This cool old mountain bike came in yesterday. The owner was complaining that the derailleur was “skipping.” Based on the age and condition, my first thought was “stiff link.” So I spin the cranks backwards. No stiff link. Throwing it in the stand, I take a closer look. Uh, you need a new freewheel and […]
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There are certain things in this world that have a universal appeal. Monty Python is one of them. I firmly believe that almost everything can be related in one way or another to something Monty Python did.* Recently, an older British couple who were touring the great Northern California coast came by the shop (actually, […]
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A pile of old tubes that have made their way into tires I’ve ridden were bugging me. With a little time on my hands, I checked to verify their air holding ability. Ones that had big cuts or snake bites got tossed. Tubes that had a small hole were patched. It’s been a long time […]
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Okay, this is something that I was totally unprepared for. I loaded a couple of pages in the fax machine, punched in the number, and hit send. That’s when things went horribly wrong. Immediately, the paper jammed in the feed and I got the beep alarm that a jam was occurring – as if the […]
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I hate a cluttered workbench. And, yet, that’s what I’ve suffered through for the past couple weeks. Tools laying around, a portable mechanic’s tool case precariously perched on the edge of the workbench, not enough room to work… But not after today. In my brief time at B&L in Solana Beach, I really appreciated the […]
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Things must be going okay if I need to start placing reorders after being open a week, right? Yeah, that’s what I think too. Seriously, folks are coming in to get bikes tuned up, replace tires, get cycle computers…I’m having a great time so far. Now I’ve got to figure out how and what I’m […]
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The door’s open, folks are coming in (I need to get some generic replacement wheels) and things are moving along about as expected – slowly. I knew it wouldn’t be great guns right out of the gate, but it’s all good. We had some incredible help from friends over the weekend helping unpack, check in, […]
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This one’s for the Allen boys. When you are the boss, you get to listen to what you want and when no ones around, you can turn it to eleven!
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Being on scenic Highway 1, I see a lot of tourists pedaling south (to take advantage of the predominant tailwind). A couple from England came in yesterday as I was working on getting the racks up and the shop a little more organized. When they got their bikes off the plane, her derailleur was bent […]
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Finally, the centerpiece of the shop – the work bench and work stand.
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I need bike racks to display bikes and after seeing the cost for steel racks that are commercially available, I realized I had to build my own. Taking a cue from Pacific Coast Cycles, where he built his own, I will do the same. Instead of a rack system that costs in the thousands of […]
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Deciding to open a bike shop is one thing. Figuring out all the small details is another. Things like cash registers, POS systems (that’s Point of Sale not Piece of Shtinky…although they may be interchangeable), credit card services…all become quite hard to figure out when you have no point of reference. My main point of […]
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