Three Decades Ago

Advantage Cyclery, October 1996

Thirty years ago I was looking into a Winter of uncertainty. The bicycle shop, where I learned how to be a bicycle mechanic, was obviously going to cease to exist soon. I had only been there since late 1993, and that after being let go from a decade long career in the jewelry business. 

I had been divorced the year before, and I was alone, I had no good leads on a new job, and it wasn't like I could move and get a new bike shop gig, because I was in the midst of buying a house. 

On top of it all, my truck was out of commission with a broken transfer case and my old station wagon wasn't running either. I was borrowing the shop's van to get to work and back at the time, or riding my bike on nicer days. 

The shop's owner was MIA. He felt so bad about things he couldn't face me anymore. I literally spent the last three plus months working there six days a week with no one else to tell me what to do. It was a very dark time in my life and I am thankful I was pulled through it all. 

God is good, and I was leaning on Him hard. I sure do not ever want to experience those kinds of days again. I never felt so badly as I did that Winter. 

Anyway, no apologies for the dark tone of today's post. Just was reminded of this as it has been 30 years now since those times. Things got a lot better after this, but it wasn't easy. Don't forget that there are folks all around us struggling. A smile, a kind word, anything positive could be all it takes to keep someone rolling through the valleys. 

Negativity abounds these days. Be different. Be a human being that cares. 

My fate turned when a former bike shop mechanic came in Advantage Cyclery late in January of 1997 and told me about a job opening at a car repair shop. He didn't have to do that. He barely knew me. But he did it, and that is what mattered. 

 I got the job. I then worked there for five and half years, was able to pay off the house, and I got a good, reliable car within months of working there that was such a screaming deal I couldn't believe it. 

All it takes is one person sometimes to turn a life around. 

Thanks Vance! I'll never forget what you did for me. 

Two Things

A collection of oddball things from 1994

When I Die, So Will This Knowledge:

My mechanic friend, Ari, and I were discussing the techniques, tricks, and wisdom gained in the trade all the years we've been at this. Ari said to me, "(Do) you realize how much crap we know?!!!"

Things like which parts go with certain set ups. Take for instance the image here. A 1" steer tube, a cable hangar, and a threadless head set. What does this tell you? 

It tells me this is a super-rare set up. You see, 1" threadless steer tubes lasted about two years in the industry because threadless (1994) came in just as 1 1/8th was on the rise. Also, cantilever brakes were on the outs in 1996, as linear pull took over, so cable hangars for any sort of threadless steer tube were hard to find ten years on. This means that Ritchey cable hangar is a super-rare part. The stem isn't far off either. 

And check out those "lugs". It was a Bianchi thing. They claimed an ability to make any lug with any angle, a thing unheard of with investment cast lugs. Bianchi could do this because they TIG welded the lugs first to either the head tube or the bottom bracket shell. Then the lug was brass brazed to a frame tube, like a traditional lug, which Bianchi claimed gave the frame better vibration damping qualities. They had a name for this - "Super Lug". Yeah.....I know some pretty oddball factoids. 

I was trying to teach my assistant at the Collective how to set up a traditional cantilever brake with the straddle wire and cable carrier. He's well versed in linear pull brake set up but this was giving him fits. I told him, "Yeah, it's a pain in the ass but you have to just take your time to learn it." 

Today, we look for an app, a way to electronically adjust our, whatever, and if this isn't working right we throw a fit. We are helpless and stuck with no options. Well, it wasn't like this always. Mechanics could find a way. But as we make everything a device, we take away the ability to field service, or even service an item at all. 

And who knows how to fix that old stuff anyway. Answer: When I die, there will be one less person who does know how. 

I Used To Do That?!

Related to the bike above, which was donated to the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective late last year, is this bike sticker which was on it. I removed it for a reason. 

See, I designed the biker in the logo. 

I had forgotten I had done that. Long ago, before I even worked at Advantage Cyclery, I was a jeweler and where I worked we did all of our own design work. Not just jewelry, but advertising, logos, and we occasionally did work for other clients. Tom, who ran and owned Advantage Cyclery, found out I did this sort of work and suggested I give this idea he had for a logo a try. What you see on the sticker is what I drew up for him. 

It's no big deal. Just a logo for a long-forgotten Cedar Valley bicycle shop. But when I saw it, I was reminded of the days when I was spending time doing tons of design work. It was fun. Challenging, but fun. It is nice to be reminded that I did something cool one time. 

Ha!  

Two Things

Don't Bring Me Down: 

I received an email newsletter from an Iowa bike retailer recently and was not at all surprised to see deep discounts on leftover bicycles. I also was not at all surprised to see the labor packages being discounted for the off-season. 

I always found discounting of labor in the bicycle industry to be offensive as a mechanic. How can you devalue what a bicycle mechanic does just because it is a slower time of the year? Do auto mechanics have this done to them when times are slower? How about a plumber? I really doubt you'll find many businesses featuring skilled laborers having discounts on labor just because the business is slow for a month or three. If I am wrong, let me know in the comments. 

I do know one thing - When a business discounts something every year, consumers catch on that whatever you are discounting is not worth the original asking price, at least in their minds. Why would they think otherwise? Then think about how this discounting has been going on for labor in bike shops for decades, and maybe it makes more sense when my argument is considered. 

But there is also another issue going on simultaneously. There are mechanics, and then there are hacks. Too many times bicycle shops run through mechanics like water. Young men and women who never were trained properly, if at all, are working and learning "on the job", which doesn't work out well in the end. Obviously, discounting their labor is maybe, on the surface of it,  seemingly more palatable. But business owners shouldn't be allowing poorly trained people to touch wrenches in their shop. So, yeah..... I saw this a lot going through the years as well. 

Anyway, discounting labor in the bicycle repair trade is a bad practice all around. 

Cycling Media And Why I Keep Commenting On It:

I know several of you may grow weary of my seemingly always negative comments on mainstream cycling media. I thought after seeing another poorly researched piece on gravel cycling I might take a stab at explaining why I do this and why it is important. 

It isn't a new problem, but misguided takes and poorly researched statements concerning gravel cycling are very irritating to me. Why? because a lie, or half-truth, told often enough, becomes "truth". Take for instance the Unbound gravel event. There will have been 20 consecutive years of gravel events held out of Emporia Kansas next June when they fire the starting gun for Life Time Events Unbound Gravel.  Whether or not you feel Unbound is/was Dirty Kanza 200 or not, this string of events is remarkable, and currently highlighted by Life Time Events in its lottery registration. 

So, why would anyone writing about "top stories in gravel for 2025" be so lame as to say in a recently published piece"..... the free-wheeling domain of gravel and off-road races, which was born more than a decade ago..."? See, here is where things get murky because someone writing an article did not write clearly. Most people will read this as "gravel racing started a decade ago" and move on. But obviously, this is not true. 

Trivial? Maybe, maybe not. I was speaking with the director of a very well-known populist gravel event the other day who told me he has heard from several younger Pro racers who think gravel racing started around 2018. It is a thing, in my opinion, due to how mainstream cycling media tells the story of gravel. 

The entire populist foundation for Pro gravel, the very groups of people Gravel™ was founded upon, is largely ignored and so the story of "where this came from" is completely ignored in many cases. I'm not advocating for myself here, because I understand I am a very small part of the underpinnings of what Gravel™ is today. But unless some people stand up and point to why these young Pros can bank out on gravel today, no one will know, or have the ability to care about those stories and people. I, for one, do not feel this is right, and I am trying to do something about it, along with a few other folks. (Stay tuned on this front) 

This is why I comment on this subject so much. I'm not going to stop, because I care. If this offends you, well maybe this blog is not for you. 

Thanks for reading.  

Bike Shop Tales: Times Are A Changin'

Fully-stocked bike shops may become a thing of the past.

The other day down at the Collective I had an interesting conversation with a man who donated a bicycle to the organization. After chatting about his bicycle, he mentioned a local shop and how he had a "bad experience" (his words), and wasn't ever going back again.

Unfortunately, I hear this more and more, and not all specifically tied to one shop, but across all the shops in our area, to be honest.

The stories are similar: No good selection of wanted items, or none at all. Poor customer service. Poor outcomes with mechanics. It is a sad state of affairs, and things do not seem to be getting better.

Now, I don't know if this is something seen in other areas, (you, dear reader, can chime in on this in the comments if you'd like.), but I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that this isn't just an Eastern Iowa thing.

So, what is going on here? Well, from my own personal viewpoint, I can say a few things. First, getting good help has been a perennial problem with local bicycle shops. Low pay due to low charges for labor to customers makes holding on to even the decent mechanics and sales people really difficult. This has been going on in shops for decades, yet no one can seem to crack that nut to get to a place where bicycle mechanics and sales floor help can be paid enough to stick around, and be worth putting teaching resources in to.

A pumpkin I carved at work in 1996.

I was apprenticed under a very smart, patient owner of a bicycle shop starting in 1993. Most shop owners were not like this man, and many are not able to hold a mechanic's hand to get through all the little things a seasoned mechanic should know. I was very, very fortunate to have had my career in bicycles start off with this mentor.

Now, I would have loved to have mentored other mechanics, but my owner during the majority of my mechanic career was not interested in paying me to do this. It was assumed I would do this out of charity. Amazing....

So, in our area I have noted a dearth of any "good" young mechanics. I have seen a similar noticing of a lack of good young mechanics elsewhere. In my opinion, it is not because younger folks do not want to work. I would say, again, in my view, that a lack of opportunities is more to blame, and the bicycle industry bears the brunt of this blame.

Finding knowledgeable sales people falls into a similar  pattern. All of this leads to poor customer experiences. Of course, there are exceptions, but we needn't go over all of that here. Those examples are going to become fewer and further between. They already have.

So, the young man I spoke with at the Collective, a bicycle enthusiast in the making, by the sounds of it, has taken matters into his own hands. He told me he can get pretty much whatever he wants with his smart phone, have it shipped to him, and use You Tube videos to learn how to repair and adjust his bicycle. Okay, so maybe he won't get things quite right, but he can blame himself and try again. He's learning a new skill, and eventually he'll likely get it "good enough" that a bike shop won't be in his future. And I think he's aiming for exactly this.

Compound this sort of thing with youth who visit me at the Collective asking for electrified bicycles and scooters. I show them the 100% human powered bicycles we have at really affordable prices, but these things are not what they want.

Again, these are just my experiences, but I'd be willing to put money down to say this is something more common than we think.

And the future of bicycle shops hangs in the balance...... 

Two Things: Pack Fodder

 The Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame announcement will happen at 9:00am CST today, January 27th. I usually have something up for my readers in the morning, and I have not forgotten about you. Thank you for reading this blog, by the way. 

So, to get you early-birds satisfied I have a "pack fodder" version of my ongoing "Two Things" posts for you to check out. And do come back to read my announcement/commentary on the GCHoF announcement. I've got a bit of a spicy take on it all. I think you might find it interesting. Thanks and enjoy! 

Weird. I'd never seen anything like it before.

Holey Bolt:

When I was a little shaver, maybe seven or eight years old, my parents would buy me these Converse basketball shoe knock-offs from K-Mart. They almost always blew out along the edges where my foot bent and sometimes in other places. I went through a pair or two every Summer. 

My Grandpa saw me wearing these once when I was with my folks visiting his farm. He looked at me and casually said, "So, those must be the shoes you wear to church, eh?" And I looked at him funny, thinking he was crazy to think this, and replied, "No! These have holes in them, Grandpa!". 

He would reply, "Right. They are "holey", so you wear them to church!"

Ahem.....Anyway. The bolts in the image here came off a Dura Ace crank from the early 1970's, and while you might never see it in a church, only one of this pair is "holey". I get it. Someone was trying to save weight. By the way, I don't know which side the one with the hole was on. I would guess the non-drive side. And no- It wasn't drilled after manufacturing. It was machined this way from the get-go, from what I can tell. The hole goes all the way through, by the way.

If you've ever seen a set of crank bolts like these, give me a shout out in the comments. I'd love to learn more about this. 

Image courtesy of RAGBRAI

The Hordes Of Cyclists Are Coming!

Word came out this past weekend that RAGBRAI is coming through Cedar Falls, Iowa on its 52nd annual ride. If you do not know about RAGBRAI (Where have you been hiding?), it is the world's largest recreational week long cycling ride. Tens of thousands will take to the county roads and village streets to cross the state of Iowa in seven days during the last full week of July. 

Cedar Falls is the adjacent and attached town to Waterloo, so I expect that this announcement will have some bearing on us at the Collective. I say that because in the past, whenever RAGBRAI came through here, people would be looking for cheap options to go for a day or two and hang with the RAGBRAI crowd. I'm ready as I have a lot of road bikes we can scarcely give away in the shop. I would love nothing more than to have RAGBRAI-curious folks wipe us out of that inventory. 

But I also know that things aren't too cheery or on the upswing economically, and although we have crazy low pricing on our bikes, even that may not convince those folks that are curious about this ride to jump in and buy a bike. That is if there even is a demand. We will see. 

I do know that since the Collective does not offer a retail repair service that I won't have to deal with last minute non-sense concerning this event like I used to. That's something I don't miss at all.

Remember to check back in today after 9:00am CST for the GCHoF announcement and commentary. 

Friday News And Views

Will Holidays Prop Up Bicycle Industry's Season?

Sluggish sales in many categories have plagued the cycling industry all of 2024. So-called "Black Friday" sales offers and discounts have been piling up in this writer's inbox the entire month of November. I've even seen discounts on already discounted bikes! Deep discounts are tempting, but many seem to be reticent to let go of those funds in their accounts. 

Further muddying the waters are the results of the recent national election which many fear will increase costs to consumers of cycling goods by way of proposed tariffs. Seeing as how most of the stuff cyclists want and consume come from foreign manufacturers, this seems to be a reasonable fear for the cycling consumer. 

Since many consumers are already saying prices are too high, it would seem that any actions taken by the government which would end up increasing the costs of foreign made goods would only further erode consumer's motivations to buy in 2025. Of course, nothing has happened yet, and it may not happen, in regard to the proposed government actions on tariffs. So, we will just have to wait until 2025 and see what really happens. 

In the meantime, are you considering buying now instead of later due to this fear of tariff action? Respond in the comments if you care to sound off.

Trek Lime ...Or Is It Lemon?:

In the late 2000's Shimano introduced a three speed internal geared hub which was shifted by a control box electronically. The power to make this work was from a generator hub in the front wheel. The rider only had to pedal and when certain speeds were met the shifter control box would make a gearing change by way of a servo motor than pulled a short length of cable to work the hub gears. 

The system had one of Shimano's roller brakes for stopping power. The design also incorporated several visual cues, the most obvious being big, shiny spherical covers over the axles. Shimano marketed it as a group for everyday cycling and for fun. They called it "Coasting". While several companies may have bought into this idea, I only ever saw Treks and Raleighs that were outfitted with the group. 

Recently a Trek Lime with this Coasting set up was donated to the Collective. I noted that it was not shifting. So, as a guitar player I am thinking, "Check all the electronic connections first!", because it is something which can easily be addressed and usually is the issue. Okay, the front generator connector was simple to check. But not so for the shifting mechanism. The shifter box has a cover which has two small Phillips type fasteners, one on each side. Trek put the shifter box under the bike and slightly behind the bottom bracket. They also designed a chain case for this model. The chain case is held on by the flange of the bottom bracket cartridge, and guess what I had to do to access that inner screw on the control box.....

My finger is pointing to where the screw is under the chain case. Had Trek designers just given a bit of access to allow for removal of the shifter box cover, "all I would have had to do" was remove the outer part of the chain case and the crank arm, but noooooo! You have to take the bottom bracket and left crank arm off as well. 

Dumb! 

By the way, the connection was fine. It turns out that the shift point adjustment screw can be adjusted so the bike will not shift. 

Also dumb.

I won't mention the absolutely fantastic rear wheel retention system which utilizes eight fasteners you must remove to get the wheel out to fix a flat tire. Yeah..... This isn't a Lime, it is a lemon! But it works now, so.....

Unbound Announces Qualifying Events :

Last week Unbound sent out a press release showing the qualifying events for a spot in Unbound Gravel events in 2025, 2026, and 2027. Those events that will be a part of the qualifying for Unbound Gravel are as follows:

- April 11, 2025: Life Time Sea Otter Classic Gravel (90 mile) in Monterey, California
- July 12, 2025: Life Time Crusher in the Tushar (70 mile) in Beaver, Utah
- August 10, 2025: Heathland Gravel (100 mile) in Lindburg, Belgium
- September 27, 2025: Life Time Rad Dirt Fest (70 mile and 110 mile) in Trinidad,
Colorado
- October 18, 2025: Life Time Big Sugar Gravel (100 mile) in Bentonville, Arkansas

How it works: Each event will have 50 spots up for grabs. Half of those will go to the top finishers in each category of the event in question. Then the other half of available entries will go to winners of a random draw from a pool of the race's competitors. Winners of entries will be guaranteed a spot on the roster of the Unbound Gravel event that follows the event in question on the calendar. So, as an example, if you won an entry in the 2025 Heathland Gravel event you would be getting a guaranteed entry to the 2026 Unbound Gravel event. 

According to my source at Unbound Gravel this system will carry through at least until the 2026 qualifier events have been held. So the 2027 Unbound Gravel event would be the final event that would carry on with winners of these qualifiers in this format unless things get renewed/changed. 

Comments: This is not "Earth shattering" news by any stretch, but the time stamp for the format is an interesting tidbit. Without saying so, this would indicate to me that Unbound Gravel has no plans currently to become a UCI affiliated gravel event. And from what we already know, it could not carry on as the event is currently formatted if it were a UCI sanctioned event for many reasons, not the least of which is that Unbound's premier distance is about 75 miles too long for the UCI's tastes. 

With the prestige which Unbound holds in gravel cycling's professional ranks, and the allure which it has for the under-classes, the current formatting of Unbound seems prudent to continue. It would appear that will be the case for at least a few years.

Image by Ben Witt

New Teravail MTB Tire Soon?:

Ben Witt of Heath Creek Cycles showed off his new Sklar mountain bike recently on social media. It was noted that the tires are Teravail "Prototype" tires. When a commenter asked Ben about these his reply was that there would be more information coming soon. 

Comments: There are not a lot of "new" 29"er tires coming out anymore because we've had a solid 20 years of development in the size and most "good" tread designs have already been done and copied several times by this point. 

So, it will be interesting to read about what will set this aggressive appearing 29"er tire apart from the crowded MTB tire market. I'm sure there are some interesting details, but from what I can see of the tread design, it doesn't seem that radical or innovative. 

Cropped from an image by Ben Witt

I will say that these Sklar bikes look really cool. Ben is selling them through his Heath Creek Cycles shop and you can check out this bike you see there at Heat Creek Cycles. 

The danger for me would be that I happen to know that Ben sets his bikes up almost to the gnat's eyebrow to how I would, so this bike you see would most definitely fit me as it sits. But don't dismay if you are not a size Large person because Ben has some other Sklars in the shop as well as his being able to order you one if you'd like. 

Interesting note: The 'tall bike' Ben had at Mid-South was built by Sklar but is not a "Sklar Bikes" frame. I know.....weird. But it seemed pretty dialed in and it looked great, so I can only imagine how well these real Sklars are to behold and ride. 

PSA: The Blog Is About To Go Chaotic!

Next week will be double posted almost everyday. This will be due to the addition of the Virtual Turkey Burn Ride Reports, some breaking news on Tuesday, and regular end-of-year stuff I have to squeeze in as well.

This means you probably will need to scroll down the page to make sure that you do not miss anything. You may need two cups of coffee and toast to get through it all. You may roll your eyes and click off to go to another site. 

I don't know, but this message is to let you know one last time that there will be a LOT of content from here on out. So hold on and get comfortable, because things are about to go nuts here!

That's all for this "black Friday" edition of the FN&V. Get out there and burn off a few calories by riding a bicycle this weekend. Thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions!

Twenty-Nineteen

 In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy!

I was digging through the archives and realized that it has been five years since I walked out of Europa Cycle and Ski for the last time. Well.......not exactly five years. That'll happen on December 20th, but close enough for rock and roll, right? 

So, there's a story that I haven't told that really affected things here. That was how I was on pins and needles all year of 2019 figuring out my "exit strategy" for my job at the time. I'd been there for seventeen years, so it was both gut-wrenching, anxiety inducing, and exciting all at the same time. I had to plan when I would be taking things home, like spare tools. I had some Trans Iowa artwork there that I had to go in and take down, which I tried to do when the old owner wasn't there to avoid any discourse about "what I was up to" with him. He didn't need to know anyway as he was essentially being forced to quit due to poor financial status. (I do know this as the owner foolishly told us remaining employees these things.) We knew we were going out of business at some point by the end of 2018. So, that is why this was drug out so long.

I guess it was better than thinking everything was hunky-dory and coming in and having the ax fall. Although I've experienced it that way back in 1993 as well. That's another story....

Plus, it would mark the second year in a row that I would be stepping away from something that was a mainstay in my life for well over a decade. The other thing was ending Trans Iowa in 2018. So, this two year stretch had a fair amount of "suck" going on in the background. 

2019 also marked the first and only C.O.G. 100 event. The last I ever put on.

What a lot of you don't know is that in November of 2019, just five years ago, I saw my mother for the last time. She was suffering from Alzheimer's and was in the tail end of that. She was brought into the shop by chance one of the rare days I was scheduled to work that month. I think I may have worked three days in November. Anyway, because she lived an hour away from me, it was a minor miracle that I even got to see her, although she did not know who I was. 

Then COVID hit and in 2021 she dies. So, due to that and other complications, I never got to see her again after the visit in November of 2019. It was a big blow to me, obviously, and it is why from 2019, into 2020, and afterward, you may have noted a change in tone on the blog here. Well, if you did, the experiences of 2019 had a big influence on me. Losing a job, a vocation, and your mother will do that. 

On the bright side, I was promised a bicycle mechanic job at a new shop which was to kick in on March 1st of the following year. 

And of course, we all know what happened in March of 2020.

Yeah, that was a brutal stretch. Certainly, keeping up the blog throughout all of that was not easy. I kind of hate to even report any of these previous things, but it isn't as though these things did not happen and that they did not affect me and this blog. They did. Hopefully you didn't notice......

Two Things

Last delivery of the year.

 Community Service:

This "Two Things" has a common thread. That being the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective where I work these days. 

Last week I delivered the last supplies for the year from our vendor who had my order dropped shipped to the local UPS Store, which is several miles away from the shop. 

While I haven't been there in a few months, the UPS Store employees have gotten to know me and I would wager that is due to my chosen mode of transportation. There probably are not too many cargo bike riders going there to make a pick-up. I always get the side-eye glances and I'm sure many folks think I'm 'stupid' or worse. Once in awhile I get a compliment, and I did on this last run of 2024.

A middle-aged looking lady, who did not look at all like a typical cyclist, saw me run my boxes out and said, "I wondered who had the cargo bike. Cool bike!" I thanked her and went on my way. As I lashed the boxes to the bike, I thought about how rare that interaction is likely to be in Waterloo, Iowa and I smiled as I savored that one. I bet it will be awhile before I hear anything like that again. 

Usually, if anyone dares to say anything, it is more like, "Are you sure that bike can handle that?", or "Ya need a motor on that thing!". When that happens I just smile and nod politely while I'm doing my 'internal eye roll' and thinking that these folks would probably be amazed by eBikes.

Last Thursday I had to hoof it down to the Collective by 7:15 am to let in a group of six John Deere engineers who were volunteering through a program John Deere encourages their employees to get involved in. John Deere wants their employees to volunteer at non-profit organizations that benefit their local community. So, since the Collective is a non-profit, we qualify to host some of the employees throughout the year to help us do our work. 

Typically this is a "tear-down day" where I have the volunteers take bikes down to bare frames and forks. The parts are then sorted into bins and later on I sort those and save what we need to use as a source for rebuilding donated bikes, and in a secondary need, as parts for people trying to build up used bikes that cannot afford bike shop's new part prices. 

I hosted six fellows and in four hours they tore down around 30 bikes and several wheels as well. That'll keep me busy for quite some time! But this program helps us out tremendously at the Collective with being able to process bikes through more efficiently and allows us to continue to help needy people in the community with transportation needs, as well as helping with kid's programs and educational programs. 

Late 1980's vintage Shimano bottom bracket

Old Technology Rears Its Head:

Another thing that happens at the Collective from time to time is what I call "a blast from the past". Something on a bicycle that gets donated that I once knew about but had forgotten until it shows up in the Collective. 

One such thing occurred last week when my co-worker Carl was puzzled by an odd looking bottom bracket in a bicycle he was working on. It looked like a typical cartridge bottom bracket but the plastic cup was on the wrong side. I didn't even have to look at it to know what this was going to be. I was instantly reminded of early Shimano cartridge bottom brackets. 

Now, I may be wrong, but I think these were Shimano's first efforts at a cartridge bottom bracket. At least in the form-factor we know them as today. The main difference being that the steel cup which was attached to the cartridge was on the non-drive side instead of the drive side, which only lasted for a short time before Shimano flip-flopped the cups to what we all know today.  

Also back then, these were adjustable and rebuildable cartridge bottom brackets. I assume Shimano did this to appease the "old ways" and sway mechanics into accepting these new designs. Again, it did not take long for Shimano to abandon this first version of the cartridge bottom bracket for their well known sealed, non-serviceable type. 

I pulled the rubber seal off one end of this bottom bracket to show the ball bearings. The non-drive side has an actual jamb nut and adjusting nut set up, much like a wheel might have, in classic Shimano style. I actually have a Park tool to adjust these with that has followed me to every stop along my mechanic journey since my first shop job in 1993. 

By the way, as I recall, these bottom brackets were already out of the catalog by the time I started wrenching. So, those drive side, left hand threaded plastic cups were like gold! I saved every one I could because they were the weak link in those early cartridge bottom brackets as they were prone to breaking under high-stress pedaling. 

Anyway, it was fun to come across one of those old dinosaurs. Of course, I saved it. I plan on trying to service it later this Winter.

Thirty Years Later: A Perspective

An ancient Poloroid from 1996

My first gig as a bicycle mechanic started in late 1993, but it almost never happened. I noted that it was 30 years ago this month when something that I thought was terrible at the time happened to me. 

At the time, I had been working as a salesman/bench jeweler/designer for a local jeweler for about a decade already. I had gone through gemology school, was a second place finisher in a state-wide design contest, and I was the top salesperson in a three-store chain. Things were looking good, career-wise, and while I wasn't pulling down crazy money doing this jewelry job, I was making a decent living. I had no worries. 

But that all ended one day when I came into work in November 1993. A partner in the business, who was also an owner of a jewelry store in another city, but not directly affiliated with where I worked, had a love interest in my boss, and was jealous of all the time I spent with my boss. So, I was fired. 

And there ya go. I had no job for the first time since I was in the fifth grade. I was about 32 years old at this point, by the way. I was devastated. I had no idea what to do, but going on unemployment was where I ended up immediately afterward. 

Part of that entailed having to "look for work" so I could claim benefits to keep myself afloat until I figured out what to do. I had to turn in evidence of three applications for jobs every week. I was into cycling then, so I used my local bike shop, where I had purchased my 1992 Klein Attitude, as a reference. 

Since I didn't really have anything to do, I would stop by the bike shop last, and then I'd hang out until they closed. Finally, the owner sidled up to me one day and proposed that I might be able to get a job there, but it wouldn't be at the pay scale I was used to. I jumped on that immediately.

The rest, as they say, was history. I became an apprentice of the owner, learned a lot, and well, you probably can figure out some of the rest now. But if it hadn't been for a weird jealousy that motivated a firing, I might not be sitting here writing this blog post. 

And that whole ordeal turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me. Obviously, at the point when I was fired, you'd have been hard-pressed to convince me of that! But now? Yeah.... I'm very happy it all went down the way that it did.

Local News

Recent recycling haul

Well, I figured that it was time for an update on what is going on with my "day job", such as it is, down at the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective. I work there at that non-profit business three days a week, but it is a pretty fulfilling three days every week.

We essentially are doing service for the community, keeping bicycles out of the landfill, recycling what we can into good, used bikes for sale, and doing clinics/education type things. It is a far different gig than I've had in years.

I guess one of the most amazing things to me are the people who get bicycles from us, or donate them to us for recycling or refurbishment. Almost to a person, they are gracious, kind, and complimentary to a fault. I wrote that story about Bob recently, you might remember that, and he's just one of many stories I could share about the collective, really. It's nothing at all like retail bicycle shop experiences that I have had in the past. 

Then there is the recycling part. It is beyond crazy how many bicycles are just moldering away out there in garages, barns, sheds, and basements. I mean, we hauled away 900+ pounds of bicycle scrap to the recyclers last week alone with almost all of that having come through the doors in two weeks time. I'm sure we've hauled off around 5,000+ pounds of scrap this year since I've started. And you know we aren't even scratching the surface around here. Imagine what is laying around in a big urban area. It boggles the mind.....

Anyway, I'm still chugging along with the job and it has been rewarding. Not financially speaking, (although I am getting paid, mind you), but more so in terms of peace of mind, fulfillment, and in terms of just being very satisfied in that what I am doing is being accepted with a huge amount of gratitude. I couldn't say that about previous employment. 

I really have a hard time imagining why I would ever want to go back to traditional retail bicycle work at this point.
 

Local News

Recent recycling haul

Well, I figured that it was time for an update on what is going on with my "day job", such as it is, down at the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective. I work there at that non-profit business three days a week, but it is a pretty fulfilling three days every week.

We essentially are doing service for the community, keeping bicycles out of the landfill, recycling what we can into good, used bikes for sale, and doing clinics/education type things. It is a far different gig than I've had in years.

I guess one of the most amazing things to me are the people who get bicycles from us, or donate them to us for recycling or refurbishment. Almost to a person, they are gracious, kind, and complimentary to a fault. I wrote that story about Bob recently, you might remember that, and he's just one of many stories I could share about the collective, really. It's nothing at all like retail bicycle shop experiences that I have had in the past. 

Then there is the recycling part. It is beyond crazy how many bicycles are just moldering away out there in garages, barns, sheds, and basements. I mean, we hauled away 900+ pounds of bicycle scrap to the recyclers last week alone with almost all of that having come through the doors in two weeks time. I'm sure we've hauled off around 5,000+ pounds of scrap this year since I've started. And you know we aren't even scratching the surface around here. Imagine what is laying around in a big urban area. It boggles the mind.....

Anyway, I'm still chugging along with the job and it has been rewarding. Not financially speaking, (although I am getting paid, mind you), but more so in terms of peace of mind, fulfillment, and in terms of just being very satisfied in that what I am doing is being accepted with a huge amount of gratitude. I couldn't say that about previous employment. 

I really have a hard time imagining why I would ever want to go back to traditional retail bicycle work at this point.
 

An Unsung Hero

Hauling some of the parts Bob donated to the Collective.

 I had an experience the other day that started out with a crumpled, handwritten note that had been shoved through the door at the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective. N.Y. Roll, who is a board member there, found it when he stopped off there for some reason and he stuck it on my bench at the shop where I would find it. 

The author of the note, a Bob Beecher, of Waterloo, Iowa, had scribbled down a long list of bits and pieces of bicycles he had and wanted to donate to the Collective. I was somewhat interested, but not knowing anything about what specifically he had, I was not in a big hurry to get to that note and its author. But I did call, and Bob was eager to have me help him get these things out of his residence.

That's when I set up a time to meet him on a Sunny, early Fall day. Bob lives in an older home in a somewhat industrial area of Waterloo, tucked away in a corner, if you will. In fact, I hadn't even considered there might be homes in this nook of Waterloo. But, there were, and there was Bob's home as I pulled up in my old pick-up truck. Bob was already outside before I could get out of my seat. 

Bob is a thin, pale figure of a man with a scruffy white beard and a somewhat vagabond look about him. I pegged him to be in his late 60's, (he is actually 73 years old), and he looked to be in good health. He smiled and greeted me warmly and pointed with a long, bony, white finger to a pile of boxes and bags on his front steps. That was the stash of parts he was willing to donate for now. He said he was keeping some back to "...fix up my own stuff".  

While it did not take long to load up all the stuff Bob was donating, I was surprised by the sheer volume of things he was giving the Collective. This was no ordinary man's parts bin contents. There was a box of saddles of various types, several peanut butter jars full of fasteners, each jar neatly labelled with a tag as to its contents. There were components and tools, and even a couple of books on bicycle repair. This smacked of a story beyond that of a cycling nerd who did his own service work. 

Bob himself filled in a lot of the blanks as we conversed over the course of 45 minutes or so. He was ready to talk, and I had the time, so I politely listened to his tales. Bob was the son of a local business owner, and he worked at the business for much of his life, only a few blocks away from his home. He was quite proud of the fact that he had no cable service, no cell phone, and did not have internet service at his home. Bob is a modern day enigma. A throwback to analog times. 

His story went on. Bob told me about how he fixed bicycles after his shift at his father's business for the neighborhood children. They sometimes would be waiting for him. Sometimes in a line five or six deep. Over the years, Bob had built up relationships with many youngsters that would grow up and call to him whenever they passed through and saw him in later years. Bob had trouble remembering some of them. But one fellow he did have a special memory of.

I won't give his name, because of the circumstances this man finds himself in now, but when this man was a youngster in Bob's neighborhood, he would show up and he apparently had an innate skill with tools. Bob explained to me, as he spoke in an excited tone, that this kid didn't need any directions, he somehow just figured out how to do mechanical things. Bob said he would show up everyday for weeks on end wanting to help Bob fix bicycles. 

Bob was getting a bit annoyed by the eager young chap. Bob was bothered by the constant questions, the ever present appearance of this kid at his doorstep, and he grew tired of him. Bob said he had geared himself up to ask the youth to not come by as often, but just when he was about to tell the youngster to back-off, this kid spoke something that took Bob by surprise. He told Bob that, "This is the only place I feel safe". Well, Bob's attitude toward the young man changed in an instant. 

Bob did a little asking around, He found out that the youngster's mother was the only parent, and that her children had to fend for themselves often due to the mother's prostitution and drug use. Bob was concerned, but before he could come up with a plan to possibly mentor the kid, the mother took the children and moved away. Later on, Bob explained in a somber tone of voice, the young man grew up, got into trouble, and spent time in a Federal prison. Bob expressed some regret at that outcome, thinking he missed a chance there. 

Anyway, after a bit of contemplative silence, Bob carried on. He had been hit hard by the changes made at a local relief organization where he had volunteered since quitting his regular job. There he had serviced the donated bicycles the organization would get. However; new management came in and changed the structure of the organization to where they did not accept donations any longer, meaning that they had no further use for Bob and his mechanical  talents. 

This happened right before the pandemic. Bob had already slipped into a depression due to his circumstances, and the pandemic lengthened that period for him until recently. Bob explained to me that he just kind of snapped out of it, for whatever reason, he could not say. Then it was that he knew that his bicycle repair days were over. That resulted in the note, and that resulted in my visit. 

There was just one thing I had to know before I left. I know most every bicycle mechanic that has wrenched in the area for the past 30-40 years, but I'd never heard a peep about this man who had been keeping the bicycles of many kids rolling for 35+ years on Waterloo's North side. Where Bob came from I now knew, but I did not know what sparked the interest. How did he get into fixing bikes for other people? 

Bob said that one day, almost 40 years ago now, he was maintaining his racing bike he bought from his brother, a Teledyne Titan titanium bike, and a kid rolled up to him and asked a question. "Do you know how to fix bikes?", the tyke asked. Bob said he replied, "Well, I know how to fix THIS bike. Why?" And the kid said, "Well, can you fix my bike?", and that's all it took. Apparently, this kid, as Bob said with a twinkle in his pale blue eyes, "had a big mouth", and apparently the word got out in the neighborhood. Bob said he used to charge for his services, but then he realized that most of the kids he helped had disadvantaged home lives and that he could do more good just by helping to keep kids rolling. So, he quit charging money to help out with bicycle repairs. 

I was a bit taken aback, and I couldn't believe that such a story of good character and benevolence was hidden right under our noses here. It just did not seem right to me that Bob's story should go unnoticed. so, I am doing what little I can and posting it here. We could all take a cue or two from Bob's life, and I hope you don't mind my sharing this here today. 

I know I'll remember him every time I handle one of those nicely labelled peanut butter jars at the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective in the future.

An Unsung Hero

Hauling some of the parts Bob donated to the Collective.

 I had an experience the other day that started out with a crumpled, handwritten note that had been shoved through the door at the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective. N.Y. Roll, who is a board member there, found it when he stopped off there for some reason and he stuck it on my bench at the shop where I would find it. 

The author of the note, a Bob Beecher, of Waterloo, Iowa, had scribbled down a long list of bits and pieces of bicycles he had and wanted to donate to the Collective. I was somewhat interested, but not knowing anything about what specifically he had, I was not in a big hurry to get to that note and its author. But I did call, and Bob was eager to have me help him get these things out of his residence.

That's when I set up a time to meet him on a Sunny, early Fall day. Bob lives in an older home in a somewhat industrial area of Waterloo, tucked away in a corner, if you will. In fact, I hadn't even considered there might be homes in this nook of Waterloo. But, there were, and there was Bob's home as I pulled up in my old pick-up truck. Bob was already outside before I could get out of my seat. 

Bob is a thin, pale figure of a man with a scruffy white beard and a somewhat vagabond look about him. I pegged him to be in his late 60's, (he is actually 73 years old), and he looked to be in good health. He smiled and greeted me warmly and pointed with a long, bony, white finger to a pile of boxes and bags on his front steps. That was the stash of parts he was willing to donate for now. He said he was keeping some back to "...fix up my own stuff".  

While it did not take long to load up all the stuff Bob was donating, I was surprised by the sheer volume of things he was giving the Collective. This was no ordinary man's parts bin contents. There was a box of saddles of various types, several peanut butter jars full of fasteners, each jar neatly labelled with a tag as to its contents. There were components and tools, and even a couple of books on bicycle repair. This smacked of a story beyond that of a cycling nerd who did his own service work. 

Bob himself filled in a lot of the blanks as we conversed over the course of 45 minutes or so. He was ready to talk, and I had the time, so I politely listened to his tales. Bob was the son of a local business owner, and he worked at the business for much of his life, only a few blocks away from his home. He was quite proud of the fact that he had no cable service, no cell phone, and did not have internet service at his home. Bob is a modern day enigma. A throwback to analog times. 

His story went on. Bob told me about how he fixed bicycles after his shift at his father's business for the neighborhood children. They sometimes would be waiting for him. Sometimes in a line five or six deep. Over the years, Bob had built up relationships with many youngsters that would grow up and call to him whenever they passed through and saw him in later years. Bob had trouble remembering some of them. But one fellow he did have a special memory of.

I won't give his name, because of the circumstances this man finds himself in now, but when this man was a youngster in Bob's neighborhood, he would show up and he apparently had an innate skill with tools. Bob explained to me, as he spoke in an excited tone, that this kid didn't need any directions, he somehow just figured out how to do mechanical things. Bob said he would show up everyday for weeks on end wanting to help Bob fix bicycles. 

Bob was getting a bit annoyed by the eager young chap. Bob was bothered by the constant questions, the ever present appearance of this kid at his doorstep, and he grew tired of him. Bob said he had geared himself up to ask the youth to not come by as often, but just when he was about to tell the youngster to back-off, this kid spoke something that took Bob by surprise. He told Bob that, "This is the only place I feel safe". Well, Bob's attitude toward the young man changed in an instant. 

Bob did a little asking around, He found out that the youngster's mother was the only parent, and that her children had to fend for themselves often due to the mother's prostitution and drug use. Bob was concerned, but before he could come up with a plan to possibly mentor the kid, the mother took the children and moved away. Later on, Bob explained in a somber tone of voice, the young man grew up, got into trouble, and spent time in a Federal prison. Bob expressed some regret at that outcome, thinking he missed a chance there. 

Anyway, after a bit of contemplative silence, Bob carried on. He had been hit hard by the changes made at a local relief organization where he had volunteered since quitting his regular job. There he had serviced the donated bicycles the organization would get. However; new management came in and changed the structure of the organization to where they did not accept donations any longer, meaning that they had no further use for Bob and his mechanical  talents. 

This happened right before the pandemic. Bob had already slipped into a depression due to his circumstances, and the pandemic lengthened that period for him until recently. Bob explained to me that he just kind of snapped out of it, for whatever reason, he could not say. Then it was that he knew that his bicycle repair days were over. That resulted in the note, and that resulted in my visit. 

There was just one thing I had to know before I left. I know most every bicycle mechanic that has wrenched in the area for the past 30-40 years, but I'd never heard a peep about this man who had been keeping the bicycles of many kids rolling for 35+ years on Waterloo's North side. Where Bob came from I now knew, but I did not know what sparked the interest. How did he get into fixing bikes for other people? 

Bob said that one day, almost 40 years ago now, he was maintaining his racing bike he bought from his brother, a Teledyne Titan titanium bike, and a kid rolled up to him and asked a question. "Do you know how to fix bikes?", the tyke asked. Bob said he replied, "Well, I know how to fix THIS bike. Why?" And the kid said, "Well, can you fix my bike?", and that's all it took. Apparently, this kid, as Bob said with a twinkle in his pale blue eyes, "had a big mouth", and apparently the word got out in the neighborhood. Bob said he used to charge for his services, but then he realized that most of the kids he helped had disadvantaged home lives and that he could do more good just by helping to keep kids rolling. So, he quit charging money to help out with bicycle repairs. 

I was a bit taken aback, and I couldn't believe that such a story of good character and benevolence was hidden right under our noses here. It just did not seem right to me that Bob's story should go unnoticed. so, I am doing what little I can and posting it here. We could all take a cue or two from Bob's life, and I hope you don't mind my sharing this here today. 

I know I'll remember him every time I handle one of those nicely labelled peanut butter jars at the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective in the future.

Making Connections

The front entrance to the Des Moines Street Collective

Thursday I made a little trip to Des Moines. It was work related, but it also was a chance to finally meet an "online friend" and a learning experience. 

The Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective, where I work now, has been selling a fair amount of bicycles. Well, nothing spectacular, but for what we do and for how we operate, we are pretty busy and just barely getting by with enough to sell to people. We rely on donations for inventory, and since we are a non-profit concern that has a bit different mission than retail bicycle shops, it is a unique challenge. 

Through my online acquaintance, Bobby Kennedy, I found out that he is the new manager of the Des Moines Street  Collective, who are much like we are at CVBC. However; their issue is that the volume of donations they get is almost more than they can handle. 

Bobby motioned then that we come down and relieve them of some excess donations and that this would help both our Collectives out. The date was moved a couple of times, but finally, Thursday it happened.

Interior of the Des Moines Street Collective near the entrance off 6th Street.

Looking back at the work stations from the same vantage point as above.

I was amazed at the scope and size of the Des Moines operation. Their set up was inspiring, and I came home with more than a few ideas that I'd like to see implemented into the CVBC someday. Plus, I finally got to meet Bobby Kennedy! That was fun. 

Some cool bicycle related window art I saw at the Des Moines Street Collective

And in the end we made a big space for more donations at the Des Moines Street Collective and we received a nice shot in the arm of fresh inventory for the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective. 

I guess I also came away inspired by the fact that we are not the only ones doing this sort of work. To my way of thinking, this is where dealing bicycles and parts makes the biggest impact. Most of the time, this sort of business is helping people get around, and they actually live on these bicycles. They are THE form of transportation, and without these bicycles collectives like the Des Moines Street Collective and the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective, I have to wonder if a lot of folks wouldn't be worse off than they are. 

Something to think about when we are grousing about not being able to get that chi-chi brake system or when we are upset that our most recent race didn't go well. It's all about perspective...........

Making Connections

The front entrance to the Des Moines Street Collective

Thursday I made a little trip to Des Moines. It was work related, but it also was a chance to finally meet an "online friend" and a learning experience. 

The Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective, where I work now, has been selling a fair amount of bicycles. Well, nothing spectacular, but for what we do and for how we operate, we are pretty busy and just barely getting by with enough to sell to people. We rely on donations for inventory, and since we are a non-profit concern that has a bit different mission than retail bicycle shops, it is a unique challenge. 

Through my online acquaintance, Bobby Kennedy, I found out that he is the new manager of the Des Moines Street  Collective, who are much like we are at CVBC. However; their issue is that the volume of donations they get is almost more than they can handle. 

Bobby motioned then that we come down and relieve them of some excess donations and that this would help both our Collectives out. The date was moved a couple of times, but finally, Thursday it happened.

Interior of the Des Moines Street Collective near the entrance off 6th Street.

Looking back at the work stations from the same vantage point as above.

I was amazed at the scope and size of the Des Moines operation. Their set up was inspiring, and I came home with more than a few ideas that I'd like to see implemented into the CVBC someday. Plus, I finally got to meet Bobby Kennedy! That was fun. 

Some cool bicycle related window art I saw at the Des Moines Street Collective

And in the end we made a big space for more donations at the Des Moines Street Collective and we received a nice shot in the arm of fresh inventory for the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective. 

I guess I also came away inspired by the fact that we are not the only ones doing this sort of work. To my way of thinking, this is where dealing bicycles and parts makes the biggest impact. Most of the time, this sort of business is helping people get around, and they actually live on these bicycles. They are THE form of transportation, and without these bicycles collectives like the Des Moines Street Collective and the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective, I have to wonder if a lot of folks wouldn't be worse off than they are. 

Something to think about when we are grousing about not being able to get that chi-chi brake system or when we are upset that our most recent race didn't go well. It's all about perspective...........

The Things We Used To Do

Found this image on Facebook Marketplace. Boy! Did that remind me of something!

 Sometimes you kind of forget how things used to be. I often try reminding you all here that we didn't always have social media and smart phones. That there was a time before the Tech that has infiltrated every aspect of life these days. 

I'm not trying to say "those were the days", or that any of that was better than any of this. (It is a LOT more complex than a simple maxim could ever convey.) I am saying that we shouldn't forget our past, and the lessons learned, which could benefit us today. 

Here's one example of that and how children did some things in the past which has elements of foolishness and elements of something good wrapped up into one picture. This is an image I found on Facebook Marketplace which took me back 50 years ago when we, as elementary school-aged kids, did some "street engineering" to make our ordinary bicycles something extraordinary. Both in a good way and a bad way! 

In our example, back in Charles City, Iowa, we had experienced an F-5 level tornado in 1968 which killed 14 people and forever changed our lives. But as a kid, it created something which was a bit of a positive, in my view. That storm tore through a lot of homes, and in the process, it tossed a lot of stuff into wild corners around the town where people didn't care to look, and therefore were never cleaned up. 

Specifically, there were bicycles to be had! We children would scour the edges of town, poking around in the woods along the Cedar River, and we would pull out bicycles, almost as if we were picking strawberries in a thorny, overgrown strawberry patch. Many times these bicycles would have minor damage, or no damage at all, and be perfectly serviceable. Of course, since they did not 'belong to anyone', these prizes from the overgrown and neglected areas of the town were ripe for experimentation. This cherry picking of bicycles actually lasted well into the 70's, as I recall.  

I don't know who got the idea first, but it spread like wildfire once someone did the modification on their "Sting Ray" style bike. You would find a Schwinn, or Vista branded bike which typically had flattened steel fork blades. Cut them off with a hacksaw, and then you'd cut off your bike's drop-outs, and stuff the flattened blades into the round fork blades. Even it all up lengthwise, bolt in your wheel, and - Boom! Instant chopper bike! 

You could do this with tapered, round forks too, it was just harder and those tended to come apart! But most importantly, this tomfoolery was responsible for my interest in bicycle repair and maintenance. The flip side of this was that most of our Fathers had jobs and we couldn't get them to guide us through the steps necessary to learn stuff, (not always was this the case, but most times- yes), and therefore I had to really think my way through things. And it is why that kindled my innate sense of how mechanical things worked. 

So, while you might think that image above is a really stupid and dangerous thing to do, (and it certainly was, which was why it was so interesting and fun), it is why I got started out on this path I am on these days. 

And now you know.......