Six degrees of separation, Black Mountain style…

Actually, it’s probably only two or three degrees. Here’s a few funny coincidental instances that have happened at the shop.

A few months ago, Grant Petersen of Rivendell stopped by. I saw the bike he parked out front and pretty much knew it was Grant. I’d never met him and always admired what he’s done in the bike industry going back to the Bridgestone days. The final three catalogs Bridgestone (1992, 1993, 1994) put out were among the three best bike catalogs ever. He wandered in the shop and I let him just be a guy who found a bike shop to check out. I eventually introduced myself and we got to talking about the focus of the shop (more on that in a future post). Nice guy.

The next day he came back and as we were talking bikes, a woman and man came in the shop. She saw the Rivendell out front and started talking to its owner about the bike saying she was in San Francisco for a work conference and left enough time after the conference to visit Rivendell in Walnut Creek to test ride a bike and come up to Point Reyes. As she’s talking about her visit and test ride, she kind of falters mid-sentence and asks/proclaims, “You’re Grant Petersen!?” Well, yeah, he was Grant Petersen. They guy she was with told me later that that brief meeting made her year.

Several months ago, a vintage mountain bike friend of mine came up to the shop to visit and have me do some work on his Steve Potts and Otis Guy bikes. At the same time he’s at the shop, Tom Ritchey stopped by. Not sure if that made his year, but I think it was pretty close.

And just this weekend, my friends Ken and Amanda from the Bear Valley Inn told me that a good friend of theirs from Scotland, Gary, was staying with them on holiday and was going to come to the shop to check out the old bikes and stuff. Seems he’s found out about the shop all the way in Scotland and wanted to see it in person. He was also going to be picking up a Type II fork from Steve Potts for a WTB Phoenix he picked up a while back. As he’s at Steve’s getting his fork and a tour of Steve’s shop, Steve’s telling him about some other forks he’s making. One of the forks is for another friend of mine from The Netherlands, Jeroen. As coincidence would have it, Gary had actually bought his Phoenix frame that his new Type II is going on from Jeroen! How’s that for a Type II/Phoenix triangle!

And finally just because and for a little visual stimulation, here’s what’s in the stand, been in the stand, and will be in the stand this week. From nearest to furthest: Classic early Ibis road frame in for assembly of classic Dura Ace 7402 components; early 90’s Bridgestone MB-something that has a single-speed conversion with track ends and a fresh Sycip matte black powder coat; MB-Zip in for a White Ind Eno eccentric wheel build and single-speed conversion; Bontrager cross frame in for general tuning; and finally a very nice De Rosa lugged steel frame with Campy Chorus Ergo 8-speed in for tune/assembly.