Quandary

• So it seems this spring Hyde Park's cycling market is facing a situation non unlike our grocery woes over recent years: a serious mismatch between supply and demand. The demand is actually quite modest: honest, quality service for all varieties of cyclists, ranging from children to weekend warriors, four season commuters to triathletes, fixie kids to road racers to recreational path riders. I suppose the invisible hand will eventually sort things out, bringing a Kozy's or Boulevard or Turin of sorts our way.

  Over the winter, I'd worked out a new direction for TATI... something of a small footprint pro shop, and one that would complement the extant service and sales offerings from our used/community shop (Blackstone), tired but competent ex-Swchinn shop (Art's), and some-would-say-crusty Terry dealer (Wheels & Things). TATI would still offer free classes to the masses, but the 80/20 split would allow for better roadie inventories and more attention spent on fine tuning fit, etc.

  And then Art's closed.

  Now we are in a bit of a crisis. The phone won't stop ringing. Twelve year old boys need flats repaired. Entire families will walk over and want five full tune-ups scheduled. And in the meanwhile, there are a couple dozen custom bikes littering the shop, waiting to be built. And so I hope you all will forgive me if I hide out for a little longer, pumping out customs as I can... and processing this new reality. Obviously TATI should like to serve the entire community; I hate the idea that anyone would be turned away for service, or left in the lurch with a broken bicycle...

  As always, I will continue to refer folks to Blackstone, but the reality is that it is a little out of a way for some folks. I guess. And as for referring folks to Wheels & Things, well... after being chastised repeatedly for doing so by several customers, I've put that practice on hold. There's a solution here somewhere, and I plan to sniff it out.