Getting closer.

Things are winding up at the bike shop. I paid rent there for the last time today. That's right, I own/run a bike shop right now but it's the worst kept secret among my friends that my days there are numbered. It's a really good place and the guy that's taking over is amongst the best in the industry. The shop isn't going to change that much. If anything it's going to get better because of his connections to the industry in this city and the fact that he has another shop in town already. But that's another story.

What I'm most excited about is potentially stepping up the frame building to a full time occupation. I've been selling bike "stuff" for going on ten years now and one of the most frustrating parts of it is not being in control of that "stuff" and having to depend on the whims of others to make the products I sell. Sometimes there's good "stuff" and sometimes I'm less impressed by it. The list of crap is long and getting longer and the list of good stuff seems to get a little shorter each year. It's been nice to be in charge of deciding what gets a place in my store and what doesn't and that's something that has worked very well for me for a very long time. And while there may be a lot of frame builders out there, more and more every year it seems and most of them doing really good work, few of them have committed to doing it long term and those that have seem to have absurdly long waiting lists for a frame.

So that's where I come in, I suppose. There's a few of us building bikes in Canada but not many. I know of a person here and there that is just starting out and may get to this point sometime soon, the point of being able to say "I'm a frame builder" in a way that the waitress at that restaurant in Los Angeles can't say "I'm an actress." And there's others that do it on a larger scale, respectable types like Dekerf or Marinoni though Marinoni doesn't seem to be doing as many handbuilt custom frames as they used to.

I really do like the idea of crafting items one at a time for real people. I'm meeting with a local painter tomorrow morning to discuss graphics for the bikes and paint schemes. He's a small guy doing stuff one day at a time and doing some really good work too. I like that idea, dealing with real people on smaller projects. And I'm talking to a girl in Seattle about handmaking wallets with the star logo on them and the serial number of the bike on it for those who buy frames. I tried to find someone local but no luck unfortunately but Caitlen at Moxie and Oliver seems like a rockstar and is keen to do something for me. She's a real person doing really interesting stuff by hand one at a time and I like that. It goes with the theme of what I'm doing with the bikes. Seattle ain't that far away either though it would have been really nice to find someone in town to work with.

Anyway, I got a box from the supplier with bike tubes in it, Columbus Zona tubes, enough to build four bikes and as of this morning I have five bikes to build so things are looking good. Soon there will be a catalogue, pictures, a web page, all that good stuff. In the mean time there's this blog which will probably become a busier place in the very near future.