Way back in Jan we had this little thing called the Chicago Winter Bike Swap.  This is where most of the dealers int he Chicago region show up and peddle – or rather pedal – their un-wanted, used or over inventoried wares in hopes of generating some much needed cash for the impending and looming season to come.  This is my second year at the swap and as such I have found it is more helpful for me in generating new business leads and customer contacts.

Regardless it is still a chance to clean out the shop of little needed or used gear.  Some Speedplay pedals, 2 frames, cranks, saddles – you know….the stuff that accumulates over time.  Stuff left over from repair work that the “customer” wants to bless you with as though it is some form of good thing – almost like a form of kharmic payment – not realizing that it’s a used component that they saw the need to replace and will simply take up room in the shop.

So…time to find a better home for these things.  It’s easy to part with the stuff others give you but darn near impossible sometimes to part with your own gear.  This year I was taking the Giant.  My 2005 Giant TCR Composite.

I loved this frame.  It imarked a turning point in my life and cycling career.  It was the first time in close to 25 years that I bought a “real” top end rig.  I put so many hours and miles on that frame it’s almost embarrassing.  I stopped riding it about 3 years ago in order to keep from destroying it in a wreck, only to find over time that I fit much better on larger rigs and that it truly was too small.

Sad was the day I stripped the frame of the carefully collected DA 7800 components (in my opinion a group that will go down in history as one of the best all time groups ever made).  Sadder still was when I put that 7800 on my cyclocross bike – because it made sense to.

The day of the swap we saw a lot of activity.  I pretty much sold everything before the doors even opened to the public.  In that morning rush I made a deal and sent the Giant on it’s way.  I was truly sad to see it go, and a little happy to have the cash it generated.

In business it’s a good idea not to get attached to anything.  Difficult sometimes when you are passionate about the business you are in but I have seen it time and time again: shop owners that feel there is high value to a piece but in reality it’s just a multiple year old used piece of equipment that has a real market value of 1/2-1/3 of what it was if you are lucky.  Many times I’ve seen someone make an offer only to hear a shop guy say, “nah…that frame is worth XYZ at a minimum.” and thought – “no it’s not.  It’s worth what that guy just offered”

I’m thinking about all of this because, well, the business is growing.  Big.  Very big.  In result I am finding it hard to juggle all of the aspects of life that I need to juggle right now.  I know what I need to do but I can’ just jump and do it.  I have faith in myself and my abilities, but I am at a point in my life where I truly can’t make it “about me”.  The end goal is the same.  I have bumped around my whole life and seen a lot of success in many of my endeavours, and taken my licks as well, but one thing has remained a constant – cycling.

I’m thinking that the swap meet just may have been a nice metaphor for the business and our lives right now.  Maybe it’s time to move out some of the old stuff, re-focus on the core of what makes us good, and take a leap.  In the end we’ll have some money in our pocket – maybe not as much as what we hoped but just possibly more than we expect.

Where to start…

Creatively I am dying and I need to blog.  In my soul I just have to write.  Don’t know what it is but it goes back a long way.  For those that don’t know, I am the product of an interesting mix.  My mother comes from the deep South of Illinois.  Near where Hillsboro takes place but more rural.  Piasa, IL – google map it and look for Schaefer rd.  That’s my core.

My father – the product of a Nurse and uh….good question.  I believe my grandfather on my father’s side was at one point part of the nursing school where my Grandmother got her degree – where they met, but at one point I knew he worked at Sears, and at another point I know he worked at CAT.  Peoria BTW.

My matter of fact dealing and my ability to network and strike a deal – from my dad’s side.  Engineering – mix between the two – my grandfather on my mother’s side was a mechanical genius.  My uncle – the same.  It runs throughout my family on that side.  Everyday I walk out past the 1928 Model A and the stack of trap shooting trophies and I remember where I am from.

My social ability – I think might be a mix.  Some strong elements point to my mothers side – my and that side of the family’s propensity to gossip beyond the limits of good taste are testament to my heritage.  At the same time my father’s side seemed to have a unique story telling ability and a way to work the story into a movable conclusion that once again points to making the deal.

Finally my creative side.  What happens when you take an engineer, add some social ability and top him off with an artist’s lineage?  Someone who is never satisfied and constantly has to be re-thinking and trying everything new and always asking, “how can I make this better.”   My mother is an artist.  My mother has the ability to translate things that I just don’t have.

A wise man once told me – rather pointed out to me – that building a fine bicycle or wheel is not an art, rather it is a craft.  I really had to spend a lot of time thinking about that.  I have spent the majority of my life chasing what I perceived to be more art like.  Then it dawned on me and it all made sense – it IS craft.  Not only is it craft but it NEEDS to be craft.  It can’t be art.  It HAS to be rooted in a level of practicality that necessitates the craft nomenclature.

Engineers hitting a problem can be anti-climatic.  They plug and chug with what they know.  Good engineers think a little different.  These aren’t true engineers in my opinion.  They are more “craftsmen” or rather – practical artists.  They understand HOW things work but also understand how they SHOULD look and feel at the same time.  These are the ones that find the simple – understated solution to every problem.  It’s funny because you can draw these same lines into politics.  Most of you reading this are staunch Dems.  While not one to ever show my hand…I am not.  That said I think that you can go so far right that you end up Left and visa-versa.  In other words there is a prime linkage between the extremes: Snotty artists are not that far from the extreme data driven mongrels that are true engineers.  The rest of us live in between.  The best of us have the ability to admit they are wrong from time to time.

So – where am I going with this….not sure.  Trying to find a way to verbalize what it is that I am dealing with.  I stayed at home today during the Chicago Snowocolypse.  Mrs. P was holed up at the clinic while I was at home taking care of the future of P enterprises.  While progressing through the day I got pissed.  I got fed up with sitting inside and listening to my wonderful offspring convey to me that he was almost on the right track but still a little out of touch of what hard work is like.  Then I headed outside.  I was trying to keep little P from becoming paralyzed by cabin fever so I suited him up and we headed out.  I had half the drive (Mrs. P and I cleared the other half at 3 am as she headed in) so I began to dig in.  Then I noticed that there were 3 “boys” from ages 18-20 trying to clear the next door drive.

These guys stared at each other as they struggled to get the snow blower started.  As they did I cleared my drive, and the sidewalk in between.  i even made it onto the drive they were “working” and cleared a bit of that.  It was then that it dawned on me – these guys don’t know how to suffer.  They don’t know how to work.   Here I am a (young) man of 36 with a disconcerting amount of grey hair developing, who was watching a bunch of young dumb douches complain about how “heavy” the snow was and how they couldn’t do anymore until their snowblower was fixed.

I don’t think I am special.  I just think I might have a unique ethic or point of view.  I am practical.  I don’t like a lot of BS unless I have the time for it.  I like to push what is already moving.  I like momentum.  The amount of work that I have to do it pathetically huge.  There is not enough “Value_added” in what I do to allow me to do it all day every day.  If you have a problem with that then add $200 into every Paypal payment you make to me… Until then I will continue to approach what I do with the philosophy I have – I will make the wheels that I LOVE because I LOVE making them.  If you’re fat – I will call you fat ( I am too).  If you’re cheap – I will call you out.  I want to give everyone the best wheel for the job.  If you don’t like it – buy from someone else.  Maybe then I can get to sleep before 1am.  I won’t build you something that looks awesome but fails.  I won’t tell you that you can ride the nice stuff if you’re over 200 – because honestly you CAN’T.  I have been there so I know how much it hurts but it’s true.  In general I hope you value my input.  I vaue you as customers.  So….get off your ass and submit an inquiry.  When it takes a week or two or three for me to get back to you…get in line.