I can't believe I'm just finding this thread now. I pretty much grew up at Cycle Logic. Lived a few blocks north of the shop on Sherwood. I think the very first time I rolled up to the shop would have been around 1986 having just had the crank on my Raleigh Rocky III literally fall off. This was how I met John, who wasted no time making fun of my bike, of course. But he, or more likely, Henry put the crank back on and got me on my way. I started hanging around the shop pretty much all the time, my friends and I making a nuisance of ourselves and drooling over Yetis, Ibises, Bontragers, Fishers, Ritcheys and, naturally Camerons.
The "stealth" bike pictured earlier on in the thread was the most lust-worthy of those days. A matte black badass MTB that Harv had apparently spent a few hundred hours on. It looked it.... It still looks totally badass and ahead of its time.
No way I was affording a Cameron in those days, so I bought a Fisher HooKoo EKoo, which was stolen by the "local" bike thief in a matter of a couple of months. Lesson learned and insurance money in hand, I bought a 1990 Stumpjumper Comp. 7 Speed Hyperglide had just been introduced.... Beat the everloving shit out of that bike and still have it.
When I was 18 and just out of high school I ended up working at the shop for the spring/summer. Building bikes, selling bikes and living the culture of this highly idiosyncratic, almost cultish shop. What a collection of characters, both employees and customers, with John as the ringleader, holding court over it all. We were ultra bike snobs, dripping with attitude, but sold a ton of great bikes out of this tiny little shop. We had bikes no one else had: Sure tons of ProFlexes but also all the Mantis Models, IRD (ever seen their elastomer FS bike?), AMPs and of course all the bikes Harv made pretty much came through us.
In my second summer at the shop (94') after cracking my ProFlex I was able to get Harv to build me a frame (pictured below). Took all the XTR parts from the Flex and put them on the Cameron. Wild bike. Rode beautifully, but as the Mountain Bike Action article pointed out, prone to a fair bit of lateral and twisting flex. As a result I broke a couple of swingarms, which Harv was really good about fixing.
Among shop insiders "Harv Nights", as they were called, became legendary: Head over to his place at Donlands and Mortimer, drink some beers, see whatever fascinating thing he was messing with at the moment and chat about bikes and whatever other arcana that might pop up. Harv was fascinating and interested in so many things besides bikes. A true builder/inventor. He even built his own geodesic dome up north as a cabin/camping spot.
Great to see all this appreciation of his work. He is truly missed...
Attachments: |
File comment: 94 Custom Cameron FS

cameron.jpg [ 347.28 KiB | Viewed 472 times ]
|
Last edited by Jack_diamond on Mon Jan 25, 2021 2:06 am, edited 2 times in total.
|