Three days, three brands…

It’s no huge secret that I spent a number of years designing bike frames and creating complete bike specifications. At one time, I was responsible for over 250 individual bills of materials and over 130 individual frame drawings. A lot to keep track of. The brands I worked with were national brands, but didn’t get the same national recognition as the major three bike companies. In fact, the brands don’t seem to be all that well known among current bicycle riders. Many times when folks come into the shop and we get to talking and if they ask what I did prior to opening the bike shop and I tell them, they reply that they’ve never heard of Masi or Haro, which I find very interesting because in the grand scheme of the bicycle industry, the Haro family of brands is probably in the top 10 or US unit sales.

So, I’ve just come to expect that folks who ask me what I did have never heard about the company I worked for. However, the first three days of this week brought three different folks into the shop and each had a bike that I brought to market. On Monday, a guy and his family came in (he was on leave and had to return to Iraq later in the week and was enjoying time with his family) and say my Masi road bike and mentioned he had one of those two, but his was white with red and green decals (a Gran Corsa). I told him I designed the frame and specified the parts for his bike. It’s one of those things that’s hard to believe that some guy in a bike shop out in the middle of here designed his bike and he had one of those head-back-eyes-pop-open moments and said something like wow, that’s cool.

A day later on Tuesday, another guy and his family comes in. They’re from Santa Cruz and he checks out this blog every so often so he knows I’m the guy who designed his Haro Mary, which he has set up with drop bars (cool – and if you read this, thanks again for coming up).

The third brand’s products I managed was Del Sol. Del Sol was the beach cruiser brand that Haro created. On Wednesday, a woman came in with a flat on her Del Sol Shoreliner. I didn’t, however, tell her of my involvement with the creation of her bike, though. Sometimes you know that that would simply be too much information.

Three days, three brands. It was pretty cool to see folks enjoying bikes I created.

(What’s playing: KWMR radio)