Cold And Ice Mean Project Time

Too much ice and cold to get out here this past weekend.

As we hit the backside of Winter I am noticing that we are beginning that cycle up out of the deep freeze. It seems to go this way every year: Cold and windy for a while, (deep Winter) and then we get that first 'thaw'. Then back to cold, but not as bad. Then a little warmer, and then back to cold, but not as bad as the last time. 

Rinse and Repeat. 

So, last week I got out in some nice mid-30's Fahrenheit temps and did a gravel grind. But this past weekend it was brutally cold, windy, and all that melted snow turned into sheets of ice. Now, I do have studded gravel tires, but with wind chills way below zero? Nah! I'll stick to doing some walking outdoors for exercise and puttering around my shop doing projects. 

 Typically I indulge myself with a bicycle overhaul, remake, or build of some sort. Maybe some wheel work. But this new gig at the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective has me in a sort of 'bicycle parts feng shui'. A sprucing up of the old basement Lab area here at G-Ted Headquarters. Weeding out the stuff that is to be scrapped, putting stuff up for sale that is worthwhile to someone to buy, and just, you know.....cleaning up. 

And this has been something that has needed to be done for years. I had a lot of clutter and ill-placed hangers and wheels all over the place. (Well, the wheels are still all over the place!) So, now this space feels a LOT better to me and I am enjoying working down there again.

That's the cleanest this has been in years, but there is more to do.

There was a time not many years ago when the bench you see here was covered to the point that it was unusable. I had waaaaay too much stuff and I have been weeding out things for years here and there. But only this past few weeks has seen a major improvement and during that short time I have finally gotten the swirling mass of parts, tires, and bicycles down to a manageable level. 

So, because things were so embarrassingly out of control for so many years, I never really showed this on my blog. I referenced my "Lab", my makeshift bike shop in my basement, many times before, but I believe this might be the clearest look at it that I have shown before.  

So, a bit of description here. This is in a basement - on one half of the basement, actually- of an old 110+ year old home. It's unfinished, has a cement floor, and cast cement walls, with the first floor's joists overhead. It's not very well lit, but it is better than it has been in years due to the addition of a big LED light bar recently. 

My bench is an 8ft section of a bowling alley lane with a 2 X 4 base I made myself years ago. That bench is NOT going anywhere! You could park a truck on it and it wouldn't be a big deal. The shelving units hold small plastic tubs and these originally held my kids toys in their rooms until they outgrew needing such things. There is a table down at the far end which I am setting up as my guitar amp servicing area.

And here is the other end of that wall with my tool boxes.

Since I have had no use for my own tools at a bicycle shop, as I did up until 2019, I have had to integrate all of those things into my current setting. That meant putting another tool box down there, finding spaces and places for stuff I had outside of my tool box, and then making that all work down in my limited space. 

I have enough tools to open a fully-kitted out bike shop down here. Cutting tools, wheel building stuff, you name it. I probably have it. Some of this is duplicated due to having my own tools in a shop elsewhere for 18 years and then bringing that down to the Lab. So, at some point, I will have to weed out the duplicates and I will probably donate those to the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective. 

And I should mention, I don't have any idea what is duplicated in terms of tools and what is not at this point. I haven't gotten that far, and no- I am not interested in selling any of it. What gets weeded out will be donated. That's not changing. 

But even so, I have need of more tool boxes! Those drawers are- in many cases- stuffed and not really easy to find tools in. At some point I may have to get another box, but I'm in no hurry to do that just yet. 

It isn't much of a place, and I don't have a fancy garage or 'man-cave' deal, but it works for me. I should say- it works better for me now! There was a while there where it didn't work at all! And I haven't shown you everything. There is more. A two-armed Park Tools bike stand, professional grade, and all the tire and wheel storage I do have, plus all the bicycles laying about down in this space. Only a few people have seen the full view. I know MG is one, but that's been years ago now. 

Anyway, all that to say that this is a work in progress and I spent a lot of time down there this past weekend doing more arranging and weeding out of things. I hope you have enjoyed this brief look into the 'inner workings' of Guitar Ted Productions down in 'The Lab'