Time to load our plates up with the good stuff.



Kicking off today’s feast, Mike forwarded the following video on to me and while I watched it I actually experienced a range of emotions;

The first being a feeling of calm.
The second being a feeling of inspiration.
The third being a feeling of, “oh, just another new jack clown opening a bike shop and then portraying it as something other than it is, wherein he refers to his customers as ‘clients’ and goes to great lengths to polish turds.”

The final and fourth realization being one that this is exactly the solution to the rant I’ve had here recently about how to make sure local bikes shops stay in business, and the various mail order outfits don’t succeed.

In a nutshell, my answer to maintaining a healthy business was to not be a dick.

That’s exactly what Inverted Bike Shop is doing. Now granted, in the number of shops I’ve worked in, it was entirely impractical to methodically build and/or maintain the fleets of bikes I had to juggle with each individual customer standing and looking over my shoulder. Once in a while I would show someone how to fix a flat, or if it was a special circumstance, I would allow a customer to participate in a build, but otherwise, making that a common practice is an impossibility.

I applaud the Inverted Bike Shop for their unorthodox business plan and I wish them continued success.

Although in all of my years in the business, I have never seen a wrench so gleefully friendly.

He must have extra lithium in his grease.

While we’re on the topic of people who are accommodating to a fault, Greg from Bike Monkey Magazine sent me the following correspondence;

“You’re going to go one of these days. You need someone to whom you can pass the baton. Flint’s a good start, in my humble opinion.”

To Greg I responded quite simply;
“I would be proud to have him take the charge. That swimming pool full of gold coins of mine isn’t going to swim in itself.”

I wouldn’t pass the reins of this operation to just anyone, but if Flint wants the job, it’s his.

Now then, last week I made note of a fancy-pants new Giro mountain bikecycling shoe which I have developed a mighty crush on.

Then, at the week’s conclusion I come to find out that in cooperation with said shoe manufacturer, curators of the Epic® Rapha, have released their own spanking new road shoe;
I can’t help but wonder if this creation wasn’t at least in part inspired by my own personal aesthetic;

My influence on fashion is indeed a profound one.

Moving on… Occasionally I will make a phone call to my friends at Mission Workshop just to check in and say hi, or get a bit of advice on my love life or whatever. Two weeks ago while obtaining some of that advice, I asked Bart, “so are you all going to be in Sacramento this weekend?” “No”, Bart began. “We’re going to Berlin for some Mission Workshop top secrecy.”

“Hm.. Berlin, huh? I guess that’s pretty cool.” I responded…

“BUT SACRAMENTO IS OUR STATE CAPITAL!”

Whatever. If globe trotting is what they think is fun… Anyway, Billy sent me the following video which is a bit of a teaser on what they had cooking while knee deep in the motherland;

That right there is some new bag technolgy designed specificlly to carry your beard.

Mission Workshop. Always innovating, never imitating.

And with that bit of news, we have sopped up the last bit of goodness with our artisan breads and are hopefully feeling satisfied.

If not, with our Chewbacca/floral plate in hand, we are always free to return to the front of the line for a heaping pile of seconds.

Spread this like it's sick

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14 Responses to “Time to load our plates up with the good stuff.”

  1. Adam March 16, 2012 at 8:05 am #

    In the end, after all of that BS about fit and building blahbbitty blah blah blah, the guys saddle is too low.

    And it has Origin8 parts on it. Puke.

  2. Teamfubar March 19, 2012 at 7:03 am #

    So not cool. You show us Flint’s stellar letter but don’t show us the drawing that I am sure is EVEN MORE AWESOME than the letter that he clearly says is on the back of the letter. I expect so much more…

  3. Stevil March 19, 2012 at 7:05 am #

    I blame Greg.

  4. Gypsy March 19, 2012 at 7:23 am #

    Love me some Mission Workshop, but the new bags look like the designer has been watching too many ACRONYM videos. Granted, you could do a lot worse that to copy the most innovative designer of our time, but the the MW bags look like heavier versions of bags that ACRONYM designed 4-5 years ago. Don’t get me wrong… being the bag whore that I am, I will definitely be buying one… (that brown number needs to be mine.)

  5. Greg March 19, 2012 at 8:01 am #

    Marvelis drawing is here: http://i.imgur.com/G75HV.jpg

    Everything is my fault.

  6. Velorambling March 19, 2012 at 8:07 am #

    Fantastic Thats all I wanted to say but inter web told me I must type more

  7. pablo picnostral March 19, 2012 at 9:47 am #

    I still hate Rapha. (mad face)

  8. cary March 20, 2012 at 10:26 am #

    Had we this bag technology during the cold war, trading secret microfiche documents would have been so much cooler.

  9. major pita March 21, 2012 at 3:51 pm #

    Y U NO GREASE HEADSET CUP FACE????????????

    • thejonpalmer August 13, 2012 at 5:11 pm #

      Because it is a press fit. You generally only grease threads. Do you grease your square taper bottom brackets? Would you want your headset cups to rotate in the headtube?

      • Stevil August 13, 2012 at 5:22 pm #

        In this case, metal on metal can lead to seizing up and/or creaking. It doesn’t change the I.D. of the headtube or the O.D. of the cup. They won’t spin. It’s science.

        • thejonpalmer August 14, 2012 at 8:58 am #

          Sure. But with a tolerance fit as long as the O.D. is between .1mm and .3mm bigger than the I.D. it will fit in there properly without spinning or damaging the metal.

          Sheldon Brown, UBI and John Barnett all agree, you don’t need to and shouldn’t grease press fit pieces, such as headset cups and american/bmx bottom bracket cups. There is no need, water won’t get in between those surfaces and the grease could possibly make the cups slide further and damage the frame.

          Yes I am nerd

          • Stevil August 14, 2012 at 9:26 am #

            Fair enough. I just base what I do on years of working in shops, being brought up by people who are far smarter than I am, and practical experience.

  10. FM March 22, 2012 at 7:24 am #

    Rapha sucks. $450 for white cycling shoes? How about some old beat down sidi’s, a good long ride, and $350 towards the charity, non-profit, or advocacy group of your choice? Good to see narcissism and conspicuous consumption is alive & well!