Well, not much more to say about this one. By now you might have read all over numerous blogs that Busy Bee Bike Chop Shop on e6th street between Ave A and 1st in downtown Manhattan, got shut down recently because they got caught selling stolen bikes. I'm talking like ridiculously junky bikes for stupendous prices. How do I know all this? I'm a bike fan. I enter and study every bike shop I come across. And I lived on that block for almost 3 years and passed by that place repeatedly and overheard the stories told to potential customers about what they need/want/should get and for how much.
Apparently an undercover cop sold a bike to one of the employees for dirt cheap, and then some other employee got caught on a stolen bike.
I never had experience buying any stolen used piles of shit from that shop, frankly because I wouldn't trust riding on a rusty broken down wobbly janky overpriced collection of parts bolted together they call a bike they had at this shop. I value my face and limbs, so if I crash on a bike, it will be my own fault, not because my bike fell apart. But back to the shop in question. I bought some free air and a couple of tubes there a few times - so I thank them for that.
Living on the block, one day when I was building up my brand new Tonic Fallguy frame, I needed my Chris King headset pressed into the frame. This was before NYC Velo opened up 2 blocks away. My favorite bikeshop at the time was in Canarsie, Brooklyn, the good old Racers Edge, and I didn't have airfare money to buy a flight there that morning, nor did I want to go to Sid's and pay 87$ for a 1 minute job, so I decided to give Busy Bee a shot. Its a simple procedure. Headset press on, twist twist twist. Done!
Wrong.
As one of the Busy Bee bike experts tightly clamped my sexy new frame into a dirty old bike stand, I was a bit uneasy about the metal on metal tight grip. After all, it was a brand new $700 frame with a sexy battleship grey paintjob and a old unprotected metal bike stand. It was like Jaws of Life for real. But, it being a street/dirtjumper bike, I decided a lil scratch on the ol' toptube is ok by me. Fine.
Next, came out a piece of plywood. Ok. Maybe they don't have a headset press and will use a long bolt and 2 pieces of plywood to do the job. Fine.
Then... came out a hammer. I was confused.
Then... the hammer came down, and again, and again. That's when I literally leaped over the counter and grabbed the dudes hand like "WTF are you doing, SON?" He was shocked. Confused. What did he do wrong?
That is when I knew Busy Bee was not a real bike shop.
I learned my lesson that day, don't be cheap. If you deal with $800 worth of parts, treat them right. Take them to the right place with right tools if you can't do it yourself.
Busy Bee bike shop was no good, and I can't say I'm sad to see it go.
