In the Light with Kent Bikes

The image is indelible--the New York City tenement located at 96 and 98 St. Mark's Place in the East Village that is the cover of Led Zeppelin’s 1975 masterpiece Physical Graffiti.   The building is big, solid and strong--much like the music found inside the album that bears its likeness.  The East Village was at one time within the Lower East Side but in order to break itself away from the slums and poverty of the East Side, the East Village became its own enclave.  Today the Lower East Side has many of the former slum tenements listed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  Money began to flow into the Lower East Side in the early 2000s with investors looking to transform the sad structures into shiny new flats for the upwardly mobile.   Ten Years Gone, the Lower East Side is thriving.

In 1909 Arnold Kamler’s grandfather opened a bike shop in the Lower East Side.  Business was good and by 1947 a second shop opened in nearby New Jersey and soon the store began to distribute parts and accessories throughout the Eastern U.S.  That success led to the manufacture of a line of bicycles and in 1958, Kent Bicycles was born.  Kent Bicycles are everywhere yet hidden in plain sight and Kamler is the company's third generation president.  The bikes are sold in Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, Target and online with Amazon.  You will see them as GMC (pictured), Jeep, Razor, Shogun and Fisher Price.  The numbers of Kent built bikes in the Big Box stores has Trampled Under Foot the models of their competitors.  Kent is the number one retailer of bikes sold in Wal-Mart and they are the number two manufacturer of bicycles in the world.   

Kent builds road bikes, mtb, and hybrids.  They also have a number of kids bikes and cruisers and even tandem bikes for those easy rides Down By The Seaside.  Kent bikes are built in China mostly with some assembly done in Taiwan and Portugal.  The machines are mass market bikes in the truest sense of the word.  A member of the STB crew noticed a Jeep bike being raffled off by a neighborhood liquor store.  Like The Rover, these things are all over.

In 2011 Kent-built bikes began to arrive in the local bike shop.  Shop owners noticed that at the height of the Great Recession bike buyers needed a lower introductory price point and while Trek and Specialized had some machines under $500 it was possible to purchase a Kent-made bike for under $200.

Are Kent bikes as good as Custard Pie?  We can offer a “not really.”  The online reviews run the gamut.  People like the bikes when they are new and out of the box (yes, some assembly required) but the owners have noted that quality seems to dip with more and more miles.  As an introductory bicycle for a youth wanting to ride they are a machine worth investigating but as always the SBT crew recommends consulting your local bike shop before making any purchase. 

The Amgen Tour of California is less than ten weeks away!  We have a quality HD video of the Tour on our website www.stickybottleteam.net.