I.Martin Imports. July 31, 2011

In the summer of 1974, before going to college,  I went to Europe with 2 friends for a 6 week adventure.  We explored the continent from Tito’s Yugoslavia,  through Italy, Switzerland, France and all the way north to the Arctic Circle in Norway.  Before the trip was finished, I often considered what an even greater experience it could be by bicycle.

The next year, 1975, home for spring break, my good friend from high school, already an avid cyclist, took me to I.Martin Imports to buy my first real road-bike; a chrome Lygie, with Campy Corsa components and sew-up tires. $380.00

I didn’t know the difference between Campy or Sachs, sew-ups, tubulars or clinchers.  100% neophyte with a mission in mind.

In 1977, I landed in Paris on Easter Sunday, on my own,  to begin the trip and returned home on August 7th.

That trip became the loom of the fabric of my life.

I.Martin Imports, located on Beverly & N. Flores, just east of La Cienega , in Los Angeles,  has become one of the shops owned by Helen’s Cyclery.