outback

It has been a while but we have been really busy here at the shop the past few months so sorry about the lack of bloggin. Anyway, it has come to my attention that a long and harmless tradition in bike shops seems to be coming to an end. It seems as Maynard Hershon pointed out in Bygone Bootcamp that the young people in the sport are no longer taking to many cues from the older more ripened ones in the sport. Yesterday we were paid a visit by a couple of disgruntled parents of a local character(Who happened to have his first shop job this summer) upon whom a little prank was played. Now this tradition goes back a long time and I will date myself here by the following. When I first started at a bike shop18 years ago I built myself up a beautiful new road bike. It was an Eddy Merckx 7-11 team edition in that sparkly green, red and chrome. It had a mix of Dura-Ace and other stuff on it and I loved it. Well about 15 minutes into the first ride the freewheel fell apart and my ride ended with my rear wheel locking up. After walking back to the shop in total despair I found a couple of the other mechanics laughing in the back. All that was said was welcome to the club. Many other instances have occurred in the past eighteen years, the kickstand on BW's new Ritchey, The water in LLL's tubes on his new 23lb.(?, why is it heavier then my alloy bike) carbon bike, Charies cranks falling off, BJB's annoying rattle in his seattube, The tomato in my seat tube, just to list a few. Well now sadly this era is over and we can all look forward to bringing the PC world of corporate America(long may she live) into the grease and triflow infested back benches of the local bike shop. Anyway have a great day, ride your bike, rage hard in the bendies, don,t take life to seriously and most of all relax. IAN