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.

It's my fault, Sorry

I have a long standing tradition of building up a strange bike and riding it through the winter. The logic has always been that in the off season training is not as important to have dialed in. Keeping things new and interesting is the key to having fun on the bike, and having fun is the key to successful training. Also it sucks to take a $5000 bike out into the salt and slush when you could build up a beater and not care about it.

Back in Maine I has a single speed Trek Antelope with drywall screws in the tires that I would ride on snowmobile trails and ice tracks when available. Also raced a February Ski Resort Downhill race on it once. Did pretty well, but got taken out in the semis.

Here in Kentucky I have taken to riding Fixed Gears. Two years ago I went with a stock KHS Flight 100 that broke me into the fixed gear realm, but this year I went full on hipster and built up my own out of parts that we found laying around the shop and a Schwinn Traveler that was built when I was still in diapers (perhaps before).

As we didn't have any brake levers laying around, we went hardcore fixie. Toe-clips and No brakes. The front wheel is set up with the old school 27" wheel, but we had to put on a new rear wheel to fix it, so I am running a 700 in back and as it turn out a 700 X 32 tire that we had lying around has exactly 2mm of clearance between the tire and the chain stays. Looks crazy, but works great and gives me a little extra rubber to burn through as I learn to skid.

I should have known that I had jinxed myself by going to the fixie a little early when the temperature dropped for the maiden voyage. We have been having great luck with a late season, but when I strapped on the lights and took it out for a 3 mile night spin in jeans and a hoodie, the temperature seemed to drop just because I was out there.

Yesterday I skipped the Cross race and took the fixie out for her first real ride. Bright sun cut the cold as I rode to the start of the 30 mile club ride, but it was clear that winter riding had begun. A small group of riders started the loop unaware that they were accomplice to the winter bike jinx. And we weren’t but 3 mile in before the first of the riders decided "screw it, it is too cold".

Four of us finished up the 30 mile ride. And the ancient fixie held up well except for a small problem with the braking system (I lost one of the toe clip screws so the strap kept sliding to the side). When I got home I parked the bike and took one of those long showers that you have to take. You know the ones where it is a race to see if you can get your core temperature up before you run out of hot water. Had some dinner and went to bed.

This morning I woke up to see snow on the ground. So sorry to all the drivers who wrecked on the Gene Snyder this morning, and all the riders who hang it up when the white stuff flies. And all you business owners, myself included, who's livelihood depends on nice weather, I have brought the long awaited winter by breaking out the "winter bike" a little too early.

Going throuhg the Drive through

I wonder if I am alone on this, but it seems to me that I have not seen a lot of bikes using drive throughs at fast food restaurants. Until today I figgured that this was simply due to the low volume of people using their bikes as transportation and the higher probablility of a person who rides frowning upon fast food.

So it has never occured to me that that fact that I take my bike through drive throughs might annoy those businesses with drive through. I regularly use the drive through at the bank, and have been know to ride my bike through the drive through at fast food places when I am out running errands. Basically this saves me the hastle of trying to find something to lock my bike to when I go in to eat.

So it seemed like a reasonable plan to stop at Taco Bell for a burrito on my way home from the afternoon postal run today. I must say I do look a bit odd on the post office bike (a single speed with the largest basket we could fnd) and my Vigor Demise BMX helmet with the skull and crossbones guy on it, but whatever freaks eat burritos too.

I was contemplating the menu when the girl came on and told me that the drive through was for cars. "You Serious??" I replied. She must not have heard me that well becuase I looked at her through the window when I said it rather than talking at the little microphone on the menu board, and there was a long silence and then someone else came on the microphone.

"I'm sorry sir, go ahead with your order". So I started in with my order and by the time I finished, it was yet another person on the headset. "Sir, you are going to have to come in to pace your order"

I was a bit befuddled, so I just said "Thats okay, thank you" and rode back to the shop where I ate a Luna bar instead. Oddly enough I wasn't sure if I was more annoyed that I had wasted the time riding over there, or with the pricipal of the thing, perhaps it was just that I really wanted a burrito but I wasn't about to go in and buy one if they wouldn't let me use the drive through. In retrospect I probably should have walked in with my bike just to see what they would do, but I didn't feel like pushing it.

So for now it is just a "note to self" that if I want lunch while on the post office run it will have to be somewhere else. There is a McDonals next door where I have ridden through the drive through, but now I am just curious if there are other reastaurants where they won't let you use the drive through on a bike. Maybe tomorrow I will hit the Arby's and see what happens.