So many ideas, so little time…

I had a couple come into the shop this week while they were out on a ride. He commented that I had great hours: open at 11 am during the week and close at 5:30. Life’s got to be good with a schedule like that, right? I said, that yes, that would be ideal, however, as part of my other job of consulting with various companies and individuals on bike projects, I get up at 6:00 a.m. to answer e-mails received overnight from Taiwan and work on the other projects. Sometimes, I get an hour or two to sneak out for a ride. Lately, though sneaking out for a ride hasn’t been working out. Then at 10:00 I take my dog, Sport, out for his morning walk and then open the shop at 11 to begin my 6 1/2 hours of retail hours. At 5:30, I close and spend 15-20 minutes closing up and transferring my notepad of daily sales to my Quickbooks program. Then it’s off for a walk or ride with Sport for about an hour. Back home at about 7:00 p.m., I’ll answer e-mails that came in during the day, rustle up some dinner with a little Netflix movie and then back to the computer to answer new e-mails that may have come in from Taiwan. Because of the time difference between here and Taiwan, communicating later in the evening is crucial to speeding up the communication process and it essentially makes possible to get done in one day what would take several days if I was to only process this during a normal 8-5 work day. So, those 11:00-5:30 shop hours quickly turn into about a 12 hour “work” day.

With that, I’ve got some time and energy (maybe I should be riding) to write up a blog post with some pictures I’ve been collecting.

Here’s a Time cross bike that came in with a strange sound from the Record cassette body. The first time it came in with the sound, he was on a ride and the sound was difficult to pin point. I thought it could just be some dirt and maybe the rear wheel QR wasn’t sufficiently tight. He came back again with the bike and a more audible sound. This time, it was easy enough to figure out that the rear wheel was loose and the cassette body was a little loose and was being ground down by the pawls and the ratchet mechanism was digging into the body under load. A new body and making sure the the hub was properly adjusted and the locknut on the drive side was tight and I think it should be okay. The issue may be exacerbated by the fact that the owner rides this tricked out 11-speed Chorus/Record bike like one would ride a mountain bike – always in the dirt and all the hard uphills may be too much for a group designed for road riding. Time will tell. It is commendable that he likes to get his bike dirty.

This cassette body that was on another rider’s bike shows similar damage by the ratchet ring. It too produced a grinding/creaking/groaning sound when pedaling under load.

Here was a good one. Bar tape that was installed without removing the strip that covers the double faced tape.

What’s a Black Mountain Cycles blog post without a super cool vintage mountain bike. This one is a late 80s Ritchey Super Comp that is in for a complete overhaul. There are rags in the head tube and bb shell because the frame also got a treatment of Framesaver before being rebuilt.

A WTB Phoenix that was in for new tires and tubes this week. The Phoenix and Super Comp were in the stand at the same time. How cool is that having such classic bikes in for work at the same time.

This old Trek was in for a total cleaning and to be readied for the owner’s daughter to take it to college. Pretty cool to see such a nice bike holding up well over the years and to continue serving it’s new owner. I forgot to take a picture of the completed bike, but it turned out nice. When the original owner brought it in and told me her daughter was going to take it to college, my first thought, which I voiced to the owner, was that it would probably be promptly stolen without a good lock. A Krytonite New York lock will accompany the bike to college – fahgettabout stealing this bike.

Had an old shifter overhaul to free up the index mechanism on an old Fuji. Removing the shifter mechanisms from their perches promptly had three earwigs and two spiders scrambling for safety. One earwig up my hand which made me jump and scream like a little girl. Having something jump out and run up my arm freaks me out a little. You can see the spider here…