Spam Free and Lovin' It

I've devoted way to much time talking about spam and it seems, for the moment, I'm free from my tormentor.

Onto something different.

I'm a bike mechanic and have been for many years. It stopped being fun almost two decades ago but I'm kind of locked into the industry.

Mostly I work on crap. I work on bikes that should have been retired to the great scrap heap in the sky but for a good portion of the day I just shuffle bikes back and forth as people store them for the day.

Some times it's not so bad. Most of the clients are good folks, especially the guys in recovery. There's a group of them who come in about the same time every day. They joke around and generally tend to be in the best mood of any of my regulars. I guess they are just happy to be alive.

But most of the bikes I work on are tired old beaters. They are a far cry from the top dollar bikes you see in major races and in magazine shoots and it is interesting to see who actually are the biggest user groups here and here  aaaand here.

Don't get me wrong I like working on high end gear and it's simply not for the gee wiz factor, it's mainly because, as a whole it's a lot easier to work on.

Lower end gear, especially if it's been damaged, is finicky. I've adopted the mantra that any day you get to hit a bike with a hammer is a good one.

But the fact is most people out there riding bikes don't know the difference between "make" and "model". They just want something they can afford and won't kill them.

My job is preventing their crap from killing them.

I'm your mechanic.