It’s what I do
I love writing. I actually really love writing my blog posts. It’s kind of like writing in a private journal that you know a lot of people that are clued in will read and “get”.
The wheel business being what it is I never seem to have time to do anything anymore other than build and reply to email. This post is one of those – take a moment for yourself – kind of things.
As PSIMET grows bigger and bigger and the name gets out there further and further I am constantly reminded of 1 key thing – no one seems to be able to say “PSIMET” correctly the first or 50th time. That seems to continue until someone tells them how to say it.
At first I was a little disappointed when I heard people mispronounce it. Let’s face it this name has been my personal handle online since online began. It’s like mis-pronouncing my personal name. Then slowly it started to dawn on me that this is a good thing. I mean think about it: How many cycling brand have you EVER heard anyone pronounce correctly the first time?
Campagnolo (Cam-Pan-Yo-Low <- correct) Americans say “Cam-Pag-no-low”
SRAM…..not s-ram not Schram
Bianchi (Bee-on-key) not Bee-On-CHEE
Mavic (Mah-Veek) not Mav-ick…which now sounds like a disease that afflicts old ball bearings
The list simply goes on and on. The beautiful thing about PSIMET is that once people find out how to say it they never forget it. That’s priceless.
More and more often though I am getting questions about the origin of the name. I am sure I have probably covered that on here before, but while riding alone last Tuesday I started thinking that it was worth indulging my base desires to talk about myself in my blog so WTF.
It’s an acronym.
P=Purdue
S=Student
I=In
M=Mechanical
E=Engineering
T=Technology
It goes back to my days in the dorms f Purdue University. Trying to come up with a login name for the now antiquated Sun terminal systems there back int he mainframe days. I have never really been good at coming up with names so as any good technie would do - I came up with an acronym.
Over the years I used it in everything. Eventually I set it as my login over at bikeforums.net. I currently have something like 17000 posts over there. That's a lot of years of wasted free time.
Back a few years ago when I lost my job I was staring at the computer screen with my wife's stepfather. He was trying to help motivate me and honestly helping me out by getting me set up online with my own site. I had never previously taken the time to learn how to start my own even though I had spent years programming .asp scripts and pages at work. I was hoping to start a company or site that gave cycling advice and tips as long as sold a few products that I would help foster and develop. I tried evey iteration of my real name that I could think of and it seemed all of those domains were taken.
Finally I just said, "Hey, try PSIMET". imagine that...no one had taken it. Many of you remember those early days with the "PS"="S" take on everything. Oh yeah...I guess I haven't said how it supposed to be pronounced yet:
Sigh-Met
Not: Piz-Met. Pee-ess-Eye-Met. etc.
Sigh, like the greek letter psi. For some reason though everyone thinks that because I do wheels I am somehow saying "psi" as in the imperial units for pressure "pounds per square inch". I am not.
So - I am riding around on my own on Tuesday thinking about this. I was late getting to the group ride and my pathetic form has me not wanting to hold people back as well. I am heading down a hill when I see a familiar Enzo's kit and a super tall ABD kit. Anyone who has ridden in Barrington Hills knows who these two characters are - Wayne (aka- Bruce, Chuck Norris, "Lil-Wayne", Boss, etc) Simon and Ryan (THE, The Kid) Freund . My late recognition as I saw them coming up the hill the opposite direction (of course) meant I stumbled out a quick wave of recognition and was on my way. At the bottom of the hill though I thought I heard a whistle. I turned and sure enough Wayne and Ryan were trying to catch my attention.
My first thought was, "this can't be good. I know they're not coming over to ride WITH me. Hmmmm". My instincts were justified as Wayne asks if I can take a look at Ryan's wheel. Turns out he's getting some bumps and ticks from it. I roll it and don't see anything outwardly wrong with it except for a possible hop. It's a 32 spoke Mavic OP and Pro+ training wheel. The bearings are shot. It's not adjusted and generally looks like the wheel of a man who destroyed Leland last season.
Personally I love this. It's what I do. I don't take flyers and drop fools like it's going out of style. I don't complain about the 1 pound I need to trim, and I don't walk past a free beer, good meal and good conversation. What I do is my thing. If you know me you know what I am talking about.
Quick investigation and all I'm thinking is, "Ryan...you can't be riding this."...so I give him the wheels off of my bike. The chain is so worn you can't seem to make the gears work. I find out riding his wheel that the cassette is shredded to causing my chain to skip under pressure. I love it. I love seeing riders that ride so hard or so much that maintaining the bike is the last hing they have time for. That's where I come in.
I start riding his wheels and honestly they're sketchy. I'm not a wheel snob. I love anything round and with bearings. These had something up though. Something bad.
I tell Ryan I am taking them home to fix them and just return my wheels sometime this week so I can ride....er..."race" on them this weekend. I cut my ride short - let's face it I needed to. So last night I finally get aroud to pulling the wheel and really looking at it. What do I find? 2 words - Worn. Out. This is the kind of rider that makes the millions of hand-wringing wannabes online asking about upgrades to shame. The OP rim was SHOT. worn down so much that the ticking and bumping that was felt was caused by the huge crack in the rim braking surface where the clincher bead was separating. Standard failure mode from wear.
The hub bearings were shot as well. The cassette. Ugh.
I'll get him up and running. I already overhauled the hub but now it looks like Saris, being the kick butt company it has always been is going to also swap out some stuff for me to get him rolling better. If it weren't for that I actually would have gotten him rolling as early as last night. New rim, spokes, hub overhaul...he wouldn't have known what hit him.
Thing is, I can't stop smiling about it. Like I said this is what I do. I'm not a good racer. I am overweight. I am probably not employee of the month at my "real" job. I am at best a mediocre husband and father. I am probably a horrible son and brother. I'm so mediocre at team management that I often pawn off the tasks as much as possible....but...get me with some tools and I can make some magic happen.
So go out and ride the crap out of your gear. Bust it up, beat it into shreds. Focus on the ride. Focus on dealing with and dishing out pain. When your gear is about to let you down...let me know. It's what I do.
MOVE!
Forward Looking
So, yeah. There has been a lot going on in the world of PSIMET. 3 core PSIMET teams, 1 Colorado team, 2 more local sponsored teams all with over 150 athletes….who get team deals. Throw on top of that a great expansion in my organic sales base, stumbling on to some killer product, and the ever churning wickedness that is the mind of PSIMET (not only do I refer to myself in the third person I do it with an alias as well) and we’re busy. All of my multiple personalities.
Busy is good. Busy makes me amped.
About this time every year though the weather starts to get hotter and I start finding I am actually spending less and less time riding outside. It seems like a contradiction of course and yet it isn’t. I just don’t perform well in the heat. Give me long rides in the 60’s with arm warmers and I love it. But I digress.
The fury that was early season road racing seems to be sputtering for most. Those who spent all winter dripping sweat all over floors , occasionally on a too curious pet, have reaped the rewards of their hours of tedious work and ripped the legs off the their competition securing their much desired and well deserved upgrades. As such half of the fields are made up of racers who are starting to think – “oh well…maybe next year. I guess I will just maintain for this season,” and the newly upgraded who are almost thinking, “ok…now what?”
The early season temp and mojo of friendly faces and pent up anticipation has been replaced with long inquisitions at the start line: “Where’s Joe?” “He upgraded.” “What about Bob?” “I think he’s hurt or something.” “Who is this kid?” “Don’t know I think he just upgraded. Never seen him before but someone said he lapped the 5’s field twice at that one race, can pee fire and poop rainbows.””Is he on a team yet?”
For some they are just hitting their stride with their epic struggles yet to be contested as their favorite long event series such as ToAD and Superweek come into view in the smart phone calendars that seem to rule our lives now. These are the guys and gals that dream of epic struggles in the blistering heat up the side of some fabled European climb as they douse themselves with bottles handed up by their adoring fans. Meanwhile fat guys like me turn our attention to the upcoming fall series and Cyclocross.
I have been doing a lot of thinking. I have crunched a lot of numbers. I have made calls and squeezed blood from turnips. All of these efforts have been in pursuit of a new product offering. While I am still not in a position to announce it publically I can tell you that it’s Cyclocross based, will depart slightly from my traditional model – removing the one thing that my current customers hate – the wait.
What’s on tap? Custom goodness with a focus on actual Cyclocross racing. Not products meant to draw the attention of roadies as they finger through the latest glossy magazine, but real solutions for real people racing/riding real cross bikes wanting real quality at real pricing. Really.
Stay tuned. I’ll have some updates hopefully with some pictures before you know it.