Everyone wants to be a perpetual motion machine.
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Just Keep Spinning
Wow, a lot has happened in life, especially in the past two years and I haven't really documented it. I probably should, so here we go and here's a quick intro: I've lived all over the country, been a (single speed) bike commuter for about five years, quit a cushy day job to join the bike industry a year and half ago. So yeah, a year and a half ago life started to become rather exciting.
There I was sitting in my cubicle, thinking about riding my bike and pretending to work. Life was routine, comfortable, boring. Working in the media department for a car dealership and not even owning a car felt rather odd. To fill the unfulfilled cycling void in my life I picked up a Bike Tech gig at Dick's Sporting Goods. That was going well, but I wanted more. I became friends with a local bike shop owner and the service manager, that lead to me picking up a weekend job at an actual bike shop. So now I have three part time jobs and barely any time to ride (other than commuting). After a few months of this madness I got offered a full time position in the bike shop. Quite the pay cut, but it was what I wanted... so I quit the other two jobs and dove into the rabbit hole of working in a bike shop.
Life in the bike shop was excellent; worked with cool people, customers were typically cool, it was laid back and I forgot about the money I wasn't making. A few times some wannabe entrepreneur would come in trying to push a new product; I saw this as opportunity. One day I pointed out the company website wasn't working, and then found myself with some side work. Trying to grow a brand was cool side work, but ended up becoming a tiresome eight months of dealing with contract negotiations, inventory and overall communications issues. I hoped and hoped the side work would pan out but just had to walk away from the disaster. So yeah, life in the bike shop was cool.
Working in the bike shop was like being a drug dealer, the problem with that is I was/am an addict. I needed my bike fix. To feed that fix I got hooked on Surly bikes. I got myself a Surly Pugsley fat bike, Karate Monkey 29er and Cross Check commuter bike (all three are single speed). I also developed a bad habit of racing (thanks John). This addiction was becoming costly, I needed to find a better economical solution to feed my fix but stay in the bike industry.
Luckily things worked out; on my 31st birthday I started a job with a bike parts distributor and I still work at the bike shop on the weekends. So now that I've been in the industry for a year and a half I've been making contacts with other industry insiders, riding with some awesome people, getting insider news and this year I'll be attending Interbike!
So here I am in Massachusetts: working, living, riding my bike(s). Life is indeed good. Just keep spinning.
There I was sitting in my cubicle, thinking about riding my bike and pretending to work. Life was routine, comfortable, boring. Working in the media department for a car dealership and not even owning a car felt rather odd. To fill the unfulfilled cycling void in my life I picked up a Bike Tech gig at Dick's Sporting Goods. That was going well, but I wanted more. I became friends with a local bike shop owner and the service manager, that lead to me picking up a weekend job at an actual bike shop. So now I have three part time jobs and barely any time to ride (other than commuting). After a few months of this madness I got offered a full time position in the bike shop. Quite the pay cut, but it was what I wanted... so I quit the other two jobs and dove into the rabbit hole of working in a bike shop.
Life in the bike shop was excellent; worked with cool people, customers were typically cool, it was laid back and I forgot about the money I wasn't making. A few times some wannabe entrepreneur would come in trying to push a new product; I saw this as opportunity. One day I pointed out the company website wasn't working, and then found myself with some side work. Trying to grow a brand was cool side work, but ended up becoming a tiresome eight months of dealing with contract negotiations, inventory and overall communications issues. I hoped and hoped the side work would pan out but just had to walk away from the disaster. So yeah, life in the bike shop was cool.
Working in the bike shop was like being a drug dealer, the problem with that is I was/am an addict. I needed my bike fix. To feed that fix I got hooked on Surly bikes. I got myself a Surly Pugsley fat bike, Karate Monkey 29er and Cross Check commuter bike (all three are single speed). I also developed a bad habit of racing (thanks John). This addiction was becoming costly, I needed to find a better economical solution to feed my fix but stay in the bike industry.
Luckily things worked out; on my 31st birthday I started a job with a bike parts distributor and I still work at the bike shop on the weekends. So now that I've been in the industry for a year and a half I've been making contacts with other industry insiders, riding with some awesome people, getting insider news and this year I'll be attending Interbike!
So here I am in Massachusetts: working, living, riding my bike(s). Life is indeed good. Just keep spinning.
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