Rentolo

The blog is lame of late. I've been too busy to type. Recycled & New Bicycles will be closed next week. I'm going on a long ride, Reno to Logan. I will try to give an update from the library in Austin, NV. If not, wish me luck and strong legs. It will be 700 miles in 6 days.

Easter Sunday

The seagulls waited
Circling, hungry, and watching
Alert for colors

They waited some more
They arrived four weeks ago
Gulls, sans calendars

The children brought eggs
Their parents and their parents
All with Paas hued eggs

Thousands of bright eggs
Blues, oranges, pinks, greens, purples
Easter hard boiled

They threw all their eggs
Down Old Main Hill, USU
A feast of color

I could not watch it
We ate eggs when I was young
Pearl Street, Trout River

They all drove away
Colorful shells on the grass
The seagulls moved in

A feast for seagulls
Yoke-billed and albumin filled
They left only shells

So I pedaled hard
All the way up McMurdie
Post-holing in snow

Up Pisgah Mountain
A stupid-hard long bike ride
They make me happy

Alone with Mother
Sagebrush wet in the snow melt
Nuthatches singing

The end of the road
After the last knee deep drifts
Egg shells on the ground

Some lone woods-person
Happily ate Easter eggs
For sunrise breakfast

Thank You

I got an email from Jasmine today. She lives far away, but reads my blog. I have friends in the UK, reading too. I just want to say thank you all for reading. And, I want to say thank you to my customers. I appreciate you all buying bicycles and trusting me to do your repairs. Recycled & New Bicycles is a very busy shop. There is no waiting list for repairs as of yet, but it's not far off. Thank you too, for your paitience. I have to go back to work now and build JH's new fixie.

Spring Returns, The Reviews Are In

I did a short ride on Sunday. The Logan-Smithfield Canal trail was nearly snow free. Not mud free, but it was nearly snow free. From Smithfield, I did the tour of Amalga (tour of the smelly dairy farms). The flooded Bear River floodplain was full of singing frogs. It's amazing how much greener the bottoms are compared to the benches. It gets whiter as you go up and greener as you go down.

Well, I've been flamed on mtbr.com. I guess that will teach me to yell at people and tell them to get out of the shop. I know, however, I will never change my ways. I sold over 100 new bikes last year and over 50 used bikes. I had a two month waiting list for repairs. "Second rate" they say. Fine with me. Don't come back. I've got plenty of happy customers. Especially the one's that get micro loans and free bikes. I've learned one thing about retail: you can't make them all happy.

Enough. I'm going to work. I have a lot of bikes to build.

Can I Do A Short Rant, Please?

Support you local bike shop. They probably have a lot of knowledge about bicycles and bicycle fit. It may cost a little more up front, but buying a bicycle from a professional will save you money and discomfort in the long run.

Yesterday, I got this call:

"Hey, it's Ringo, I'm a friend of John. I came in there, oh, about a month ago looking for a triathlon bike for my wife. Yeah, I pumped you for information for a half hour, and well, I bought her a bike on EBay. She does not like the bars. It has shifters on the end. Do you have any cheap used bars, you know, road bars. I also need brake/shift levers. I want Ultegra or 105 level stuff. Do you have those cheap or used?"

I lost it. I told him to go look on the Internet for cheap parts and hung up on him.

I never got to tell him that new 105 levers would cost $279, a good bar $79, a stem for proper position (different than time trial bar position) $59, new bar wrap $12, plus $80 labor to take the old stuff off, put the new stuff on, wrap the bars, and adjust the derailleurs and brakes. I knew what his reaction would be. Could you imagine if I had said this:

"Yes sir, it will be another $509 to make your cheap EBay bike ride like a normal bike. By the way, does the bike fit?"

Bottom line: Find a local bike shop run by a professional you can trust (if all you see are teenagers, walk out). Listen to the professional when they tell you to buy a $520 entry level road bike that can be used for everyday riding and that anticipated triathlon. Listen to them when they talk about bike fit and function.

Never mind. You have EBay and Google.

Tour De Gainesville Video, 2008

Here is the updated version, with music. Saturday is the 2009 version. If I had a magic carpet and a time turner I would show up for this year's roll out. Ding.

Tour de Gainesville 2008 from Lindsay Levkoff on Vimeo.

Looking For Great Deals?

No internet sales.
I tried. I get hits. Google.
I'm a LBS.

Social Business

Every year around this time I begin to post less and less. Right on schedule, Recycled & New Bicycles has become one busy busy place. Fifteen new bicycles, four reconditioned bikes, and countless repairs have gone out the door in the last ten days. I've put in over 120 hours in the last two weeks. I'm tired. I can not remember the last time I went for a real ride. But, there are a lot of smiley people out there on their bikes. Thank you customers. Thank you Fuji and Redline.

There was a fantastic program on To The Best Of Our Knowledge this morning on NPR. The guest was Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, famous for making "micro-loans" to poor women around the world. He described the difference between "Profit Maximizing Business" and "Social Business" and the inherent desire of humans to make the world a better place. Social businesses do not send profits back to stockholders or investors. Profits are made, but the investment is made in the local community.

Now, there are some people here in Logan that are "shocked" and think I commit highway robbery for buying a kid's bike for $102 plus $20 shipping, professionally building and fitting it, then selling it for $179. "Jesus Christ man, you made $57." Right. I have no rent, utilities, insurance, taxes, or licenses to pay for. My time has no value.

Again, Social Businesses do make a profit. But, there are no investors or profit takers, and these businesses give back to their community. Recycled & New Bicycles gave away 3 bicycles last week, and also did more than a few free repairs. I loaned my Burley trailer to a 21 year-old young man who has full custudy of his two children. I also loaned Lupine's little green Redline to another single parent. These freebies went to people who truly needed them.

Recycled & New Bicycles made no-interest micro-loans to over 30 people last year who did not have enough money to pay for a bicycle up front. They all had to pass my credit check. I looked them in the eye and asked, "will you pay me?" Most did. Some did not. I lost about $3,000 in 2008 and nearly $1,000 in 2007. Do you think I have learned my lesson? No. I have made 4 micro-loans already in 2009. I think I've helped a little to make Logan, Utah a better place. I'm a Social Business. Recycled & New Bicycles is different.

Graupel over ice
The crunch echos from our tires
Don't turn and don't brake

Spring Protracted

We pedaled through snow
On our way to school today
White on new-green grass

Seasons

I lived in north Florida for 35 years, plus or minus. The seasons there were so subtle compared to the Rocky Mountain West. Here each season is distinct, yet protracted. Spring came right on time last week here in northern Utah. The snow in front of the shop melted this morning (almost the same time as last year) with a warm overnight rain. Yesterday the grass was brown. When we woke up this morning, the grass was green. Really. Do you know what I like the most about writing this blog? It's the circles. We just go round and round in circles. Here is a haiku I wrote almost exactly two years ago. I will write it again today so you don't have to leave this page:

Almost overnight
The grass turned a bright green
After the soft rain

Bike Fit, Again

I've put a new link
About bike fit, in the list
Because Kurt needs it

Baiku of the Day

There were hints of spring today as I attempted to ride the Deer Fence from Providence to Cliff Side without dabbing on the steep stuff. The temperature was nearly 50 and things were melting. The trail is still full of mud and snow, so I would not recommend it until April.

Cyclocross skills test
Robin, siskin, and flicker
In the snow and mud

An Adventure After All

Patty and I ended up going on an adventure after all. We did the Auto Tour at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge by bicycle: two bald eagles, twelve miles, thousands of tundra swans, and twice that many ducks.

We pedaled the dike
Beside an eagle's shadow
Listening to swans

Back In Logan, No Adventures

I am back in Logan, doing bicycle repair and sales. Just your ordinary businessman, ready to explode with a rant for the Logan Herald Journal about how stupid it is that bicycles are allowed on sidewalks. There should be a law!

I have no adventures planned for today. There is a red (or yellow) air alert, Unhealthy For Sensitive Groups, for today and tomorrow. It always seems to work out that way, bad air on my days to ride, Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday. It makes me wonder why we even came back to Logan.

We could see the brown layers forming nearly 80 miles south of Salt Lake City as we drove north from southern Utah. As the Wasatch Range came into view, only the mountain tops were visible, white against the blue sky. Below that, the snow looked brown. Below that, the bottom of the mountains were completely invisible.

Mt. Timpanogos
Floating on the dirty air
The Sleeping Maiden

On our drive north, almost everything between Bryce and Torrey was "closed for the season", except for this place. The food and coffee were really great. The owner, Scott Radius (I assume he is the owner) was a long-haired independent who makes, boils, and bakes his own bagels and serves them with huge chunks of real smoked salmon with locally roasted organic coffee. Fabulous and cheap. I told him to raise his prices. Patty found a book of poetry he had published, hiding in a corner. What an alter-ego, he is not just a small business-man in a tourist town. He is a poet and an artist. His poetry is filled with nature, sex-magik, drugs, golden eagles (obviously his animal spirit guide), bicycles, mountains, anger, more sex, and unique political expression. It's profane and eye opening. And I thought I was different and angry. If you are mainstream, Mormon, normal, or easily offended, do not read his poetry. Or, perhaps you should. Here is a link to his work.

Round Valley Draw, Today's Adventure

Lupine, Sen, and I hiked the Round Valley Draw today. It was a once in a lifetime experience. Steep, narrow, dark, and snowy, now I know how Ed Abbey felt every time he dropped into a slot canyon, knowing climbing back out the way you go in is not going to be easy. One website says:

"Do not enter this particular slot unless: 1) you are an experienced hiker; 2) you are capable of climbing through narrow (less than two foot wide) cracks while working your way down 10 to 15 foot drop offs (chimneying skills and a length of climbing rope come in very handy in this canyon); 3) you are not afraid of running into midget rattlesnakes while trapped in a two-foot wide slot with 500 foot vertical walls."

Well, it was not as bad as all that. I was well prepared. I was taking my 7 year old daughter and my rock climbing dog. I had a Hello Kitty pink backpack just large enough to hold a water bottle, an 8 foot yoga strap, one Cliff Bar, and a 6 foot dog leash, but too small to fit on my back. Yes, well prepared. It's easy to lower a dog and a kid down a 20 foot drop with 14 feet of "rope."

I'm not going to go into the details, but we made it safe and sound. We hiked quite a bit getting in and out because the Honda Fit is not a high clearance vehicle. We even had to do some serious sagebrush whacking cross country style without a compass and map to get back to the car. Lupine is one tough kid. She did 5 miles in 4 hours and never complained. The dog on the other hand, does not like to be lowered into a slot with a yoga strap. Here is a site with the best pictures. Here is the Google page with lots of text and more pics.

Where's Robert?

I'm here. Today, I'm just a Hoodoo man. What is a hoodoo?? I should be back by Friday afternoon, as Bicycle Repair Man, open for business. Saturday for sure, when Grace and Finnegan get their bikes delivered.

Giant Snowstorm Hits Logan, UT

The road trip will have to wait a day. There's a foot of snow outside and it is still falling. Here, have a look.

Quiet For A While

We are headed to southern Utah for a few days to escape the snow, cold, and the furlough (Patty's not allowed on campus this week). So, the blog will be quiet for a while. We are going to hike some slot canyons, ride our bikes, and go to The Wildlife Society Utah meeting at Bryce Canyon National Park. The shop should be open next Friday or Saturday. Here is a parting baiku, composed during today's ride while looking for signs of spring. Yeah, I went for a bicycle ride today.

Along the river
Dogwood buds swollen dark red
Beyond magenta

I Miss Florida

Thanks, Bobo The Chimp.