Bling is good

It is rare that people would ever be jealous of a bike shop owner, but if you have found your way to this blog, you might actually understand this one. Every now and then you get to rediscover why you are in this business in the first place and a little bit of bling just carries you away from the rest of the world for a while.

For those of you who have been paying attention to Goose Creek for the last week it might have seemed like there is not a lot going on. The FedEx guy hasn't been coming and going as much as normal, the website just blinks you over to a "our site is down" message, and we have been keeping our energy costs down by not losing heat from customers walking in and out.

So from the outside it may seem like we are just hibernating for the winter. The opposite is very much true. Bike and Skate guys alike have been franticly working on the new improved site, getting products uploaded, categories and search functions working properly. I have been on the phone almost constantly with tech guys from three different companies trying to figure the programming.

On top of this we are putting together a pro/Elite Endurance team and we have been negotiating with sponsors and gearing up for all that is involved with a team of this caliber.

Somewhere in all this it the simple fact that this is supposed to be about riding bikes has slid into the background. But as I said before, there is nothing like a little bling to snap you out of a funk.

The nice thing about being the boss is that you can pick your projects. So you can be assured that if a Huffy comes through the door, Schoen will be your mechanic and I will be working of something else. Today's project was a little different.

At 7:30PM, and hour and a half after close, I grabbed a stack of tools and pile of parts for a little home wrenching. By 9:30 PM dinner was done, the little man was in bed, and I pulled a $1200 hub out of the bag and started lacing it up. (Sorry Schoen, no bling for you, I claim this one)

Before I go further, let me say that if you don't build your own wheels, you need to start. There is some sort of zen experience involved that I can't really explain. Visit SheldonBrown.com and he will help you through it.

Now mind you, tonight was not a typical disappear into the basement with a six pack of beer and wrench until you get the urge to raid the fridge night. This is a Caffeine Free Diet Coke so your hands don't shake night. Somehow an old Trance CD seemed fitting and computer synthesized music blaring in the headphones seemed to go nicely with the slow spinning of an alien looking PowerTap hub with enough technology to launch a space shuttle.

I build wheels slowly. I am not one of these guys that builds 20 wheels a day, so I lace them up one spoke at a time. Keyspoke first, Driveside Trailing spokes next, and group by group the wheel comes together. Headphones come off so I can hear the rim in the truing stand. Tension comes up 1/8 of a turn at a time, there is no shop mechanic that will sort out any slush in the build later. The wheel is tensioned into dish, and true and round are checked after each round of tensioning. Two Hours dissapear.

By midnight where there had been a pile of parts, a ZTR 355 / Powertap / Revolution 29er Mountain bike wheel sat spinning in the stand. If you could walk into a store and buy this wheel if would cost you over $1400, more than the average cyclist is willing to spend on the entire bike. And if you bought this particular wheel from a bike shop your would probably be thinking that the shop owner would be really excited for such a big sale, but you would be wrong. The reason for that look he has on his face is that this one wheel, that one project, that one piece of craftsmanship is the reason he is in the shop in the first place. In a world where cheap machine build junk is a dime a dozen and there is still a place for products that are crafted rather than assembled. He would have built that wheel for free.

12:15am

Time to trade the Caffeine Free Coke in for something with a little more kick and return to the real world. There are products to be uploaded to the site and we need as much of it done as possible before the shop ride at 10:30 in the morning.

Slow day at command central

Website conversion is almost complete. It is January. It is raining. Perfect time to open up command central at the shop. Good news is that this will double as living quarters for employees who are working late.

Sneak Peek

The new shopping side of the website is under construction, and the guys are uploading products, descriptions and images as fast as they can. You can check out a sneak peek here Our instore database is liking to the site as we speak, and we should be able to process orders within the week (Probably tomorrow). The site should also start looking a lot prettier by next week. So for those of you that like to be on the cutting edge, you can start looking around.

Also watch for some special promotions coming down the line. We will be linking up some likes that act like coupons and having some contests. For example, the first 100 unique customers to order from the new site will receive a 10% discount off all their future orders for life. (Not a bad reward for fighting through our site in the current disorganized fashion.)