Then there is Citizen Chain. Too bad on that one.

I actually have visited this shop while visiting family in SF, turned my cycling sister onto it for tuneups and repairs and purchased a Miyata from them in 1998. Seems Miyata, having pulled out of the U.S market, was dumping the factory warranty inventory and American was a shop designated to help them
unload these frames. I got a City Liner, lugged steel touring frame for $175. I still have it, it’s my full blown touring bike and a wonderful riding bike. (It says “Peckham” on the frame, a different story).

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0a05ee615.jpeg

Around 1980-81 I participated in the Tour de San Francisco ride and entered a raffle sponsored by American Cyclery. I won a Schwinn Le Tour. Showed up at the shop and the owner asked me what size I wanted. My friend didn't have a bike and he was 6'6" tall so I picked the biggest one they had. I think it was a 25, possibly larger. I just recall it being seriously tall!

Are you sure this wasn't the Tour de San FRANCEcisco? That was an event put on by the Francophile club of San Francisco, I first rode it in 1985, and multiple times after that. It was especially fun because they had a commissaire car with local celebrities, and other pace cars and it was a mass start almost like a race. I remember it went down the Great Highway and past GGP so it probably came pretty close to American Cyclery. Ended at Crissy Field with a bunch of French propaganda.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...48e3b7214c.jpg

I remember American having a number of Koga-Miyatas FS (maybe both framesets and some fully built bikes) which were rather seldom-seen in the US. At least a few were painted purple or blue-purple, IIRC. I think Bradley said they were bought as a "Lot" from some distributor, not sure if he has even one left at this point

DiabloScott, that is the ride. Big mass start and too many people thinking it was a race. A lot of fun, and was the first organized ride I did. Only did a few more like that and decided riding solo is more my speed. Then I got into racing...

bobsyourbike thank you for the info on the shop and its community, story of your trip and link to the article! And yes, that cinelli is double cool. Tasteful for sure.

The original color was an ugly lavender/purple. I had it repainted to this green years later. The Peckham label was added as a tribute to a local friend and fellow cyclist who built lugged steel bikes. When he passed away at a ripe old age of 92 his widow gave me the labels to stick on my Miyata. The Miyata has the head badge,

When I moved to San Francisco in 2009 to attend SFSU I stopped into American Cyclery a few times. I was pretty fresh on the scene and my experience with vintage bikes was negligible. I did purchase a Raleigh Professional from Bradley that had a crimp in the seat tube neither of us had noticed prior to my purchase, as he'd just got it in from an old client. I returned with the bike as evidence and he offered me a free Raleigh Professional frameset with a nasty paint job from the rack he'd roll out front to make up for it. It was a cool gesture that I thought more than fair.

-Gregory

It was mostly after I started racing that I learned the true appreciation for the solo ride...

That's what happens when you get dropped.

--Shannon

Yeah, sorry to see them go. That is where I got the silver Cinelli frame that built up to be the best bike I've ever owned.

In the late 1990s, I bought one of the Koga-Miyata Prolog f/f/hs combos that AC was selling and was told pretty much the same story about them buying some distributer's stock of them. It was a sort of purple with tannish socks that at a quick glance almost looked like chrome. It was a pretty good looking frame. I built it up and it turned out to be . . . meh. Not bad, but not inspiring. Kind of dead feeling, at least to me. I moved it along pretty quickly..