End of the ride
Plaine and Son owner, who wants to travel, to close store by January
The owner of Schenectady’s Plaine and Son bike shop, with plans to travel, to close store by January.
Schenectady When Les Plaine was growing up, he didn’t want to run Plaine and Son, the venerable bicycle shop his father founded in 1945 — he wanted to be a relief pitcher for the New York Yankees.
“Since that wasn’t working out, I decided to stick with bicycles,” Plaine joked inside his State Street shop Monday morning.
But after nearly 75 years in business, the store is looking toward its last days. Plaine plans to close by January, and the store is hosting a massive “retirement sale” of its remaining inventory, marking down bikes, skis, gear and clothing up to 50 percent. The closing was first reported by the Daily Gazette.
Plaine said the decision to close the shop was prompted by his desire to travel and explore, as well as a lack of interest from other members of his family in running the business.
But Plaine isn’t completely done with the bike business. He hopes to continue running his custom bicycle design-andfabrication firm, New York Bicycle Co., and sell those bikes on Amazon.
Several customers in the
store Monday mentioned they had bought their first bicycles at the shop decades ago. Plaine said he’s seen some of the shop’s original customers bring in their great-grandchildren for their first bike.
“I’m going to miss the people and the city,” he said.
Linda Sweet Sharkey got her first bike, a purple Spyder, from the shop in 1969 and visited Plaine and Son a few months ago to browse the inventory. She ultimately decided to buy a new car instead of a bike, but when she saw the store was going out of business, she decided to pop back in, even though she hadn’t ridden a bike in years.
“But I’m going to now because it’s great exercise,” she said.
Sweet Sharkey said she wanted to support the locally owned business renowned for its great service. She bought two bikes and a few accessories.
“I’m so excited!” Sweet Sharkey said, turning toward her son Mitchell while checking out. “Can we go home and ride a bike instead of washing our new car?”
Mike Munroe, a 21-year-old sales clerk at Plaine and Son, said he’s learned an important lesson in the five months he’s been working at the shop — patience.
Plaine spent the afternoon bouncing around the shop, helping one customer looking for ski boots, assisting another woman who wanted to get a bike for her husband who just underwent knee surgery, and listening to another woman who reminisced about the first bike she got from the store decades ago.
Aside from the city and the people, Plaine said he’ll miss the daily specials and renowned cheesecake from the Blue Ribbon Diner across the street.
He plans on traveling to different fairs, trail heads and farmers markets to sell bikes from his smaller design and fabrication company — but still isn’t quite sure what he’ll do with his remaining free time.
“I don’t know what that kind of freedom is,” he said.