biker1070

Olive has arrived

2009-07-30T23:24:00.000-07:00

Born 7.29.09

8 pounds 2 ounces

2009-07-22T09:24:00.000-07:00

Found this online...

Business e-mail etiquette

2009-06-24T17:51:00.000-07:00

Answer the fucking question!

2009-06-23T19:51:00.000-07:00

This came into the shop today. I sure don't need it...but I want it.

Cog Magazine

2009-06-18T20:29:00.000-07:00

Cog magazine has been a marker of the seasons around the shop for the last little while. I am lucky in that on most occasions I am the first person(in Atlanta) to get to have a physical copy in my hands whenever it comes out. This is because I'm at my shop a lot, and none of the other shops carry the magazine. From what I can remember we've carried it from it's first issue. This month the featured frame builder was Bilenky who built the bike I ride every day. Cog magazine, is obviously a labor of love, and the editors and writers on their front are no more likely to be getting rich quick than the wrenches at your local shop.

From the very beginning and to this day we offer the magazine free to our customers. Just the other day I saw on one of the many blogs we follow a reminder that Cog magazine should be free! This got me thinking again about something that had come across my mind early on, and it is a logical conclusion that they mention this because some shops must be charging for the magazine.

First the issue that I had all ready reconciled myself to accepting. That being that my bike shop would pay(yes we have to pay for it) for a magazine that I would then give away that would have advertisement in it.

I am not in the publication business and I've never been a paper boy, nor have I ever run a newsstand. But as a general rule of business you sell things that you buy if you want to make money. However the idea that we could draw in customers with the exposure created by being a carrier of the publication peaked our interest and we gave it a try and bought a box. Sure enough we had some new customers come by and pick up the magazine with a few other purchases large and small.

Sure enough as well we have had and still have people come in and ask for the magazine and not buy anything. I'm not talking regulars here(who know who they are, and who know that they don't have to buy something that day). I'm talking people whose regular bike shop isn't us, stopping by only for the free copy.

Giving a free copy to anybody walking though the door may be a good business model for Milwaukee Bikes. Who has a full page ad in the magazine and wants you to read it to see their ad. But me paying to essentially give away a competitors advertisement to non paying customers? This does little for us as a small business, so off they go without a copy.

And so this was the state of affairs. But now we have the logical progression of bike shops charging for the magazine. It's hard for me not to say, if they paid for it, then they have the right to sell it(unless they have a specific contract not to). In all honesty this I believe Cog magazine will have to address directly in the near future. If this gray area persists, I see little other option then for small shops to begin charging for the magazine. For my two cents I would like to see them go fully one way or the other. Either a for sale publication, or a free publication paid for by advertisement free for anyone who will pick it up.

Lots of work ahead, but lots of fun!

2009-06-16T08:02:00.001-07:00

2009-05-09T21:53:00.001-07:00

pist as fug

Back from the trip.

2009-05-05T10:31:00.000-07:00

Potential names for the trip include...
Yurtle Jerk
If the yurt is a rocking don't come a knocking
and well we got too drunk to remember the rest.
Everyone met up at Bobby's and even despite my protest that we meet up an hour later, I arrived on time, before everyone else. Some OJ and eggs to get us started, and Bobby, Kyle, Josh and I were off by 10.The ride out was good, a good bit more climbing than expected. We kept a respectable 15 mile per hour pace for the 45 miles carrying quite a bit of gear among us up quite a few hills. We stopped a couple of times picking up some extra supplies. Most of the ride was in semi industrial suburban highway with the last third being in country then turning into beautiful winding forest road. Unfortunately no one thought to stop and get pictures of the road leading into red top mountain park.

Our trips highlight was of course the yurt itself. There are a few of these situated in the Georgia State parks. 3 or 4 are in state parks within 50 or so miles of Southeast Atlanta so a little bit of homework and 55 dollars can book you one. This was the first time some of us had even heard of a yurt let alone slept in one. While in the strictest sense this was a "yurt" in that it was round. This was made by Colorado Yurts with stuff like electricity and a fan. Inside it was furnished with some random lodge looking futon and futon/bunkbed. A little stuffy when we first arrived due likely to the fact that it hadn't been rented out in a while, once we rolled up the window flaps we got some cross ventilation going and it put many a cabin to shame.

The yurt was situated closer to the lake than any of the other campsites in the proximity, and the trail behind led down to some cool boulders to hang out on before and after a swim. Soon after shakes drove up with a whole cooler full of beer.

Any doubts we had as to the waterproofness of the yurt were quickly put to rest as by about 7 o clock tornado sirens were going off and he rain was starting. After an hour or so it let up, and we made our dinner.

We awoke to constant downpour and decided that the highways going back into town would be less than fun, so we mobilized the lag vehicles and headed back into town.

The only new piece of cycling gear that I took was the Nitto top rack, or R14. As I expected it held up as any nitto product should. Mounting it up was a snap compared to custom drilling/bending tabs on the VO(the steep requirements of setup on the VO pay off greatly in the end with a SUPER STABLE rack). The rack came with enough sturdier than usual looking p clamps to mount this thing on a keirin frame. Since I had the proper mounts on the frame all ready, the only thing I had to fool with were the 4 10mm nuts that grabbed the struts, thus adjusting both strut length and angle. If I was going to keep this rack on the bike permanently I would tweak it a little and get the rack to attach to the fender. This would require a bit of drilling and sawing some of the struts a bit shorter so that they don't poke up into the "floor" of the racktop, and while I was at it I would saw the front struts a bit shorter just for looks. For now it just sits a bit high of the fender so I don't have to hear it clanking back there.
It had enough bungee tabs to secure a big roll of sleeping bag, hammock, extra clothes and some dry and canned food, and an extra pair of moccasins for around the campsite with two bungee chords. Once they were set I didn't touch them or worry about them until it was time to unload gear at the camp. This isn't the rack that I would choose for fully loaded week plus camping/touring trips. For a short trip I easily strapped about 15 pounds of gear on there and double that with the proper luggage I wouldn't expect to be a problem. I am going to keep it on the bike until I can think of a reason I wouldn't want to be able to carry a few extra beers on the way home(or to the shop).

Preparing for!

2009-05-01T16:50:00.000-07:00

A weekend trip to Lake Allatoona , red top mountain park. The yurt is reserved, the gear is ready to go thanks to a little help from Half Moon Outfitters, and the only thing left is to figure out what kind of whiskey to bring. Beer would be better but sunday in georgia there is nothing to do about it no chance of picking up a cold 6 pack on the way to bed(or bag as i like to call it when camping)!

The Bilenky is ready to go, the final touch was installing a rear rack. This has been a bit of a dilemma (if rack selection can be such) for me. I would like another VO rack to match my constructeur rack up front, but I wasn't drawn to any of their rear racks. In the end I went with a Nitto R-14 rack(also known as the Rivendell top rack) which by it's very nature as a Nitto product is something that we carry. thinking that it could be an in between semi removable rack there when i want it stored away somewhere small when i don't. Shortly after i put the order in I read online in a few places that the rack when set up feels flimsy... well so far in just having set it up it feels like it could hold a good bit of weight so it's true test is coming up!

So expect a review of that rack soon.

Results and a day.

2009-04-23T16:41:00.000-07:00

Duality, or continuity, or synchronicity or whatever you feel like calling it at the time or place...well it has a big place in my heart. These things are easy to overlook, or over emphasize. In a smallish or bigish city(whicher you find Atlanta to be). You can spend a day sharing your space within a crowd of people so homogenous that it makes you feel like you never left highschool, or run into all sorts of weirdo's that make you realize this isn't kansas anymore.

And then there are days like today where there is a bit more magic in the air.... where you could leave but not get anywhere, when well either kansas supplies you with the unexpected, or when the big city feels like a small village.

The stars had to truly align to bring these two grins together. Wearing no brakes t shirts on the same day. While only one rides a keirin bicycle on the daily, the other a vintage scooter. Both with day of the dead sleeves(done by two different artists with their own interesting and storied histories). Both on the porch of the Local on a beautiful day finished off just right with a few beers right before the weather turns. A day of bringing people together with nothing and everything in common.

As to the promised breakdown of last nights racing well...

Warm ups felt a little bit more stable than weeks past. But with another mini scare in the beginning as a disk wheel slipped down track but was recovered.

C's started out with a 5 lap scratch which Bobby Costello took easily. Winning a pair of cycling sunglasses.(Prizes have rightly become a more standard addition to the usual wednesday racing!)

B's scratch got going and then held up a bit with the sprinters saving up for the final lap. Was a very hairy cluster with a bunch of big sprinters going for it.

A's i didn't really pay attention to the whole night sorry.

Unknown distance went 11 laps for B's(about the same if not exactly as the C's so it pays to pay attention) It went on to be discussed that an unknown is ALLWAYs an odd number? Interesting explanation-less and true. Heavy pace, lots of false breaks and I just tried to stay in the top half at all times and hot on the tail of any break, ended up being a good enough strategy to grab me a 4th.

The wheelrace ended up a sprint between a group of C's and B's with the A's needing another lap to be able to close the gap.

The night ended with long points race for all groups. My goal was to not get lapped and make a couple of smart moves, one ended up being smart, the other not so much. Got some points but not enough to place in points for the whole race.

Afterwards beers and pizza at OZ(I had forgotten how delicious there pizza was down to the very crust, almost sourdoughy in an amazing way)

Race 4(or race 3 for me) of season at DLV

2009-04-23T06:04:00.000-07:00

Another good night with no traumatic incidences. For now last nights schedule, waiting for them to post results so that I can reconcile my dry mouthed panting experience with someone calmly determining the sprints.

POINTS!

2009-04-16T11:58:00.000-07:00

I got a couple last night in of all things a chariot race(one lap standing start sprint). Second place... and then I didn't even get lapped or drop out in any of the consecutive races of the night.

2009-04-13T18:38:00.000-07:00

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-bobby costello

Say what you would like...

2009-04-06T18:50:00.000-07:00

Graveyard remains one of my favorite places for a beer or six. On the wrong night if it gets a bit too crowded I can feel like neighborhood wildlife on display for the sightseeing tourist. However it is their true sense of ridiculous that brings out the crowds regularly, and ridiculousness is something I can appreciate. Strippers in Jello, in the parking lot? with a moon walk? picking jello off of my helmet the next day...If it seems like it should be illegal well they'll do it big and hire on an off duty to give it class....This flyer reminded me a bit of why they can't be ignored, all the while ringing true that on a busy night the max occupancy in any given stall exceeds the fire marshal's limit.

The only way to top this flyer would be to call it Teen Night. And if they call it Teen Night then I have to host it because that's my idea.

First Race of Season.

2009-04-02T10:11:00.000-07:00

Last night at the track... Held on and didn't get lapped in the first two races of the night. This may not seem like a big deal, but for me when racing with the B's towards the end of the last season, I'd usually get lapped by the end of the second race.
Paceline...first of the season with most of the B riders. Pretty disjointed as far as pace but safe at least.
Race one of the night...Ten or maybe 5? lap scratch. Turn 2 Fran(I think is his name) comes unclipped as he starts to sprint. I thought he was about to go down, somehow he kept it up. Everyone regrouped, an by the time we cranked it back up it felt pretty natural. Finished 9th out of a field of 16.
Second race, unkown distance. Tight group with a few mini breakaways. Bridged a gap at some point. Josh Frank went for a jump and I followed with a good gap on the field, he didn't realize it was me and didn't fall in...Brushed elbows with Bill Thomsen at some point in as polite a way as possible. After the failed break with Josh, it was just me trying to catch back up to the group.
The third and traditionally longest race of the night, I sneaked a point in at lap 20, and didn't have any left in me for the next ten laps, so I hit the infield.
All in all, better then my worst performances of last year, and in fact towards the better end. With a bit of training I could be not getting lapped throughout the whole night by the middle of the season.

Moratorium

2009-03-31T07:44:00.000-07:00

The actual word should be armistice.

I believe that cyclists everywhere should call to an armistice of the rim wars. 700c carbon rims are now coming in at over 100mm tall. With ERD's in the 420's they are quickly approaching the halfway point between hub and tread. Therefore I would like to impose an arbitrary number and say enough is enough, if you want to go any deeper, let's cut these poor spokes out of the equation. Not only are is the region of carbon fiber at war... but the alloy front is no less secure. Companies are one upping each other. If we let the situation continue to run out of hand the only assurance will be mutual annihilation.

So in closing I propose standardization. No 700c rim should be any deeper than to yield an erd below 430(or looking at it another way no rim depth above 110). If you are wrongly convinced that you need more aero advantage than you must go ahead and get a disk. And when you find out that you aren't fast enough for rims that aero or disks that sweet well there is a conversion waiting for your leftovers. The more touchy task will be dividing the line between carbon and alloy. Unlike the carbon rim/disk divide which is a sharp cutoff point. I propose a no mans land between the alloy and carbon camps. And I say that rim depths in the 40s are a toss up. Both sides should fully entrench themselves in the 30's and 50s respectively but should know that any trespass into the others territory will be short-lived and mainly inconsequential in the long war ahead.

A shop for cyclists.

2009-03-22T06:20:00.000-07:00

In my campaign to write and ride more often(actual pedaling could potentially cut into the writing portion of my day today). I must set goals, and it's nearing time for me to come up with a formula, such as i must do x posts within y time. Instead i set a mini goal of doing a post this week. So bear with me if this is a bit headier than normal, because I'm really just shooting at vague ideas that have been floating around all week.

On our site if you go to our tumblr(link down on the right), and then click on READER on the top of our tumblr, you come to a little idea that I,at the time thought that I, came up with and Jon had the skills to make actually exist(I know that this exists all ready for personal use, and even in public use among big companies). I thought it would be a good idea to save everyone at the shop the time of looking at ten million different blogs every day web address by web address, and that it'd be neat for anyone interested in our little shop to see what ten million different blogs we were looking at and being influenced by.

Because of my less than polished skills in the department of technology(Justin and I once couldn't figure out how to use photoshop to make a flyer or something the correct way, so we used our nice expensive computer as though it was only a copier and cut and pasted our way to glory) this leap was new to me even if it had been traveled by many before.

I have no idea how much this is all ready used(that's more Jon's type of thing). I can however promise you that it is useful to me. I imagine it or something like it being very critical to anyone whose scope of business extends outside of the scope of a bodega(one of my dream businesses to own by the way). Not only is it informative as to the scope of the bicycle business, but it's also pretty entertaining, and even educational at times. A bit of espn meets cnn(or whichever ones "reporters" couldn't contain their bias/bliss this last election) with a dash of discovery channel and skinemax, but all about bikes.

One particular post caught my eye recently. The short of it(I'll admit I skimmed) seemed to be that the cycle industry is really just a writhing mass of cut-throat competition and cramped quarters. It goes on to suppose that there are bluer waters that one can safely sail to and nothing other than narrow scope confining us to this well illustrated death zone.

This idea immediately intrigued me, and due to synchronicity or whatever you'd like to call it. I had been talking to a couple of friends about their ideas about getting into the bluer cycle specific waters(though the sharks couldn't be so stupid as to not smell the faint traces of blood in those waters either). The main point of our conversation effectively turned into, jump into the abyss too soon and there won't be enough....well let's quit with the stupid ocean analogy.

Invest in a specialized market too soon(before there is enough interest or customer base) and you end up having to create customers and interest in your products. For some this can end up great, and you can position yourself apropriately to be one of the more established companies in your field, respected by your peers, and even sought out by customers on up to the global scale. Based upon our experience and the amount of money we had at our disposal I would say investing a little early beat out too late within our niche cycle market, if only so that we had enough time to get our shit together by the time that our local customers became interested in track bikes.

Diving deeper into the blue market theory(back to analogies!). I came to realize that no part of the ocean no matter how calm is devoid of life. You are unlikely to be the first(though there always is one, whether it's Trackstar or Gary Fischer), and the news is allready out and everyone is rushing in with money to flood the shit out of "your" market, so you won't be the last.

So after all that rethinking I went back to that post and checked the comments, and low and behold someone pretty much calls the bluer waters theory out as being a bunch of shit. Now I won't go that far but I would say that if you like pie charts as a way of looking at things that that blood zone of competition doesn't stay still. And that parts of that blue ocean are way to devoid of life to support anything more than plankton, let alone a hungry bike mechanic(at least locally). Oh and that there have got to be something like 500 different little mini blood zones. Essentially it'd be one huge blue, red, and well there'd be a bunch of other colors in there as well.....psychadelic pie chart. Oh and that it's getting bigger.

So where can you find a focus in all of that for some hole in the wall local bike shop? I like to think that it really only makes sense to some who can walk into any bikeshop and immediately make the call. It contains in it's simple statement much more than meets the eye. We(and many others not only in this town, but globally), are at the end of the day... A shop for CYCLISTS.

And that is what I plan to write about next...week?

Tattoo stops.

2009-03-11T21:11:00.000-07:00

While good ideas have come to me lately for posts and widely sweeping internet campaigns of epic proportions. I have not acted upon them. Instead I have been actually doing some riding and things that I enjoy as of late. Went to the track tonight, and felt like I was comfortable in the saddle as well as in my jersey.

I will expand on one idea as of late that I have had. And keeping with my ever negative and critical theme it is me suggesting in a not so nice way how other people should avoid failures. This post in particular relates to a race put on by our local co-op here in Atlanta last week. While I have never been one to take crap or criticism for how i score the races I put on from my participants, I am exempt from this rule in this instance because I didn't race this year. Every year for three years running victory has narrowly escaped my clutches and I find the routes to be overlong for what my view of what the scope of an alleycat should be, and under-creative in the checkpoint department for what I know can be pulled off. Of the length and checkpoints I will make no judgement as I was not there, and of my previous years experience with the race those opinions are no secret and so long ago that no one is likely to care. I "wouldn't" have raced for those reasons but would have been open to last minute ridicule or peer pressure to end up doing it begrudgingly. I didn't race because of a mean case of food poisoning that only allowed me to choke down two packets of ramen the 30 some odd hours before the race. Either way I heard many people complaining about how they handled the tattoo stop scoring.

What I have an opinion of is "THE TATTOO STOP."

Before I begin let me say that this criticism is in no way directed towards THE TATTOO SHOP that essentially donates their time and supplies to make the race better for anyone who has the balls to get a stupid race tattoo. I have no idea how they get enough stencils and patience and etc. to make it happen. The only thing I ask of whichever shop I work with for a stop is some slight input in design of the tattoo or tattoos available to riders, and I ask them how much to tell the people to bring, and let them know that they have the power to disqualify a rider if they're being a dick and I'll stick by it, and suggest that they use a sign up sheet because that has always worked in the past.

My problem is in the SCORING of the tattoo.

In any race I have ever been through or put on with a tattoo stop the timing of the tattoo varies. One person can get through in ten to twenty minutes, and the person who arrives four people after them will be there for an hour. Thats the nature of the beast, and racing, like tattoos and life is unpredictable. When you know it's going to take an hour, maybe go knock out a couple of other checkpoints, or if you know everybody is going straight to the tattoo stop be sure to beat everyone else so that you can be first on that list. Or if you know you can't beat everyone there, count on hitting the tattoo stop last thing when you can hope the line has thinned out. Whatever not my beef still. My problem is that when it's all said and done you end up with some arbitrary and uneducated number of minutes subtracted from your total time. Like let's just pick 15. Not for any real good reason but just because well you have to give them something extra to get people to do it? Wrong.

The correct and it should be universally standard way to score a race involving a tattoo stop is thus. You take the time of the first person to complete the race without a tattoo. Let us for easy maths sake say 60 minutes. You then take the time of the first person to come in with a tattoo. Let us say that this persons time was 87minutes. You subtract b from a and you get 27. Now here is the key you add one minute to that and you get the time bonus for getting the tattoo in that particular race(28minutes if you aren't catching my drift). Thus the first rider to come in with a tattoo(more dedication/pain etc. put into race) becomes your first place winner. You explain this ahead of time, and people who want the first place shut the fuck up and get the tattoo(this is what you want anyways right? more potential customers getting to meet the artists at your favorite tattoo shop right? that's what they would want right?). This takes the tattoo stop from the realm of it could be worth it but maybe not? to the realm of fuck yeah i'm getting the race tattoo I want to win don't I.

Possible arguments?

What about people who are under 18?

What are you doing at my illegal race anyways? Isn't it past your bedtime? Do your parents know what time it is and you are all ready annoying me by having to pour you a loogie hotsauce shot in place of the tall boy you would have to swig at the drinking stop,(you do know that you need a drinking stop don't you?)

I don't get tattoos?

Well time to get your first. Oh religious reasons? Well religious fanatics have ruled the world since forever, so here is my hour of payback. Oh you just don't want to? Well I just don't want you to personally win...grow some thicker skin and let somebody pound ink into it with needles.

Unfair advantage?

Look roadie your legs are allready shaved so not only does that cut down your wind resistance but that would further cut down your tattoo time so shut the fuck up.

So anyways this is how I feel about this, and you can rest assured it is the way I and my shop will score tattoo stops whenever they happen, all I can hope to do is change the world one trivial bike related nuance at a time.

I remembered something today.

2008-12-02T17:36:00.000-08:00

I haven't thought about this for a while but on the short cold ride home from the shop tonight something hit me. I remembered the turbulent times when I had to get out of the biz. I realized that the crucial issue came down to the fact that I worked for a fat lazy dispatcher.

I'd put him at about 260 pounds and believe me he took in more calories than I ever did. Maybe it would be like someone trying to coach me in cycling(or any other sport) who had never ridden a bike let alone been physically active. Insulting somehow...

No problems with the boss, or the previous dispatchers, just that guy in particular. He was a car dispatcher, and he wanted to treat me like a car. His laziness offended me when I would have to do that one last round trip ten mile run for 3$ that wasn't worth the pint I'd have to down that night to forget so that I could get back in the morning and not want to swing on him.

This isn't something that most people understand. It's not like working in a stable and secure job where when the boss or supervisor wants you to clean up the shop or do inventory before closing. This is for another hour on a day where you have only made twenty and knowing that your weekly check will only be 3$ greater, and you're wet. Knowing that this slob won't apologize when there isn't any work the next day coming in and knowing that you could loose your job("self employed"/"independent contractor"). And in the end after it's all over knowing that he will never ever back you up when the shit comes down.

Luckily I feel secure in what I am doing now, and in all likelihood won't have to go back and if I wanted to the work(in Atlanta) wasn't there to begin with and won't be any more in the future.

But the thought came to me... One day I could have to go back.... if that were to happen I wouldn't work under a fat lazy dispatcher.

2008-11-28T14:50:00.000-08:00

Some of the best bicycles that roll out the door of any bike shop are not the ones you see reviewed in magazines, or linked between many of the velo blogs. They are the bikes that bring people(and whatever else you can fit on them, or on you while riding them) to their destination in a healthy, environmentally conscious, sometimes quicker, less stressful.........the list goes on..... way. More importantly(at least to me), these bikes give people a better understanding of their environment and perhaps along the way a better understanding of themselves and those around them. Obviously the whole peace and love via biking thing could be a stretch and is certainly a bit nauseating at times. Sill while few would call me the optimist I imagine some sense of solidarity with my fellow cyclist and have made many fast friends, a few worthy rivalries, and only the occasional nemesis.

If a bike is to do any of this, the least it must do is work. If it is even possible for a bike to do all of this, then it must be a bicycle that you want to ride. Obviously the bike we all want to ride is different from person to person, and sometimes different from day to day(me thinking about the next project before the current one even has wheels on it). Whether the thing you need and let us not importantly forget want... be brightly collered parts that you don't need but definitely want, or a front rack that you need to bring home groceries(and a 6...make it 12 pack), a custom built frame, or even despite our namesake a brake, we not only make it our business to hunt the parts down and put it together, well we also enjoy it.

Alyson's bike is a prime example. And the rickshaw I am still working on is another but I don't even have a picture of it.

What started out as a "art bike" from sopo that was the bike that Alyson wanted to ride, soon made it to our doors in the form of a frame and a fork and some other parts haphazardly assembled to it.
The fork steer tube was and still is too short, the bb needed retapping, the rear triangle was and still is bent, her original headset was missing the bottom bearings which was the only way for the "artist" or "mechanic" to cover up the real problem that the fork was too short, the quill of the quill stem was dysfunctional......at the begining and the middle and the end it was apparent that a new bike could and would have been cheaper, which is either the testament or the fallacy of french threaded peugoets and conversions everywhere.
Either way she is riding the bike she wanted to ride.

Procrastination post naccc's

2008-11-13T07:59:00.001-08:00

It's been more than a few months since we went to chicago for NACCC's and I finally have pictures up so an article can now follow.

Erin, Bobby, Mariana, Kyle and I loaded all of the bikes and gear up into the van and got on our way to Chicago. On the way up we saw this awesome picture inside a Pilot truckstop above the beverage coolers of some arctic track bike pilot jersey wearing rider with a future helmet.

After many hours we reached our destination and proceeded to fill our faces with Chicago's fine food, this didn't stop for the remainder of our stay. Bloody Mary's, Pizza, Open Faced Deli Sandwiches, Way too spicy Burritos, lots of good stuff. Sadly we didn't get to try this awesome cake that looked like a hamburger

Registration was held at possibly the worlds weirdest sports bar downtownish. And we soon recieved our registration numbers, this year printed on cordura type fabric so as to last longer and look better pinned to a messenger bag. This was my bag/number.

We passed out that night after beers all around town on the bike and then back at our abode. We woke up early for quallifiers. Bobby and Kyle didn't know quite what was in store but I had given them some idea. I believe Kyle and I started on the same heat and Bobby on the one after so we were all out on the course at some point together.

This was my third Naccc's so I had tried to inform my "teammates" with as much of the previous knowledge I had gleaned from the previous events so that they wouldn't be stuck wondering what to do in the middle of the course once they were handed their manifests. The intricacies of the manifest, being able to drop in any order but having to pick up in order, no going backwards, being polite so as to get through checkpoints quicker(not something everyone learns their first lap around the course), stops having both a name and a number(such as a business having both an address and a business name), carrying those fed ex tubes in your mouth if it comes down to it, being ready for any type of ridiculous situation at checkpoints, and all of the other usual little quirks that the NACCC's entail.

The first deviation from my past experience was that this was in reality a cyclocross course. Calling it anything else really doesn't do it justice. This is not a negative thing, but just a fact. Sure there were paved sections, but there were also wood chips, bariers, dismounting, grass, gravel, roots, drop offs, and sand. The two flats I had that day were both a result of wood chips going straight through my tire. So while wishing we had brought some knobbies with us we set off. Kyle and I racing on the second or third heat of ten riders, and Bobby racing in the next behind us.

The "Team"

The second change was one we encountered half way through the race. In years previous you were judged on your best of two shots at a qualifying manifest. Ex. complete manifest one. Rest. Decide if you wish to better your time. And then potentially go again. Half way through the first manifest(which I and many others assumed to be my last) I heard wispers that we were going to have to do two in a row to qualify. This was unbelieveable to me in my state of exhaustion, but in fact turned out to be true. This double manifest situation was the result in Bobby looking like this.

Exhausted Bobby.

Which isn't to say that I wasn't exhausted.

I ended up having alot of fun on the course. Despite it's physical and temporal challenges I accomplished what I had set out to do as my personal pass fail requirements by qualifying under everyone from Atlanta but not qualifying. In this our party was lucky as we were spared the pain of having to get up the next day and race again, and we all took the opportunity to see the amazing sights of Chicago on our last day during the main race.

Erin and I cute and touristy!

They had alot of cool parks and they are making a bid for the olympics. I hope they make it , and I hope we can make it back.

Just so I don't loose this.

2008-08-27T20:53:00.000-07:00

1 ounce silver rum
1 ounce dark rum
1.5 ounces pineapple juice
.5 ounces lime juice
.25grenadine
.25 of orange curacao
1 cup crushed ice
1 fruit stick for garnish
1 sprig mint for garnish

combine all except garnish and pulse blend for a few seconds.
Happy birthday while we're out Calu, and I think I figured out my favorite tiki drink.

NACCC's

2008-08-25T19:36:00.000-07:00

Leaving friday morning. Chicago here we come.

Perhaps

2008-07-21T19:22:00.000-07:00

I went a bit too hard. But to the reserves coming in behind shoes as big as BoBo's you had better hit it hard or move back in with your mom.

Been out of the game

2008-07-20T21:18:00.001-07:00

For some time now. Been working as a wrench at a scooter shop on top of the usual wrenching for the bikeshop. Pedaling into work learning to enjoy riding for ridings sake again. Not looking at the bike as a paycheck. I can still come out and drop some packages on Mondays, however the week is usually so busy that I've got little left in me to make it worth even coming out. Plus it's summer so it's not even really worth coming out. And then you realize there is a few nipples that need tweaking(lame joke) and I don't make it out. Well I'm going to try and make it out tommorow, it'll be good for me and good for these fucking rookies to catch some shit. By the time I get annoyed at them and I don't even have to see them, then you know they need to get yelled at or something.
Speaking of rookies, now I am one in another field. While self evaluation always leads to self flattery. I would hope that I don't profess to be the scooter wrenching master after only a short while dealing with the horribly designed beasts for only a short time. Would I open up a scooter shop knowing only having a shallow understanding of the industry. Now then why would two rookies both with less than a year of experience want to start a courier collective? Doesn't that seem a bit cocky. Well thats what is happening, and to top it off the least experienced of the two has snaked work out from under Justin who has worked out there ten times as long as this particular rookie.
Well maybe bad ideas have a way of sorting themselves out and I should stop caring about it, it's not my business(pun) anymore.

heaven forbid

2008-07-04T21:05:00.000-07:00

that you specialize in something and do it well. you want walmart you drive down the highway and get it. you have a need for a specific niche then you go to a specialty shop. when the shop isn't walmart you get mad? makes no sense to me. we do what we do well because it is what we know and love. we never professed to be sources of anything else, and when you ask for knowledge and services outside of our mission and even our very namesake... how could you be surprised when we tell you thats not our department?

I've been

2008-07-01T15:22:00.000-07:00

Reading about a lot of people bitching on internet forums lately. About how much it sucks when a bike shop charges them for anything, and that the people who own or run the shops are bad people for charging.
As far as products go, I know for a fact you are much more likely to get a deal if you have something in return to exchange, such as beer, or tattoo's or food. But otherwise there is little reason we should devalue our goods on account that you feel like cool enough of a dude to get a discount. So when expecting for some crazy reason a free or discounted tube or something ask yourself if you have given these people anything free from your small business lately? Or hooked them up with goods from your place of employment? Or do I race for their team? If you have had to ask yourself these questions then the answer is likely no, because if the answer was yes, the percentage would all ready be taken out of your receipt. Oh and the only thing more awkward than asking for a discount you don't deserve is someone having to tell you you don't deserve it to your face.
There are also a few tricks that don't work so go ahead and stop using them. The I can get tubes cheaper somewhere else trick. You know what if you can then you wouldn't be coming to my shop to buy tubes so thats a lie. And if you really can get cheap tubes elsewhere then that must mean you have to get a tube right now because you are flat and at my shop, so there is little reason for me to give in and charge you "the 2$ that the other place charges you,"because you don't really want to walk the six miles to the other shop.
As far as labor goes. Hey my sink is broken you wanna come over and fix it for free, no you don't, it's not going to happen. Everywhere I go people charge me for drinks, food, tattoo's, gasoline, or doing my taxes. It's shitty I'm the first one to admit but we live in a capitalist society, and I don't know where inside my store it says that I am running it for charity, if you can point that sign out I've been meaning to take it down for some time now. So I am going to charge you to do pretty much anything to your bike. And I'm not going to let you borrow a specialized tools. I bought them by working and you feel entitled to them by your own folly.Next time you walk in and somebody charges you for doing something to your bike that you don't have the knowledge, tools or both to do, you shouldn't be any more surprised than to see a bill at the end of a dinner at olive garden. It's true that somebody a long time ago lied to cyclists and told them that bikes were cheap. This has never been the case. I am sorry you and I were both lied to.

Wheels.

2008-06-15T21:25:00.000-07:00

Made more money this week building them than riding them. Slow time for packages this summer, fast season for the spoke wrench.

Dispatchers

2008-06-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

Now that I have a well intentioned dispatcher it is a little bit harder for me to draw upon the anger present in the normal courier/dispatch relationship. I have to draw upon long forgotten wounds. My current dispatcher rides into work which is a pleasant change of pace. Instead of a fat slob pushing me harder and harder on a rainy day. I now get to smile knowing that he is about to get his. In factor should really be a requirement for anyone whom dispatches cyclists to ride in A couple days a week.
And don't forget that no matter how many times you help them out of a jam that when the axe falls they will let it fall down to you.

First day back

2008-06-11T06:19:00.000-07:00

After a long trip, the first day back is always a little strange. Your tires allways seem a bit too low and slow. Or maybe your chain is too tight. Soon you fall back in the rhythm and everything clicks back in.
Pretty soon you feel right at home with oncoming traffic taking lefts into you. Pouring sweat pushing into elevators with perfect perfumed suits.
Receptionist, "Is it hot out there," well honey it ain't raining, and you're not the one getting me wet.
Which brings me to another little known fact. Bicycle couriers are also amateur meteorologists. Even in the digital age nobody trusts a weatherman if he isn't on the street so people come straight to the source. Usually with startling stupidity. Couriers worldwide come into offices pushing soaking manifests toward receptionists, lawyers, doctors, and every type of people far too educated don't catch such a subtle nuance as the trail that soggy vans leave on expensive carpet. Clever answers include things that you would never say like, "No It's not raining took a swim with all my shit including your package before I rushed your package over." Who knows how I would explain away the snow in my hood if I worked in a colder city, and maybe my lack of tolerance for dealing with,"Is it snowing?" is half the reason other than just not enjoying it.
The thing you have to remember though is that these people are presumably more educated and certainly make more money than we do. All the while they can't remember to put an address on a package, or bother to look out their windows with beautiful views. No, we check the weather for ourselves, because we have to deal with it. Before we head to work, at the office, and on those nifty weather updates they've got on the elevators now, it matters to us. Slipping out an hour early before the downpour means one more day you can wake up and put on a dry bag, and thus one more day before you go ahead and do something worthwhile with your time. So if you ask nicely we'll clue you in, and quite likely we've got a better chance at predicting correctly than Al Roker.

Feedback

2008-05-25T16:16:00.000-07:00

Someone today said that the day of the hook is over. If that is true than the day of the bike courier is at an end as well. That or the rates have to go up.

Two and a half years.

2008-05-11T21:13:00.001-07:00

Yami and I always joke about how when he quits I'll have to work for another five years so we can say that we've both worked the same amount of time. There are many things you can accomplish in five years and working for the same company I started at as a rookie would only be justified in the pursuit of other goals.
Getting canned over the phone was a bit of a surprise. I've seen quite a few cyclists(and ten fold more drivers) get washed through the company. Some lasted a day, well usually it would be a winter day with 20 mile winds and oh I'd say 8 hours of 33degree rain sometime the week before Christmas. Or a week, in the middle of June and the dehydration and exhaustion sent them home for the weekend that turned into a week, and then turned in their radios for the paycheck. A select few however enjoy(or tolerate it) and can show up consistently and even make something more of it than a paycheck to paycheck existence.
My problem say the vets, was trying to turn a company reliant on the rookies inexperience and resulting pliability, into a consistent source of fair income and honest work. Companies who want to keep your checks low to keep you coming out and always working harder for bigger checks that never come. Knowing that when you burn out there will be someone else willing, or even begging to take your place. Hopefully even a rider living with their parents to whom pay is secondary to the all important social capital of courier cred. But at the back of my mind was always the looming reality that there were only so many companies in town, and a couple of burned bridges would leave me without anywhere else to go, so I stayed on. Until they forced my hand.
So luckily I got my foot in at the elite company in town(thanks BoBo, and Larry). And the last few weeks have me convinced that a change was needed.

The split.

2008-05-06T13:34:00.000-07:00

This is something that all couriers must deal with but it is even more annoying in Atlanta, not only because I have to deal with it," but because of our geography. Years ago most of the work was centralized around the courts downtown with legal clients situated along peachtree no more than two blocks or so to the east or west. Before I came out clients started moving north, meaning that our job now consists mainly of traversing this 4 mile north south corridor with only two blocks or so of variation east or west. While making it fairly easy for the rookies to learn all the addresses, it enables heartless dispatchers to ruin(or try to) your day.
Example. 1070-to base, i'm clear downtown. Dispatch-come to midtown to pick a round trip headed down to courts.
Now not only am I being dead headed(making 0$ for the four miles up to midtown), but I'm going to be coming right back to where I currently am. At which point in all likelihood the same thing is going to happen again. One of my former dispatchers liked to call it yo-yo. I liked it when he quit.
1070-to base, thats a lot of riding for 8 bucks with nothing else hooked in. Dispatch-silence.....this is the game they play. They want you to feel bad for not being a team player or some such bullshit. They forget a couple of things.
-They get payed to dispatch efficiently which dogging me out for days on end by having me somehow be the only chance for a package on the other side of town.
-I don't exist in two places at once no matter how hard they try to believe this.
-I've been doing this long enough not to be scared of one idle afternoon.
-I rarely refuse packages.
-I save their asses repeatedly.
-I don't complain(to them anyways).
1070-to base I've got downtown covered. Dispatch.....silence
Low and behold 30 minutes later they found runs within three miles of my last drop.

Now I've heard all the bullshit about how I we can't see the whole picture, and how actually we'd make much more money if we jumped blindly at every run like it was the last lap of the scratch. If this was the case it would only take two seconds to explain that to me. Dispatch-to biker, hey I've got 50 bucks worth of tickets set up on a loop starting in midtown. 1070-to base sent me the pages i'm on my way. See how simple that would be. That could be communicated in maybe what ten seconds. Or simply... Dispatch-to biker, hey you're my only hope on this one but I'll hook it up later. 1070-to base, no problem page it. Wasn't that easy, i don't even have to be the last chance on it but if you lie at least i won't view the situation in a negative light, I'll cringe and bear it knowing if even falsely that in the end it will mean a favorable run, or a morning to sleep in a little later.

....Ahh the glory days of going down with 20 court runs and making 100 bucks in an hour on one loop.

Why?

2008-05-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

The idea of all this comes from a few places. The urge to write strikes me very once in a while, and some people have said that I should put something out there that perhaps people would enjoy. Recently I've been writing a post or two for NO BRAKES . In that format there is only so much that I'm capable of, things have to keep people positively interested in our services, products and events. If I am to write more I realized it had to be in an independent forum.
Recently I've been reading Dispatch 101 and that was a secondary and not all positive motivation for this(no personal animosity intended). Dispatchers and couriers have always had a love hate relationship, and a testament to the skill of the authors abilities he communicates it in such a familiar way that I can almost imagine that my own dispatcher is behind it. I have to resist writing nasty things on his comment board the same way I have to resist coming back on the radio with a 10-4uck-you!

The bicycle courier has had many cartoonish nemesis' in our sordid history, dispatchers, drug dealers trying to run Kevin Bacon over, and the elvators at 600 are just a few. But coming in near the top of the list, and particularly relevant for the last week is the car courier.. Whom we couriers simply call "some driver". Ex. I'm waiting on "some driver" to pick up his package that was all ready late when i got the page. Typical responses upon chirping a driver consist of, what?, where is peachtree?, something spoken in a foreign dialect, I don't know anything about it, where dat?, dead silence, and I'm busy right now. Now I can't fault somebody for being an idiot, or speaking one more language than I can, but your job as a courier is not to be lost, and we are both quite likely busy at any given moment on a monday through friday 9-5 so spare me the attitude. I can also guarantee that I didn't ask to do your job for you. If it was up to me I would never circumvent you as a car driver dealing with all the traffic between you and your destination. Believe me when I say me even talking to you is 100percent at the request of our mutual employers. Not only am I performing my job and on these particular two weeks the job of my fellow bike messenger(he covered for me when I got married so the least I can do is return the favor, congrats matt and valerie!)but now I am also picking up slack for you and your fellow drivers, doing multiple peoples jobs with little hope of actually making any more money(the pitfalls of the guarantee to be covered in later posts). The grumpiness and sloth exhibited by a driver when you pick a package up for them seems even more extreme when in contrast with the speed and urgency of a driver unloading all of their 20 pound packages on you at once with their children in the back and girlfriend/wife/older daughter in the seat next to them. However "inaccessible" a location you were at while trying to get them to come pick up the 50 pound box you grabed for them the day before, they can find you within a minute flat when they need to throw every one of their packages on you and head for the hills to either produce more children or have a nice family dinner at chilli's depending again upon how old that woman in the passenger seat is. They can find you anywhere and instantly make you realize that the whole being lost thing is only a ruse. Occasionally a driver will come along who is competent and can communicate with fluency and ease. A week or so will pass, then dispatch learns of this and makes sure that you are never allowed to speak with them ever again.