I just saw this last week. Haven’t seen any other comments here. I guess this defines my age a bit. The young whippersnappers of today don’t really care about how things were done back in the olden days. 
I started reading Sheldon Brown’s website back in the mid-90’s. It was *the *fount of knowledge and wisdom for all things cycling related. From that website I learned most of what I know about wrenching and wheel building. Sheldon’s site, rec.sport.triathlon, and rec.sport.bicycles.marketplace were where I spent many an hour back in my grad school days while waiting for experiments to finish.
I purchased online from Harris many times over the years. They had the parts that Sheldon’s website said to use. Parts that the other big online retailers didn’t deign to carry - like lower priced Shimano/Campy/SunTour parts that were not as light and shiny as the latest bling, but just plain worked. Parts that were especially great for commuter bikes and what we now call gravel bikes.
Thankfully Sheldon’s website is still being maintained. But the closing of this shop is another gap that has opened in the history and lore of cycling. Even though I never set foot in the shop, I am deeply saddened.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/06/24/metro/we-had-people-with-tears-their-eyes-west-newton-bicycle-shop-closes-after-70-years/
I just saw this last week. Haven’t seen any other comments here. I guess this defines my age a bit. The young whippersnappers of today don’t really care about how things were done back in the olden days.
I started reading Sheldon Brown’s website back in the mid-90’s. It was *the *fount of knowledge and wisdom for all things cycling related. From that website I learned most of what I know about wrenching and wheel building. Sheldon’s site, rec.sport.triathlon, and rec.sport.bicycles.marketplace were where I spent many an hour back in my grad school days while waiting for experiments to finish.
I purchased online from Harris many times over the years. They had the parts that Sheldon’s website said to use. Parts that the other big online retailers didn’t deign to carry - like lower priced Shimano/Campy/SunTour parts that were not as light and shiny as the latest bling, but just plain worked. Parts that were especially great for commuter bikes and what we now call gravel bikes.
Thankfully Sheldon’s website is still being maintained. But the closing of this shop is another gap that has opened in the history and lore of cycling. Even though I never set foot in the shop, I am deeply saddened.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/06/24/metro/we-had-people-with-tears-their-eyes-west-newton-bicycle-shop-closes-after-70-years/
Thanks for posting this and sorry to hear about it. I definitely used the website for a lot of wrenching knowledge and ordered from time to time. My original 80’s touring bike would qualify as a current era gravel bike on terms of rough geometry, features and tore widths
Glad to hear Sheldon Brown’s website will continue sorry to hear of Harris Cyclery closing. I bought stuff there from time to time. It was especially helpful if you were behind the cutting edge so to speak End of an era.
Harris Cyclery is nearby, I bought my son’s first bike there and tried to send them some business from time to time. Honestly, it wasn’t a great store to visit. The salespeople/front of store people were not very knowledgeable about bicycles in general. Mechanics were decent, but nothing extraordinary, and wouldn’t have seen enough higher end road/tri bikes for me to ever use them for such.
Anyway, I don’t think this is why they are going out of business. The ‘rumor’ I heard is that they just could not get bicycles to sell, so more covid bike shortage related than lack of customer driven. I’m wondering if they lost their Giant franchise . . . would imagine there were many shops in the area that could move a lot more product and probably more higher end product as well, so possibly Giant wasn’t happy with the outcome there.
I’ve thought for a while that Wellesley/Needham needed a bike shop focused on family/kids bikes, but this shop going out of business highlights that probably isn’t a realistic or great business idea.
ugh, bad news…
like you I bought a fair bit from Harris, my last 7sp cassette came from them…
Its always sad when a bike shop closes but this one feels like one of the pillars of the bike world going. A great loss to us all.