Los Angeles

Echo Park Cycles

Upon retirement, experts in fields you've never had use for can suddenly start providing you with invaluable goods and services -- former Navy Seals can devise you a foolproof security system, and Chuck Norris's home gym will make it so you don't even need one. Profit from the expertise of bike messengers, at Echo Park Cycles.

Painted fetchingly in Dodger blue, EPC's helmed by a trio with over 30 years of combined messengering experience, and stocked with rides those wily veterans feel best suit the needs of both pros and, more importantly, people who don't make a living drafting behind speeding grocery trucks. Bikes for occasional riders run the gamut from Manhattan beach cruisers (in single- and the less-common three-speed), the Schwinn-ish Japanese 6-speed Pake, and a black-and-gold mountain bike from Redline sporting 29in wheels -- 3in bigger than normal, helping support heftier riders, and outdoorsy rappers. For more hardcore customers, there're single speed and fixed-gears from Bianchi, BMX-style, trick-friendly SE bikes, and a frame-set collaboration between the store's La Crecenta-based distributors and Italy's Bare Knuckle (yeah they live with their mothers, got a problem with it?)

EPC also stocks gear (t-shirts, bags, etc) and skateboards, and in the coming months'll be offering repairs w/ included loaner bikes, plus steaming cups of espresso -- because if you're going to learn the way of the bike messenger, you must know where to stop and poop.

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