{"id":3715,"date":"2013-10-07T16:13:45","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T23:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/somimag.com\/?post_type=article&p=3715"},"modified":"2013-10-07T16:48:43","modified_gmt":"2013-10-07T23:48:43","slug":"manny-rey-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/somimag.com\/manny-rey-day\/","title":{"rendered":"MANNY REY DAY"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/a>

As a friend of the Mark family from my days at Columbus H.S., I first came to know Manny as he began work at Mack Cycle in 1972, introduced by a beaming \u201cMr Mack\u201d that they had just landed a great mechanic.\u00a0 And the signing bonus came in when, according to Manny, he was asked how much he wanted per hour and responded $3.50.\u00a0 \u201cMr. Mack\u201d said he\u2019d give him $4.50.\u00a0 And so the bond for many years was forged.<\/p>\n

Manuel Rey, known simply by cyclists throughout South Florida as \u201cMANNY\u201d began working for Mack Cycle in 1972 and over the course of forty years, generations of families have come to rely on his expertise in repairing their bicycles.<\/p>\n

1972… the Dallas Cowboys had won Superbowl VI, and the Oakland \u201cA\u201ds the World Series.\u00a0 The Godfather was on the big screen and \u201cI\u2019m going to make him an offer he can\u2019t refuse\u201d was (and still is) a fantastic line by Marlon Brando.\u00a0 In June that year, the Watergate break-in occurred and \u201cHanoi Jane\u201d (actress Jane Fonda) visited North Vietnam.\u00a0 Carnival Cruises began sailing, and\u00a0\u201cAll in the Family\u201d was the most popular TV show.<\/p>\nSchwinn Sting-Ray\nSchwinn Super Sport\n

Now to the human scale of things.\u00a0 The Schwinn Sting-Ray was ever so popular and their Schwinn Varsity was a big hit for road riding.\u00a0 I would bring my green Schwinn Super Sport to the store for servicing.<\/p>\n

Manny Rey moved to Brooklyn for Puerto Rico, where he worked as a bicycle mechanic for eleven years starting out as a teenager.\u00a0 When he moved to Miami, he approached Luis Gonzalez, he owner of Niagra Bikes.\u00a0 Gonzalez didn\u2019t have a job to offer and told Manny to go to the top bicycle store in Miami, and that\u2019s where he met Thaddeus Mark (\u201cMr. Mack\u201d).\u00a0 Mack Cycle was already building a name for itself.\u00a0 Just three years earlier, Mr. Mark opened one of the few Schwinn Concept Stores in the country, in a new building on Sunset Drive.<\/p>\n

In 1957, the Mark family took over a going concern, Mack\u2019s Cycle and Lawnmover repair shop, located in what is now the Community Newspapers building on SW 62nd Avenue.<\/p>\n

In 1969, Mr. Mark moved the business to a building he had constructed on Sunset Drive (across from City Hall).\u00a0 Mack Cycle has been thriving there ever since, operating within a model that values customer service, integrity and community service.\u00a0 \u201cDad was a visionary.\u00a0 He rather quickly realized that given South Florida\u2019s climate, bicycles were in use year-round and weren\u2019t just hot sellers once a year during christmas.\u00a0 He began to concentrate on the cycling side of the business when most other national retailers were note.\u00a0 He had a great employee in Manny and could rely on him to get the job done right,\u201d says Mary Jane Mark, owner of Mack Cycle & Fitness.<\/p>\n

Mary Jane and her two brothers worked in the shop as children, but it was Mary Jane who carried on working in the family business into her adulthood, buying out her father in the early 1990s.\u00a0 Mary Jane jokes that Manny has worked in the store longer than she.<\/p>\nMary Jane Mark with Manny and family: daughter Rachel, brother Dr. Tom Mark, husband Mark Losada, and daughter Sandy.\n

Over the course of his forty years at Mack Cycle, not only did he assemble bikes, repair flats and tune bicycles, he also provided staff support to community bicycle safety rodeos and many major South Florida cycling events, such as the MS150, the Tour de Cure, the Dolphins Cycling Challenge and many others.<\/p>\n

\u201cManny is part of the family here at Mack Cycle, and he will surely be missed.\u00a0 We hope he\u2019ll come to provide some sag support for our events.\u00a0 Manny epitomized what we value most at Mack Cycle & Fitness, and that is customer service,\u201d says Mary Jane.<\/p>\n\n\t\t