The day has finally come which I can announce my plans for 2020 and beyond as far as local employment. I will be wrenching on bikes for Andy's Bike Shop, but that isn't all. I'll get to it all here in a bit, but first, let me tell you about Andy and why I chose to go this direction.
Andy Tetmeyer is the owner of the shop. I have known Andy for several years now. He used to work at the shop I left in December. We got along well, and to the point that Andy actually was a volunteer for Trans Iowa v12 at Checkpoint #1. Andy is young, ambitious, and wanted to own his own shop. So, he left that old shop and started up a mobile bike shop to start out with called Andy's Mobile Bike Shop. He ran that for a couple of years before making plans to get a "brick and mortar" location. That location is at 100 East 2nd Street, Suite 105, Cedar Falls, Iowa, 50613.
Andy sought me out and made an offer to hire me, but there is a lot more going on than "just being a wrench" here. The second big chunk of news is that Andy's Bike Shop is now the "Official Bike Shop of Riding Gravel". In fact, the shop has been that, in a very discreet way, for a while now. This will open up a lot of opportunities for synergy of things like marketing, merchandise, and social media, podcasts, and the like. Andy and I have a lot of ideas for the future of both the bike shop and Riding Gravel which are exciting. As things get more clear I will share some of that here in the future, other bits will be on the Riding Gravel front.
This blog will remain a separate entity for the future, so don't expect any big changes here. But, as I mentioned before last week, I may be talking a bit more about work here than I did before, so there may be some "bike shop tales" added here and there.
The immediate future will be me doing work at Andy's on a limited basis until the season starts and then things should formulate and Andy and I will work together to see that we both benefit yearly and through all the seasons. It won't be easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is. I am excited though, and this opportunity is one I plan on maximizing to its fullest potential. As I stated, I won't be there much immediately, but when things swing into Spring, and if you happen to be a local, or just swinging through town, please stop in and say "hello".
Andy's Bike Shop can be followed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and You Tube.
13 comments:
Sounds like possibilities are brewing! Enjoy the new adventure.
Congratulations. Downtown Cedar Falls is a great place to be.
Congratulations on the new gig, from a quick Google Maps search it looks like the shop is in a great location near several breweries and eateries. Looking forward to reading about the new adventures.
I was kinda wondering when I saw your recent commute photo!
That is very exciting news! Congrats GT, all the best to you, Andy, and the crew!
Congrats GT! Sounds like a lot of good things on the horizon for you and the shop.
Congrats man! It makes total sense to combine your "real life" shop work and Riding Gravel web work a bit more. One of those situations where the "whole" is more than just the sum of it's parts! I will be sure to stop by the next time I am in town or just heading through.
PS - the Buffalo Sabres have their radio hosts do a daily show from an open studio inside the Sabres Store at the Key Bank Center. I always thought that was a cool way to connect back to the public. I know that empty space at a bike shop is an almost impossible quantity, but how cool would it be to have the Riding Gravel podcast recorded direct from RG HQ??!? Where the wrenches meet the road! Haha...
I'm so stoked for you and Andy! I know you'll make a great team.
Cheers, Brother!!
THANKS EVERYONE!
I appreciate the comments, as always.
Bike Shop Tales... That brings back some memories. :)
Congrats and good luck!
Awesome news, brother!
@WizGnomad- Thank you, Brother! Much love to you from Iowa!
SO glad that everything fell into place for you. Once you work in a shop environment it's very hard to return to an "on the outside looking in" situation. Roll on, spring!
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