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Torontocentric question bout High park cycles

Old 04-14-12, 08:50 PM
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Torontocentric question bout High park cycles

I called high park cycles to see find out their hours and to see if he would be as crazy on the phone as he is in person, but the phone is disconnected. Can someone save me a trip outa my way and tell me if they are still in business. Also it would be a plus if you have and good stories relating to said shop, but not a necessity.
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Old 04-14-12, 09:01 PM
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Too bad you didn't post this yesterday, I was within a few blocks of that shop today and could have swung by to take a look for you.
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Old 05-02-12, 12:28 PM
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I was by the shop and there is notice on the door advising he is in arrears in rent to the tune of 19000 dollars. This is a city ordinance and it notes he had till the end of March to pay or they would calll in an appraiser.. I drive by on a daily basis and it remains closed.....
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Old 05-02-12, 01:05 PM
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Was this shop run by a fella by the name of Jacob?
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Old 05-02-12, 01:44 PM
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I can't believe that the shop is still around in any form. Their business was already questionable back in the 80's... They always had some interesting items but... let's leave it at that.
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Old 05-05-12, 03:21 PM
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They are having an auction this Monday for the entire contents of the store. You have to buy the whole lot. Would love to know what it goes for. He had a lot of nice vintage bikes and parts.
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Old 05-05-12, 05:28 PM
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He wanted $300,000.00 when I inquired about a year and a half ago. All I had was $299,000.00. Darn!-(

Seriously, my son did go and talk to the guy a few times and he did want to sell the whole kit and caboodle.

And, it is not Jacob. I just did business with Jacob a couple of weeks ago, sending him 120 vintage bicycles from our Bicycles for Humanity inventory. B4H sells off vintage bicycles that we cannot, or do not have time and resources to work on. People, like Jacob, buy them in lots of 100+ for twenty buck a piece plus shipping.

B4H uses the money to help fund shipments of bicycles to Africa, at a cost of $10,000 (approx) per shipment.
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Old 05-05-12, 06:04 PM
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He has a ton of NOS stuff in the shop.
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Old 05-05-12, 08:26 PM
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The owners name is Jon, he was closed down for a long time due to not paying rent or being behind.

Don`t get me wrong he explained to me that the place was falling apart, with water leaking etc he was right, parts of his ceiling were collapsing.
Then he reopened and also was opening on Sundays.
He would always tell me , I need a business partner, if I had the cash i would of jumped at it.
The last few Sundays that I visited TO he was closed I guess i got my answer why,

I had cleaned him out of his Old school Bmx bikes for the last 2 years
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Old 05-05-12, 09:22 PM
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Originally Posted by randyjawa
He wanted $300,000.00 when I inquired about a year and a half ago. All I had was $299,000.00. Darn!-(

Seriously, my son did go and talk to the guy a few times and he did want to sell the whole kit and caboodle.

And, it is not Jacob. I just did business with Jacob a couple of weeks ago, sending him 120 vintage bicycles from our Bicycles for Humanity inventory. B4H sells off vintage bicycles that we cannot, or do not have time and resources to work on. People, like Jacob, buy them in lots of 100+ for twenty buck a piece plus shipping.

B4H uses the money to help fund shipments of bicycles to Africa, at a cost of $10,000 (approx) per shipment.
Oh. I never met Jacob, but he called me back in 2008 when I was liquidating my store inventory. Seemed like a nice fella, but I ended up selling the stuff to two other dealers. Not sure why I connected him with High Park.
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Old 05-05-12, 10:29 PM
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Jacobs on Spadina, that guy lives and breathes bikes, He`s all over the place when it comes to buying, he lowballed alot of my bikes lol on CL
hE Also gets alot of bikes from the police auctions, he posts alot on Cl but rarely with pictures of the bikes.
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Old 05-05-12, 10:54 PM
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Originally Posted by pitbull007
He would always tell me , I need a business partner, if I had the cash i would of jumped at it.
I think you dodged a bullet there.

Jan had some incredible stuff in his shop and even more in the basement but his prices were nuts and he was hard to deal with, I am surprised he lasted as long as he did. Sad, I hope he gets some money out of it, he really does love bikes just not people.
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Old 05-07-12, 12:29 AM
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so is high park cycle closed for good?

did the stuff get sold?
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Old 07-10-12, 11:08 AM
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Updates on High Park Cycles auction?

Take a look at this thread with updated (June 2012) information on a sale at High Park Cycles:

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...igh-park-cycle

Now, that was an item-by-item sale, not an auction. Today on CL's there was a series of ads by Dr. Jamie's Bike Clinick claiming he had the vintage frames from High Park Cycles, and that he got them at the recent auction.

Does anyone know if there was an actual auction after the sale in late June?
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Old 07-10-12, 11:13 AM
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Originally Posted by pitbull007
Jacobs on Spadina, that guy lives and breathes bikes, He`s all over the place when it comes to buying, he lowballed alot of my bikes lol on CL
hE Also gets alot of bikes from the police auctions, he posts alot on Cl but rarely with pictures of the bikes.
Agreed on the lowballing. Also, I met him by chance as I was picking up a bike from the police auctions. He was picking up a bike I had actually bid on (and lost to him), and since I knew Uncle Jacob had won that bid, I knew right away who he was when I saw him picking up that bike. When I asked him about the bike, he tried to sell it me right away at double what he had just paid (he didn't know I was the second highest bidder).

The irony is, a week later the bike was back on the Police Auctions website. The owner told me that the winner had changed his mind, and since he was a regular, high volume customer, he was allowed to return the item.
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Old 07-10-12, 01:13 PM
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I think that low-balling is part of the game, I respond saying that I will consider their offer if I have a hard time selling the bike.

I dealt with Jacob once on a high end bike which I had priced accordingly and he and I chatted on the phone about it. I mentioned that I had had a few low-ball offers and he and I both agreed that my price was good and that I should hold firm. I appreciated his candor.

Jan, on the other hand, had very high prices so you had to low-ball him to get any kind of decent price out of him. This never worked though and, more often than not, would lead to him refusing to sell anything to you and/or verbal abuse. He is a good mechanic though, he is working at Dave Fix My Bike now.

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Old 07-10-12, 04:37 PM
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Originally Posted by jet sanchEz
Jan, on the other hand, had very high prices so you had to low-ball him to get any kind of decent price out of him. This never worked though and, more often than not, would lead to him refusing to sell anything to you and/or verbal abuse. He is a good mechanic though, he is working at Dave Fix My Bike now.
Oh, so the old guy is working as a mechanic at Dave Fix My Bike on Christie St. south of Dupont? I've never been to that shop, maybe I should pay a visit to see what they do. I used to go to High Park Cycles just to stand in a corner of the store (or whatever space at the front you could get) and watch him abuse customers, exhibit his now legendary poor customer service skills, and in general not care about the people who took the time to go there to get their bikes fixed. I could stay there for 40 min. with one customer after another entering the shop, and although he would make eye contact he would not even acknoledge me.

The one I really liked was the Mexican guy at Marco's Bikes. He had good customer service, sold used parts for cheap, and knew his way around bikes. They were gone almost overnight, no warning, so not sure what happened there.
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Old 07-10-12, 06:22 PM
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He's working at Dr. Jamie's, too. Saw him there yesterday. Tried to ask him what happened to all his former inventory, but he wasn't interested (understandably) in talking about it. But he didn't seem as miserable as when he was running his own shop.
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Old 12-30-13, 03:58 AM
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High Park cycles pops into my mind every so often after I saw the place closed down, so I'm glad to hear Jan is OK. He was certainly a unique character. Watching him deal with others, I felt like apologizing for his behaviour. He treated me differently once he discovered we share the same ethnic bloodline. Otherwise that old Eastern Euro charm can be tough to handle. Glad to learn he is around and kickin' somewhere.

Guys like him are a dying breed, reminds me of owner of Mojo down on Queen West in Roncesvalles.
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Old 12-30-13, 10:33 AM
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Originally Posted by krashtest
Guys like him are a dying breed, reminds me of owner of Mojo down on Queen West in Roncesvalles.
He is also a good mechanic too and, once you get to know him, quite a nice guy. His son has another Mojo Cycle up on Dundas near Roncesvalles that is less cluttered and more professional looking.
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Old 01-06-14, 11:04 AM
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Originally Posted by jet sanchEz
He is also a good mechanic too and, once you get to know him, quite a nice guy. His son has another Mojo Cycle up on Dundas near Roncesvalles that is less cluttered and more professional looking.
Totally agree. He's helped me on the spot several times. One of my last visits I bought an old stem, didn't have enough dough and told me to bring it to him later. He was genuinely blown away when I returned 3 days later.

His son is cool too, mild mannered kid, offered me winter storage for my bike at his shop, something his dad could never do!
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