European Bicycle Retailer “Houndstooth Road” Coming to Church Street
Decatur Metro | April 16, 2012 | 4:02 pm
Oakhurst Realty’s Fisher Paty reports in via Twitter…
Houndstooth Road, a bicycle retailer offering hand-built European bicycles such as Pashley & Bella Ciao, is opening at 316 Church St
That’s THIS Building if you’re interested. Thus far their website is pretty minimal, but there’s lots of bike selection info and sneak peeks on Houndstooth’s Facebook page.
Bike photo courtesy of Houndstooth Road’s Facebook page
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So, the space next door to Sapori di Napoli, right?
Yah, believe so.
Looks great. Nothing like this as far as I know in the Atlanta Metro area – glad it is coming to Decatur!
a good friend just bought a Pashley from them for his wife–reported the service was excellent.
ought to call the poshlies
$$$$
Can Decatur support three bicycle shops? I know that Bicycle South is really outside of Decatur–barely–but it was our only shop for so long.
The shop on Ponce caters to triatheletes and it looks like Houndstooth will be offering commuter bikes (guessing, since Pashley makes them) and if so, they will be filling a gap in the market. (Albeit in the higher end of the market.)
When I was shopping for a commuter bike, I was told that Americans were not interested in that type of bike and that is why Bike South didn’t stock them. Maybe that is changing–this type of bike is more practical for transportation and/or pleasure ride and perhaps bodes well for the proliferation of polite and considerate cyclists in Decatur! And you don’t need a special outfit or a sponsor to ride a commuter bike.
Just for clarification, the shop on Ponce, “Decatur Bikes” aka “Tri Your Best” is more bike shop than triathlete supply. They’ve probably done themselves a bit of a disservice trying to simultaneous represent themselves as both, but as a bike shop they do a great job of stocking a variety of styles and types of bikes, plus their service is really fantastic and attentive. Fortunately, their inventory has very little overlap with Houndstooth Road and we can likely have two successful bike shops downtown.
Maybe it can, maybe it can’t. Let those that serve the wants and needs of their customers in the best way survive.
I think there is room, but since I have received nothing but excellent service from Bicycle South, I haven’t the need to go elsewhere. They don’t fix things just to charge you, and didn’t charge me for something they legitimately could have. Things like that matter to me.
As for the couple of snotty stereotypical B.S. comments about bicycle attire… I was in there last week and saw a man buying bikes for his kids, and none of them were wearing any special gear, most people in there aren’t.
No doubt- choices are good for consumers. However, avoiding a long-time local business who has been active in community affairs, without having ever dealt with them personally, based on your personal bias about what you perceive their customers to be wearing (which isn’t even based on reality), is pretty ridiculous to say the least.
Houndstooth Road will be selling bikes that can not be found at any other bike shop in Atlanta or perhaps even the southeast. I suspect their market extends well beyond the Decatur City Limits. I am curious to see if there will be an open service department and what the product line beyond bicycles will be. I would love to be able to walk into a shop and buy Rapha clothing.
I don’t think there’s a single business in Decatur that is supported only by residents of Decatur. While this store may or may not survive, it won’t be because Decatur wasn’t able to support it.
*This* ^
The other bike shops will/should have very little in common with place. It is a specific market to commuters and people who enjoy biking for transportation and wearing regular street clothing as opposed to lycra padded shorts and bright jerseys.
I’d like to chime in about Bicycle South (since I’m the owner). We’ve long supported commuters, recreational riders, as well as parents and their kids. We just added Linus bicycles to our mix – an affordable line of city/urban bikes. We also stock Breezer bikes – they make very nice commuter/city bikes at a higher price point. Giant and Raleigh have also gotten big into hybrids and “trekking” bikes. Lots more styles than even just a few years ago.
Plus we have plenty of fenders, racks, bags, locks, lights, rain gear and so on.
We’ve been supporting cycling in the community for 40 years. Nice to see Decatur developing into such a cycling area.
Great to see Fred here. He is one of the great pioneers of cycling in Atlanta, and deserves all the praise we can give him.
That said, there are lots of different ways in which to see the cycling market here. Personally, I’m looking forward to some of those Chinese-made rechargeable electirc-assist bikes coming into this market. I say this as the owner of a 32-year old Romic road bike. It’s great. But I’m 57 now.
Thank you Fred. I know you have supported our community for over over 40 years. Was it Hill Street when I first met you?
Yep. It probably was W. Hill St. in Oakhurst where we met. My first house purchase – back in the early 1980’s. The neighborhood was quite different. The guy next door to me owned a “dollar house” – literally a buck for the place. But he had to fix it up and stay in it for 3 years before he could sell it. Oakhurst was a tough sell back then, not many folks could afford to fix their place up and there was a lot of crime in the area. My place was broken into at least 3 times. Frequent gunfire at night, lot of stuff like that.
But it’s also where I first really got involved in local community affairs and met a lot of wonderful Decatur residents, officials and staff. I lived there 13 years.
The bike in that photo is very stylish and I’m sure is top quality, but it would make an terrible comuting bike. Fixed gear? We have hills, so unless you’re plan to take a shower at your destination, get a bike with gears. No rear wheel hand brake? That’s just silly.
It is not a fixed gear. You are looking at either a Shimano Nexus 3-speed or a Sturmey Archer Duomatic (internal geared hub). It also has a coaster break for the rear.
I may have to test ride this once they open. My commuter bike has a lot of miles on it and this looks beautiful. Perfect for my 2 mile commute every day.
I’m glad the new shop owner hasn’t read some of the anti-cyclist, shout outs on the Fridays Free for all. They may have reconsidered locating on Church.
We don’t need a reputation as anti-excercise vigilantes trying to scare the folks visiting Dectur to buy a bike. That would be bad for our tax revenue!
But there was that inconsiderate kid on a bike 6 months ago that I want to complain about….
I’d say that Officer Lindsay is a bigger hindrance to cyclists than any commenters here
+1,000!!
Ha! And good thing no one mentioned it!
Anyone who expects Decatur – or any city – to be of one-mind on anything is setting themselves up for disappointment.
I want one with a push button, battery-powered horn in the downtube.