Some Cool Bike Photos

Genuinely,
Bike Peasant :)

A Purpose Driven Life? It's Like Riding a bike

Created this image today, while waiting for the stain to dry in my work shop tent.  Good analogy as I begin to fill the empty basket and parts arriving Wednesday for the '60's Puch Bergmeister.  Will add another post showing how well that project is turning out.  But today I have been thinking more about riding.

I own four bikes each with its own application.  A touring bike, which is the most versatile and is closest thing to an all rounder that I own  with an extra set of 700x40c tires for trail riding but as I was able to find a Dahon for $40 bucks at a marine supply resale shop I decided to get another bike.  It had a rusted chain, loose headset and a shifter that was seized up and now have that little beauty humming along just fine.  It also turned out to be the bike my step daughters were able to experience riding a bike for the first time on.  With that sentimental value, and folding versatility we decided to keep it.  I added a handle bar basket and use it for the occasional beer errand.   My mountain bike is a piecer put together with this and that of cheap available parts until I found an 80's Diamond Back Ascent EX that was garage kept and hardly ridden.  I wanted the Deore thumbshifters that sell on ebay for near $100 and found myself with an entire Shimano LX component group.  So, decided to keep that as my mountain bike as I now have a close to $300 component set from a bike I paid $60 for.  It is a work in progress as I continue to hone it as an all purpose utility bike to pull a trailer and commute with.  Lastly I have a 1942 Speigel Airman that I keep around as my prized antique single speed coaster brake cruiser. As I mentioned, today I have been thinking of riding.

With these four very different bikes it is only natural that each offers a different ride.  When riding the 20" wheeled Dahon I recall my youth of BMX bikes and flat land tricks, though back then we didn't call it that. So I have built my mountain bike with a very upright riding position which makes it very easy to practice riding an occasional wheelie from time to time and is fun with very wide mountain riser comfort bars.  So playing and innocence go along with riding a bike for me, even when I am cruising my slow steady rhythm on my touring bike and getting a work out.  Riding a bike means different things to different people the way different intentions and experiences shape different rides for the same person.  So each ride might be said to be "purpose driven" but not necessarily even for those pursuing goals that require intense training to reach goals which a person sets for themselves.  So whether I'm riding for fun, fitness, pleasure or adventure, the old saying "it's like riding a bike" is to convey not that it's effortless, but to not worry about it.  Ride your own ride.
Genuinely,
Bike Peasant
p.s.  "Ride your own ride" aptly applies to bike thieves, who don't have a choice, they have to "ride it like they stole it". .  Just needed to vent a bit as the girls bikes were stolen off our back porch. : )

Loss, Love and Bikes

Well, it is a beautiful day.  Weather is friendly and is lending a freshness to our exuberant atmosphere of children eating delicious camp cooked food and festivities.  Bikes are taking a back seat today to the newness and novelty of better things to do. ??? Not really it's just that the mama and kids are busy with their own pursuit of giddy cooperation among themselves and as it appears to be going just fine I was able to catch a moment with my dog and have a short ride with my furry little friend.  Saturdays are good for that.  I don't know what I'm hoping to accomplish by having this blog but it's feeling like a good idea for me to recognize and share the abundance of my new found prosperity and freedom here, the kind that can't be bought and is non negotiable.  Indeed it will be fun to discuss the bike part of this.

Today's events have me reflecting on the wonderful time I had at bike mechanic school.  Personal and professional exchanges were like being a kid at summer camp and preparing for the future without a care in the world. If anyone is looking to invest in a solid foundation for bike repair or maintenance skills visit www.bikeschool.com  My first job right out of bike school was running a local bike shop in a popular tourist destination town in Colorado.  After just two weeks the owner handed me the keys and was on the road doing his traveling salesman gig.  So, I had to learn fast how to keep things going while he would leave for a few weeks at a time.  It seemed to me after the first year or so that I was not being paid enough for what I was doing.  Some customers assumed that I was the owner and some of my co workers would suggest I get my own shop.  Everything was humming along smoothly for the most part until I had some family show up at my home made mountain retreat cabin needing help.  With nowhere else to go and not knowing where to turn my dad and my brother who were not in contact with each other, both showed up in the same life dilemma.

So, with my love of bikes, solid work ethic and excellent customer service skills I headed south to open a family owned and operated business.  It was a unique idea at the time and is now being done in several areas of combining a bike shop with a coffee shop.  Within the first quarter the financial success seemed to affirm my notion that it was a good idea and it was a good idea.  It was just one of those situations where I trusted the wrong people I suppose.  To make a long story short, after two and a half years the shop was going broke and every time I turned around someone was dipping into my pockets.  I had a "til tapper" who would routinely take his beer money from the cash register as he needed.  A merchant account company took hundreds inappropriately from the bank account and the old man was skimming off the top very cleverly.  Bro stole the old man's car (twice) having hit a deer the first time on his way to returning the car.  The second time was permanent.  It's been seven or eight years since the closing of the shop and the two of them still haven't spoken.  My brother ended up homeless and the old man was having sex with the head of the local mental health facility where I had landed after having had a nervous breakdown, FOR REAL.  It didn't help that I leaned on marijuana and hash to help cope and it is very possible if not likely that I smoked some bad stuff.  Anyway,  after a couple years of my crippled being getting some TLC I was able to land a job slamming wal mart quality bikes together with an impact wrench.  Yep, that's how they do that where I worked.  Still, I did manage to learn a thing or two and got some good laughs but it wasn't going to pay the bills. 

Today, I work with my fiance who I met a couple years ago and we have a different type of business.  She runs it and keeps the books.  I stay out of that part knowing how to keep an eye out now for too much mischief.  I am on speaking terms with the old man however in conversation I now see the subtle tell tale red flags of his manipulation.  I was able to see my brother living on the streets in the northwest and wished him well.  We went for a short ride together at his pace which was so slow joggers were passing us.

Yes indeed, good old Lady Poverty has been lending her guiding hand as I have made a gentle return to working with bikes again and finding that I haven't lost all the joy and perhaps I'm slowly retrieving it. As I work on finishing some new projects I look forward to showing them here.
Genuinely,
Bike Peasant