Bike shops // Current

Bicycle recyclers empower riders

Programs in New York and elsewhere train young mechanics and provide ‘beater’ bikes.

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[Excerpt] A year ago, Natalie Feliciano couldn’t tell the difference between a derailleur and a bottom bracket. A bike was a thing, made up of other shiny things, all of which churned together in some strange, magical concert. Sometimes she’d walk the streets of her East Village neighborhood and see rusty frames jammed into trash cans. “I’d think, you know, what a waste,” she grimaces. “All that garbage for someone else to clean up. But I never knew how much went into a bike.”

These days, her outlook is considerably more refined. On a warm fall afternoon here, standing in the cluttered back room of Recycle-a-Bicycle’s Manhattan store, Ms. Feliciano absentmindedly runs a greasy chain through her fingers and holds forth expertly on all things two-wheeled. She talks about the sudden passion in New York for fixed-gear bikes – once popular only among reckless, bombastic couriers – and her own stable of rides, which includes a bicycle she repaired on her own time. “I like knowing I can help my friends with their bikes. I like to know that I can be there,” she says. “And I like knowing how they work. How everything fits together.”

The nuts-and-bolts approach is something Recycle-a-Bicycle has always done particularly well. The organization was founded in 1999 with a straightforward mandate: Repair abused, remaindered, broken, or worn bikes and funnel them back to consumers. At the time, New Yorkers were wary, says Lisa Stein, the executive director. Used bicycles were something for the junk pile, and most experienced riders preferred the security of a brand-new aluminum frame.

But over the past decade, Recycle-a-Bike has gained an enormous amount of local ballast. A crew of employees and volunteers now runs a pair of New York stores, one here in Manhattan and the other in the DUMBO area of Brooklyn. (DUMBO means “down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass.”) The organization’s youth programs are a big draw for students like Feliciano, who enrolled last year at her public high school. She is now an expert wrench-slinger and a paid Recycle-a-Bicycle associate. Under the tutelage of an experienced mechanic, Feliciano and fellow associate Gina Estevens labored recently to tune up a long line of bikes.Programs in New York and elsewhere train young mechanics and provide ‘beater’... more

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'Rideable art" rolling along

Way too pricey for the average me, but aesthetically this is pretty nice to look at.... more

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Jamaica's Bellitte Bicycles is nation's oldest continuously owned bicycle shop

It's all in the famiglia. What a nice generation-story
"I love to bike and it's been in the family such a long time," said Sal's son, Michael, 15, who works at the store with his sister, Melissa, 13. "It's a great tradition and it's something I want to keep up."
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NY DAILY NEWS / BY NICHOLAS HIRSHON Early one night in 1918, Salvatore "Sam" Bellitte slumped into his Queens home and vented about a disheartening first day of business at the Jamaica shop where he sold bicycles, motorcycles, radios and toy trains. Bellitte, a Sicilian immigrant who arrived in New York as a teenager, had sold only two motorbike batteries for a 65-cent profit - but his wife, Josephine, offered words of encouragement. "She says, 'Don't worry, tomorrow you'll do better,'" said Bellitte's son, Vincent, now 88, of Miller Place, L.I. "And he did."

Sure enough, Bellitte steered the shop through the Great Depression and World War II - and 90 years later, his descendants are marking a milestone anniversary as the nation's oldest continuously operated bike store. The shop still stands where Bellitte opened it in 1918, on Jamaica Ave. near 170th St., with the third generation in charge, the fourth generation making sales and the store's reputation more legendary by the day.

The 90-year mark adds to the lore of the shop, where walls feature an 1893 chainless Pierce Arrow bicycle and signed photos of celebrity customers such as 1969 Mets star Tommie Agee. Even the Bellittes are surprised they've lasted this long. "It's thrilling," said Vincent Bellitte, who began repairing bikes at the shop in 1927, was stationed with the Coast Guard in Manhattan during World War II and later ran the store with his brothers, Anthony and Charles.

Business continued to prosper under the siblings' guidance. By 1950, the store was stocking 10,000 bicycles, more than any such shop in the world. Its customer base went global. Vincent's son, Sal, took over in 1985. Now 44, Sal runs the shop with his brother-in-law, Karl Herzer, and his cousin's husband, Peter Frouws. Whatever they're doing has worked. As proven by a steady flow of customers on a recent Saturday afternoon, the shop still has a loyal following to complement its historic aura.

A sign by the 1893 wooden bike - a gift for the store's 50th anniversary in 1968 - boasts that the same model appears in the Smithsonian Institution.
Adding to the museum-like feel, Bellitte's clientele includes celebs like Donald Trump, rapper LL Cool J and "Coming to America" leading lady Shari Headley, to name just a few.
The only question, then, is whether the shop will someday enter its fourth generation of management. "I love to bike and it's been in the family such a long time," said Sal's son, Michael, 15, who works at the store with his sister, Melissa, 13. "It's a great tradition and it's something I want to keep up."It's all in the famiglia. What a nice generation-story "I love to bike and it's been... more