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How many CVers here were bike mechanics or bike manufacturers in your previous life?

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How many CVers here were bike mechanics or bike manufacturers in your previous life?

Old 06-13-21, 09:25 PM
  #26  
badger_biker 
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I was the jack of all trades including mechanic in a small town shop in 1984. Sold mostly Bridgestone with some Gitane, Motobecane and Kuwahara. The shop tried to empathize touring bikes and equipment but mostly sold mid to low end Bridgestones.

Didn’t make much money but I developed a life long love of anything touring and bikes from the mid 80’s. I developed a sickness that directly resulted in 8 touring bikes vintage 1983 - 1987 hanging in my garage today😊
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Old 06-13-21, 10:12 PM
  #27  
Jeff Wills
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Originally Posted by pcb
Hey Jeff, Euro-Asia was my account at Suntour USA, and Bob Hansing would always call me in Jersey late in the day, and want his orders shipped to Cali the same day. We had a very surly warehouse mgr who'd make me pack/box my own pain-in-the-rear rush orders ("I don't care what Bob Hansing wants, I ain't packing it. If you want it out today, box it yourself."). One particular rush order I was low on boxes, UPS was waiting, so I packed 4 or 5 smaller boxes to get it out the door. Bob called me after the order arrived, "What idiot packed my order? Do you know how much extra I had to pay for all those boxes?!?" I said: "That idiot was me, Bob. That's what happens when you call me that late." There was silence for a bit, then "Oh....," no more yelling, no apology, but he start calling earlier in the day. RIP.
Yeah, that sounds like Bob. I grew to like him a lot- he had his own way of doing business but it served him well. I visit Euro-Asia when I'm down there- it really hasn't changed that much. They still have a ton of NOS Campy and Shimano- some of it in boxes that I labeled 30 years ago. Kind of like the warehouse at the end of Indiana Jones.
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Old 06-14-21, 01:59 AM
  #28  
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I did once, for one weekend only. The amily-owned shop where I bought my first two bottom-of-the-barrel Fujis (all steel '74 Special Tourers) hired me to assemble bikes one weekend. His normal wrench was off on vacation and asked me if I wanted to help out. All I can remember was that I had unboxed, assembled, and adjusted probably five or six bikes on each of the two days. Must have been sometime in October '75 since the World Series was playing on the radio... I had to true/tension the wheels, insert stem/handlebars/seatpost/saddle, bolt on the brakes, run/cut/adjust the brake cables. install the derailleurs, run/cut adjust the derailleur cables, install the chain, pedals... I think the shop dealt with Fuji, Kabuki, and a few others. It normally had about fifty bikes on the sales floor at any one time, ranging from kids bikes to the whole line of Fujis. I later bought my S-10S from the same shop at a discount because it was a scratched floor model... I lusted after the America, but it was twice the price of the 'scratch & dent' S-10S. Oh, they had some higher-end models, but I wanted nothing to do with tubulars...
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Old 06-14-21, 02:17 PM
  #29  
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Me, 6 years ('71-'76) as a LBS mechanic and retail sales person, 4 years of that part-time while in high school (full-time summers). Five different shops.

Then 22 years ('77-'98) as a full-time custom framebuilder, also spread over 5 different shops. Santana, Rodriguez + Erickson (R+E), Counterpoint, Davidson, Ti Cycles, and Match (Schwinn Paramount & some Rivendells). That makes 6, but Counterpoint hardly counts; I was brought in as a consultant to improve the design and manufacturing processes.

I've been out of the biz for 23 years. When Match failed and went out of business, I switched to IT consulting to make some money, something you don't see in a bike shop job. I do miss it though and I'm trying to set up a home shop to build frames as a hobby.

Mark B
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Old 06-14-21, 03:39 PM
  #30  
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Originally Posted by badger_biker
I was the jack of all trades including mechanic in a small town shop in 1984. Sold mostly Bridgestone with some Gitane, Motobecane and Kuwahara. The shop tried to empathize touring bikes and equipment but mostly sold mid to low end Bridgestones.

Didn’t make much money but I developed a life long love of anything touring and bikes from the mid 80’s. I developed a sickness that directly resulted in 8 touring bikes vintage 1983 - 1987 hanging in my garage today😊
curious about where in western WI you worked.
I will tell my boring story too, in case anyone is interested. I started wrenching on my own bikes as young as 13 or 14, always tinkering, adjusting, upgrading etc. When I went away to college in 1978 in River Falls WI, I took a bicycle maintenance class at the local bike shop... The Village Pedaler if IRC. it was a multi week course on a weeknight. I helped all of the students with their bikes, my Aerospace Pro didn't need any maintenance. At the end of the night, Tim asked me why I took the class, and I said I wanted to learn about trueing and building wheels. he offered me a job, and I worked there during the school year for 2 years. Tim was a frame builder, and he and I designed a custom for me, and I did a lot of the work, and he wielded the torch. When I moved back to Green Bay (to be closer to my GF, (kids huh?, but I am still married to her, so there is that!) I started working at Wheels and Boards for the summers as a second job. mostly as a mechanic, and once in a while helping on the sales floor. I did that from 1980 to 1985. I took a lot of my earnings in bike stuff, so it was a good thing I lived with mom and dad, and had a day job! I still remember the blue 3Rensho frame that was hanging on the wall there, and lusting after it! That and Phil's very early Allez, that was a hot bike!
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Old 06-14-21, 03:50 PM
  #31  
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Worked at three different LBS in MD, 1974-1978, basically my college years. 30hr/wk. Probably 70% new-bike assembly, the remainder split between floor sales and repairs. Low point was 2 days trying to decode one of those 2-speed rear hubs and failing; boss couldn't figure it out either so he bought the customer a new wheel. High point was hand grinding a crank pin for a penny farthing, and being allowed to ride the bike briefly as a reward.
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Old 06-14-21, 05:00 PM
  #32  
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[QUOTE=nlerner;22099838]California Bikes, Palo Alto, CA, 1986-1989: Small, family-owned shop where I did a bit of everything while I was getting my master’s degree at San Jose State. It’s where I learned to overhaul Sturmey Archer 3-speed hubs and dread when someone would bring in a Firenze for repair. The first year or two we actually patched flatted tubes for $5 while the customer waited. Carried mid-level Nishikis and one or two other brands that I don’t remember. They had just about gone out of business when I left after completing my degree, and the owner, Fred Morse, moved to Napa, where he became a painter/artist.

I worked at the same shop a little more than a decade before you did while I was going to school at Foothill JC. The shop then was run by Fritz' parents, Freddy and Helen, and Fritz and Virginia had just gotten married. I don't claim to have been a competent mechanic, Freddy and Fritz did all the challenging work, I did assembly and fixed a sh**load of flats. In the 70s the shop was a Raleigh dealer and also sold Gitane, Centurion, Nishiki, and the occasional Zeus. With the likes of Cupertino Bike Shop and Sugden & Lynch just minutes away, Freddy largely just avoided the high-end market - Stanford students, faculty and Palo Alto suburbanites were his bread & butter. The entire Morse family was very good to me and for that I am grateful.

I knew the Garner twins when they had the bike shop in South Palo Alto, my wife and three kids all rode bikes that were purchased there, as the shop is just a few blocks from my house. Who knows, we may have met during the time you worked there?
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Old 06-14-21, 05:08 PM
  #33  
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I worked at Performance in the University District in Seattle from mid 2010 to mid-2011 doing sales and some repair work. The rest of my "pro" mechanic experience is volunteering at Bikeworks.
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Old 06-14-21, 05:12 PM
  #34  
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[QUOTE=daka;22102164]
Originally Posted by nlerner
California Bikes, Palo Alto, CA, 1986-1989: Small, family-owned shop where I did a bit of everything while I was getting my master’s degree at San Jose State. It’s where I learned to overhaul Sturmey Archer 3-speed hubs and dread when someone would bring in a Firenze for repair. The first year or two we actually patched flatted tubes for $5 while the customer waited. Carried mid-level Nishikis and one or two other brands that I don’t remember. They had just about gone out of business when I left after completing my degree, and the owner, Fred Morse, moved to Napa, where he became a painter/artist.

I worked at the same shop a little more than a decade before you did while I was going to school at Foothill JC. The shop then was run by Fritz' parents, Freddy and Helen, and Fritz and Virginia had just gotten married. I don't claim to have been a competent mechanic, Freddy and Fritz did all the challenging work, I did assembly and fixed a sh**load of flats. In the 70s the shop was a Raleigh dealer and also sold Gitane, Centurion, Nishiki, and the occasional Zeus. With the likes of Cupertino Bike Shop and Sugden & Lynch just minutes away, Freddy largely just avoided the high-end market - Stanford students, faculty and Palo Alto suburbanites were his bread & butter. The entire Morse family was very good to me and for that I am grateful.

I knew the Garner twins when they had the bike shop in South Palo Alto, my wife and three kids all rode bikes that were purchased there, as the shop is just a few blocks from my house. Who knows, we may have met during the time you worked there?
Hah, that’s awesome. Yes, Fred and Virginia were very good to me. They had a daughter, Kelly, while I worked for them, and Fred started making wooden toys and crafts and selling them in the bike shop in a section marked “Kelly’s Country Corner.” Business was pretty darn slow the last year I was there, and I was often working by myself. Plenty of time to take apart and rebuild 3-speed hubs. Fred Sr. would pop in frequently; he was wiry and fit and very amiable. He still ran the shop on the Stanford campus, mostly selling used bikes, iirc. Fred also sold me my first Raleigh: a ‘79 Super Course that he had bought new (this was around 1987). I put a ton of miles on that bike.

Btw, had I stayed in the Bay Area, it would have been my dream job to land a teaching position at Foothill College. Beautiful place!
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Old 06-14-21, 05:17 PM
  #35  
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Me

South Side Cycle and Mower in the South end of Columbus, Seibert and Parsons Avenue. We were a Schwinn Shop. Early 80's. I have one of the two hand built bikes I made back in the day. Good memories.
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Old 06-14-21, 07:34 PM
  #36  
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This is awesome! Great stories and interesting Kevin Bacon degrees of connection!

bulgie Glad you are building once more!
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Old 06-14-21, 10:19 PM
  #37  
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Originally Posted by mgopack42
curious about where in western WI you worked.
I will tell my boring story too, in case anyone is interested. I started wrenching on my own bikes as young as 13 or 14, always tinkering, adjusting, upgrading etc. When I went away to college in 1978 in River Falls WI, I took a bicycle maintenance class at the local bike shop... The Village Pedaler if IRC. it was a multi week course on a weeknight. I helped all of the students with their bikes, my Aerospace Pro didn't need any maintenance. At the end of the night, Tim asked me why I took the class, and I said I wanted to learn about trueing and building wheels. he offered me a job, and I worked there during the school year for 2 years. Tim was a frame builder, and he and I designed a custom for me, and I did a lot of the work, and he wielded the torch. When I moved back to Green Bay (to be closer to my GF, (kids huh?, but I am still married to her, so there is that!) I started working at Wheels and Boards for the summers as a second job. mostly as a mechanic, and once in a while helping on the sales floor. I did that from 1980 to 1985. I took a lot of my earnings in bike stuff, so it was a good thing I lived with mom and dad, and had a day job! I still remember the blue 3Rensho frame that was hanging on the wall there, and lusting after it! That and Phil's very early Allez, that was a hot bike!
You never know the connections on these forums! Someone I worked with in a landscaping company and his brother wanted to purchase the remains of The Village Pedaler in RF and asked if I was interested in running it for them. I’d wrenched on my own bikes for years and decided to try it.

Tim Paterek used to stop by on a beautiful tandem he built with his daughter along and was always willing to provide advice. He was building bikes out of his home at the time and had people come to help build their bikes on occasion. My biggest regret is that I was strapped for cash having year old twin boys and that I wasn’t able to have Tim build something for me at the time.

I have fond memories from my 2 years in the the shop before the owners got out of it and still have the 1984 Bridgestone 400 I got there. I rode it on a few tours and still ride it as an urban trail bike.
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Old 06-15-21, 06:05 AM
  #38  
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Originally Posted by badger_biker
You never know the connections on these forums! Someone I worked with in a landscaping company and his brother wanted to purchase the remains of The Village Pedaler in RF and asked if I was interested in running it for them. I’d wrenched on my own bikes for years and decided to try it.

Tim Paterek used to stop by on a beautiful tandem he built with his daughter along and was always willing to provide advice. He was building bikes out of his home at the time and had people come to help build their bikes on occasion. My biggest regret is that I was strapped for cash having year old twin boys and that I wasn’t able to have Tim build something for me at the time.

I have fond memories from my 2 years in the the shop before the owners got out of it and still have the 1984 Bridgestone 400 I got there. I rode it on a few tours and still ride it as an urban trail bike.
Yeah, Small world for sure. I still have Park cone wrenches with "PATEREK" engraved on them in my tool box. My wife (GF at the time) and I used to borrow Tim's tandem, and go out to dinner at a country club somewhere around RF. The head chef was a guy I knew from the Village Pedaler who rode a Paramount, and teased me because my bike didn't have lugs, so it HAD to be crap (Aerospae Pro) When I worked there, Tim was always tinkering with trailers for that tandem. The one I remember was the aluminum skin of a airplane wing tip, covering a CrMo lattice frame. I sometimes think about contacting him, and seeing if he still has that tandem.
Mark

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Old 06-15-21, 07:04 AM
  #39  
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I worked sales and as a mechanic at a LBS. Just enough to keep an employee discount and a good chunk of my paycheck want right back to the shop. Mostly assembling low end mountain bikes for college kids, tune ups, fixing flats etc.

I was a bike messenger full time for 5 years while in grad school. Now that was fun.
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Old 06-15-21, 07:13 AM
  #40  
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I worked for a few years in the latter part of the 80s at the Bikesmith in New Orleans. I worked mainly sales when I was in college but I also built bikes and did repairs. At different times the shop sold Peugeots, Treks, Miyatas, and Bridgestones. The shop sold a lot of Peugeots. I was lucky enough to have worked for a year part time in a bike shop in Paris as well selling mainly Motobecanes. I bought one and commuted everywhere on a bike. There weren't a lot of commuters on bikes then in Paris and it was more than a little crazy but fun. I've always liked French bikes.

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Old 06-15-21, 07:22 AM
  #41  
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I maintained a rental fleet, in Merida, on a volunteer basis, up until Covid struck. 90s Mongoose mtbs and Cannondale hybrids. A much more recent past life. I learned about threadless stems and headsets.
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Old 06-15-21, 02:31 PM
  #42  
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I started working as a shop mechanic in my senior year in high school, 1978. I worked as a mechanic and salesman in summers of 1978, 1979, and 1980. Then I started working 12 months a year as a mechanic as I took a leave from college. I even became head mechanic of the esteemed Toga Bike Shop in 1981-1983. Eventually, I was able to get work in my field, computer science, and I left the industry. I taught bike mechanics to children and adults as a volunteer for a bike advocacy group I co-founded in NJ in 2009. In 2011 and 2014, I was between IT jobs and worked as a shop mechanic in NJ and NYC, respectively. The latter job was with my FIRST boss from 1978! In 2019, I "found my tribe" and worked as a volunteer at Mechanical Gardens in Brooklyn, a coop, teaching people about bikes and how to fix them. Then Pandemic came, and I haven't been back. I plan to go back when I return to the city. I love working there.
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Old 06-15-21, 10:10 PM
  #43  
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Originally Posted by mgopack42
Yeah, Small world for sure. I still have Park cone wrenches with "PATEREK" engraved on them in my tool box. My wife (GF at the time) and I used to borrow Tim's tandem, and go out to dinner at a country club somewhere around RF. The head chef was a guy I knew from the Village Pedaler who rode a Paramount, and teased me because my bike didn't have lugs, so it HAD to be crap (Aerospae Pro) When I worked there, Tim was always tinkering with trailers for that tandem. The one I remember was the aluminum skin of a airplane wing tip, covering a CrMo lattice frame. I sometimes think about contacting him, and seeing if he still has that tandem.
Mark
Coolest thing I remember about that tandem is that the bottom connecting tube had a filler cap on top and a pet cock underneath so it could be used to store camp stove fuel. I thought that was such a great idea at the time.
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Old 06-16-21, 04:58 PM
  #44  
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Originally Posted by mechanicmatt
... I believe the year I competed for ASME HPV competition I came in as the 15th fastest male and through a mistake the 6th fastest female 🤣.
Sounds like a very serious mistake!
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Old 06-16-21, 07:05 PM
  #45  
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Heck yeah. As a UCLA undergrad I worked vacations and weekends as a repair tech in the hi-fi/audio department of Henry Radio. Starting in my senior year of college, I worked in a friend's small used bike shop, then switched to Bikecology, a Peugeot/Nishiki dealership, when that shop closed. I worked Friday nights (often until 11 pm or so) and all day Saturdays at various branches of Bikecology for a couple of years, until I got a graduate fellowship and then a career-related internship. Having grown up in Los Angeles, I knew some of our customers or their kids.

My favorite story was from 1973, when the father of one of my childhood friends popped into the shop and was trying to figure out how I knew him and his son. At this point I was in top physical shape, having completed a double century in 1972. He finally said, "Oh ... you were that little ROUND kid!" :Guilty as charged -- bicycling was a life-changer and probably life-saver for me.
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Old 06-18-21, 01:04 AM
  #46  
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I was driving a cab in 1984 when I started lacing and building wheels part time for an operation which was suppling the wheels for the mtn. bike frames being imported from Taiwan for a little start up named Rocky Mtn. Bicycles. We worked in a sweltering hot, stuffy, windowless little mezzanine behind the small Rocky warehouse above a shop named Bikes on Broadway.
The standing joke was that I wasn't working for a paycheck, I was just there for the bike parts.
After a few months they moved the wheel building to a shop in a small industrial park way out by the south arm of the Fraser River and being pretty sick of driving hack I jumped into the bike biz full time.
In the shop alongside us Paul Brodie and Derek Bailey were fillet brazing mtn. bike frames (Derek was also gaz welding lugged road frames). Some guy named Ross who billed himself as the only Irish Jew busker in BC was painting the frames. That ended when he asked WCB to come check the quaility of the air he was breathing and the new part owner of the company told him that "we aren't running a charity here" to which he replied "they're my lungs *****".
Upshot was that Ross quit and the following weekend, reposing up at Whistler, in an ancient log cabin that used to be a brothel, after riding in the precusor to the Cheakamus Challenge, a race then named See Colours and Puke (because you were supposed to eat magic mushrooms beforehand), Paul recruited me to become the painter. And after a cursory introduction to bike painting I was left on my own figure it out.

To be continued.......

Last edited by tungsten; 06-18-21 at 01:17 AM.
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Old 06-18-21, 02:17 AM
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bulgie 
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Originally Posted by tungsten
<snip> he asked WCB to come check the quality of the air he was breathing and the new part owner of the company told him that "we aren't running a charity here" to which he replied "they're my lungs *****".
I worked at Santana from right when they started. Built workbenches, ran electrical and compressed-air lines etc. I was not supposed to be a painter but I did paint one or two early prototypes before they had their real painter, or even a spray booth. Just plastic sheets hung from the ceiling to make a sort of room, not to protect me but to keep the paint from drifting over and getting on the other machinery, bike parts etc. No respirator. DON'T DO THIS!!

When I went home and blew my nose, I saw metalflake blue snot on the kleenex. This was Imron, famous for being incredibly toxic... though they didn't tell me that at the time. They probably didn't know either. Everyone there was more or less a beginner at everything. But I do remember the two older guys who had actually built frames before were not volunteering to go into the "Paint Room of Death" themselves. No, get the apprentice to do it, they're expendable.

Does isocyanate poisoning cause you to write long rambling posts on the internet? If so that would explain a lot.

Mark B
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Old 06-18-21, 10:21 PM
  #48  
Jeff Wills
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Originally Posted by jdawginsc
This is awesome! Great stories and interesting Kevin Bacon degrees of connection!

bulgie Glad you are building once more!
Yeah, the connections are weird. When I was growing up in Southern California you got used to meeting celebrities in casual situations.

Then again, South Pasadena stood in for a lot of small towns. The block where my shop used to be appears in this clip from Teen Wolf (about 1:40 to 2:10). The "hardware store" was Balk's Hardware- a local institution and next door to the bike shop..

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Old 06-19-21, 01:42 PM
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I started earning money working on bikes of neighbors at age 9.
Tall for my age helped and I kept my bike very clean.
I recall having to go to the local library and find the book that explained how to adjust a Sturmey-Archer shift linkage.
got my first paycheck bike shop job at 14.
was bummed that my very first task was to clean the wood staircase to the upstairs office, it WAS really dirty, but did not complain, part of the job, was counseled by my Mom that the initial tasked might be tests of resolve.
I could do the work but learned to do it fast, diagnose the problems quickly and often do a small easy to do but big notice added fix as part of the job. ( that and always place the bike if a geared bike in a slightly lower gear, customers always were please, “ so much easier to pedal now!” “ yes it is.
worked outdoors mostly to start along with the bread and butter mechanic, Willie T. Brooks.
Who was a bike mechanic by day and a jazz drummer by night. No idea when he slept.
maybe from 3-7am?
He was able to say things to the Beverly Hills women that would have earned a slap on the face from anyone else. A different time.
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