A date with History of Bicycle Shops

Established in 1910's at Mount Road, Madras  

After a break of more than 20 years I began riding bicycle from 14th February 2010, it was puzzling and shocking to hear the names of Cannondale, Bianchi or Schwinn and most importantly the cost of the bikes, my friends bicycle shop with swanky interiors, air conditioned and having huge TV screens was a sea change to the shops I vividly remember as a child. Located in the neighborhood these shops would be small mostly with shed type structure and thatched (Pandal) or tin roof extending to the front, my wait here was with my uncle and his cycle or during later days to rent a hire cycle, most of these shops usually had tools in tin boxes with a aluminium vessel containing dirty water used for identifying punctures and the same old red color rubber solvent for fixing it, few youngsters would be seen requesting for worn out tires and tubes to use them for their solo tire races, making catapult or soft ball. A peep into its history shows that these shops usually had its share of humble beginnings and ran through generations of the same family. Possibly the oldest bicycle shop in the world is Pearson Cycles in United Kingdom (1860) while Kopp's Cycle Shop (1891) claims itself as the oldest in USA. In India to mention which is the first bicycle shop is a daunting task and secondly its doubtful that it could have survived till this day, a Raleigh cycle advertisement of 1930's mentions of one Wellington Cycle and Motor Company having branches in cities like Mumbai, Kolkatta, Delhi, Nova (Goa) and Chennai (Mount Road), on further study we get to know that it was started in 1900's at Mumbai before they ventured into manufacture of Record Discs, others of the time included Singh & Co in Railway Road, Jalandhar and Kulkarni & Sons in Pune, here in Chennai at Mount Road (Anna Salai) P.Orr & Sons the timekeepers dabbled with bicycles for a brief time.In 1910's R.Nataraja Mudaliar closely relative of Pammal Sambandha Mudaliar (doyen of theater) started Watson and Co in Anna Salai (Mount Road) which sold imported bicycles from Britain before venturing into car dealership and film production. He could possibly be the first Indian to dabble with Bicycle sales since P.Orr & Sons (1873) the time keepers of Chennai also took a short excursion from their traditional business into assembling of bicycles and Addisons (1889) were the first to venture into import and sale of Pneumatic tires. But it is in Broadway also called as Parry's Corner which has the distinction of possessing the oldest bicycle shops since 1930's named Best Cycling Importing Co and another B.M. Davey & Co, they imported bicycles from abroad until 1950's before venturing into sell Indian made bicycles, from 1950's onward with the booming domestic bicycle industry there came into existence many shops around every nook and corner of India which included our friendly neighborhood bicycle shop but the upsurge of two wheeler automobile segment by mid 1980's brought about dramatic changes leading to vanishing of many road side bicycle shops by 1990's and thereby making major bicycle manufacturers get into retail segment in the later years, TI Cycles Ltd opened their first retail outlet "BSA Go" in 2006 at Ahmedabad followed by many across India. I conclude this rhetoric on a nostalgic note remembering the neighborhood bicycle shops and trusting you will share some of your experience on the shops you had known, till next time ...

During GT & Mongoose launch in India with Edward Vlutters (Director) GT Bicycles on 29th Oct 2010