I know it's a little early for year end reflections, but tonight is our Annual Holiday/Season End/Winter Sabbatical Send Off Party (7pm, stop by!), which for me really signals the end of the year.
2014 started off with some bike riding in Singapore and got more exciting from there. Finding a new (bigger!) location for the shop. Building that new location out. Moving to it. Adding room meant adding services like winter storage, and bike fitting. Team Monster Truck trucking its way to a great CX season! Quietly starting work on Hub Powderworks. Not so quietly unveiling Hub Powderworks. It's been exciting and stressful and so much fun.
Looking forward- I'm going to stay put for my winter sabbatical (staybatical?). I've got bikes to retro-reflectively powder coat. It won't be all work- I am going to don my best winter gear and head out for some rides. I'm setting a goal of 500 miles during my time off. Then we'll be on to the next exciting year in Hub Bicycle history.
Somebody asked how long we've been in the new space. I answered "Three weeks." and Erich Corrected me- we're actually going into our 5th week in our new digs. Time flies...
The space already feels like home. We're doing a nice job of 'breaking in' the nice bamboo floors, the work benches are fully stocked and organized, and we've got the system for locating bikes in the giagantic (and slightly creepy) basement dialed.
We still have plenty of work to do. Jim's been hard at work setting up for bike fits (more info on that to come). We've been brainstorming ideas for more clinic and class offerings (more info on that to come), as well as other fun/educational/different things to do. There are many more options to get creative with this much space. It's exciting.
In the mean time, we're going to keep on keeping on with the tune-ups, accessorizing (lights season is almost upon us), and #cannolifridaying. Stay tuned to watch the shop progress.
The doors have been open for a year. Days passed, money in and out, hours clocked- there are plenty of business stats to measure time passed. Those numbers are great (and necessary), but they don't give the full picture of Hub's first year. I've been thinking recently of the other ways to measure what's happened in the last year.
Some other numbers- flats fixed (393), wheel building lessons taught (3), cars that hit me while riding to the shop (1), bikes basics tuned (146), CX races raced (6), DFL finishes (1), tubes recycled (2 70lb boxes), days I've been happy to come to work (365).
The visual indications* of time passed:
I'm so very grateful to have been here for a year. Thanks to everyone for the support, flat fixes, and tune ups. Here's to a great year two.
*That means mostly how dirty things have gotten...
I often get asked how I got into this. Bike shops. It's a long short story.
It all started in 1996...
At Southwest Cycle- I was the shop kid, during summers and school vacations. I fixed a lot of flat tires, built a lot of bikes, inspected a lot of rental bikes, and installed bike racks on rental cars.
I graduated college, got a 'real job' and hated it. I went to UBI as a fun, nerdy break from working (I think it's called a 'vacation'), and knew I wanted back in.
Next was a summer at Cycle Mania- I worked as a mechanic, spent some time working with the shop's road racing team (cat 1, 2). Then the summer was up and so was that job.
I was lured to Eugene, OR for a full-time, year-round job at Paul's Bicycle Way of Life (PBWOL, or "peeb-wall")- Lead wrenching there, I worked on lots of mountain bikes, commuter bikes, burning man bikes, Oregon Country Fair bikes and more commuter bikes. I was also given the opportunity to teach bike maintenance classes at the University of Oregon (go Ducks!). That was wicked fun.
Then a move to Portland, OR to manage Veloshop- cyclocross, cyclocross, cyclocross, and commuter bikes, and lots of fixed gears. And good coffee.
Then a jump across town for a couple of months at Bike n' Hike, for an education about how a hugely successful, multi-million dollar bike shop works. Somewhere between Veloshop and Bike n' Hike the idea for Hub Bicycle Co was born. My desire to return to the east coast, and to Boston in particular, finally overcame my love for food carts and bird art.
Hub Bicycle was born on paper in the fall of 2009 and the doors opened February 1, 2010.
Hub Bicycle Co. has a home! It's been a long shop space hunting season, but we finally bagged one. The shop is located at 918 Cambridge St. Cambridge (our fair city), MA 02141. It's a busy little street with a bike lane, in a great neighborhood. Let the bike fun begin!
Hub Bicycle, Before
Looks pretty empty right now, but don't worry, over the course of this New England winter we'll be getting things in order. We've already got a shop dog on board, so... check that off the list... Look for a Grand Opening in Spring 2010. Until then, it's shop building time!!
.JPG)
