Doing my best...

have you ever gone into that bike shop, or music store, or perhaps a running shoe store, and just found the employees to have an eliteist attitude? In my opnion bike shop employees are the number one culprits in this. Such as when Dad, Eric and I went to that shop in Salt Lake. We were there for at least half an hour with almost no other customers in the shop. We looked at bikes, skis, boots, clothes...everything. The whole time we were there two employees sat at the front counter talking about things, that to one listening in, would think these guys are the s@%$ in the outdoors. But never once, was I asked if I had a question. Potentially, we could've been looking to buy a 1000 dollar bike (which is huge in an industry like this). Even though I wasn't going to spend any money, they didn't know that. A simple hello can I help you find something would have totally satisfied me. But nothing. I don't even remeber them saying something like thank you after Eric bought something. Honestly, I wont ever spend any money there if I ever go back. If I was their boss, I'd fire them.
Maybe I'm jumping the gun a bit on firing but it is often overlooked how important it is to make people feel welcome in a retail shop. I've been guilty of this too on occasion, but the more I'm on the other end, the more I try to never let that happen.
The more I deal with customers, put on that smiling face, and put myself into the customers position and understand why that piece of crap bike for 300 bucks is actually a sweet bike for them, I realize I feel much better when a customer leaves feeling on top of the world because they now own a bike. In my standards, I wouldn't be caught dead on the bike they bought, but to them, its their pride and joy....afterall, they can tell their friends this is a 300 dollar bike!!!!
Many customers who buy bikes from our shop say how great our customer service is. Especially people who have looked in other shops for bikes while trying to find that right one. So, although I work at the "Wally world" of the cycling industry, I feel good because someone who comes to buy a bike from me will honestly feel that they were helped w/ sincerity.

Its all about who you know...

My first year at Dixie State the freshman had to go to a seminar. The speaker was some motivational guy and I don't remember everything he said, but I do remember one key point he tried to get across. He basically stressed the fact that no matter what you do in life, how well you do in school...one of the most important things is making contacts. You never know when that one guy you met may just unlock the key to something you may have otherwise been lost in obtaining.
Perfect example is this. I want to learn welding skills. So possibly in the future I can build my own bikes, and if anything else, i can learn more about bikes. My plan was to take a welding class at PCC this spring but unfortunatley none of the classes fit into my schedule and I've had to postpone it. But today at work a fairly regular customer stopped by. An older gentleman about dad's age, but a guy who rides locally just as much as me. Although we've yet to see eachother on the trail, we both share the passion for the local singletrack. Tonight when he came by he mentioned how he built a 1950's schwinn into a trail machine. He did this by welding the essential derailleur hangars and brake mounts to the old frame. Turns out the bike was featured in a MTB magasine. And all the work was done at the PCC welding shop...with his good friend the teacher. The teacher is apparently a bike fanatic and for many years has had a passion for bikes, helping students build prototypes and other man powered "cars".
Long story short, he gave me the name of the guy and said stop by and say you're a friend of mine and want to learn, that he would be more than willing to help me learn and go out of his way to make something work around my schedule.
It's about who you know and on tuesday, the next day I'm at school I will be stopping by and saying teach me oh great one.

Anyone there?

So, I decided to start posting again, motivated by others who have rejuvenated their efforts...Ben, Eric, someone ele probably. Anyways, anyone out there? Am I wasting my time?
Just started or re-started school today, just one class for the winter intersession, but its going to be busy. The teacher expects about 6 hrs of work outside of class for every day in class. After the first day spending about 4 hrs to do the "easy" homework, I think shes serious. It'll be good though, teach me to stay on top of things. Class was good, made sure to strategically position myself in a seat next to a hot girl. Afterall, the first day is most important, everyone always seems to sit in the same place as they do the first day...so far so good.
It's good to be bcak in school, especuially because it will open up more time to ride, not having to work during the good riding times. It'll give me a chance to get to El Prieto and possibly be confronted by some I may have bothered on socalmtb.com w/ my big mouth, oh well. They cant catch me anyways. L8r

Engineering

Go to MTBR.com and view the interbike videos. Basically, short videos from various companies talking about new products. Afterwards, think about how awesome it would be to be involved in this. motivation, thats what it is for me.

Are the trusted methods the best?

Just a random thought which is running through my mind...thought by sharing it, I might receive some feedback to its practical application.
A bicycle drivetrain runs simply. A chain runs over two chain rings, through different sizes in the chain rings, the number of pedal revolutions determine the number of times the wheel spins. The closer the size of the two opposing chain rings, a lower level of power output is needed to turn the rear wheel. Unfortunatley, the wheel turns much slower if the gears are at a 1x1 ratio opposed to a 2x1 system, yet it requires less power. Although a lower gear ratio requires less power, more pedal revolutions are required to achieve the same distance (or number of wheel revolutions) of a higher ratio.
Now, with that in mind, I'm going to bring rock climbing into the equation. When climbing big walls, multiple days are spent on a rock face and all the required supplies must be hauled up the wall one rope length at a time. The method used to make the chore of pulling 100 or more pounds up a sheer face by a rope is accomplished with a pulley system. Essentially it is the same way different gear sizes are used to vary the power needed to turn the rear wheel on a bike, yet the difference is, when hauling on a big wall, if you pull 1 foot of rope through the system, the haul bag moves one foot closer to you. A bicycles low gear ratio will create a lower output of power needed to turn the wheel but will not mimic the efficiency of the pulley systems distance which is achieved.
Bikes have been standarized to use the drivetrain system they use now, a chain running over two rings or pulleys. As we've seen, the stadardized wheel size has changed to a more efficient system...so why not wonder? Is it feasible to think that incorporating a pulley system in the crankset along with various gear ratios into a bicycle which may in turn create a more efficient system of pedaling? What if the chain ran through four chain rings instead of two, could a drastic decrease of power output needed to push an identical gear ratio w/ only two chainrings result? In a C-130 engine, the gearbox, which utilizes power output from the jet engine attached to it, uses a planetary gear system (many smaller gears turning one larger gear) to achieve insane amounts of torque raising the gear ratio yet using the same power output.. Could this somehow be applied to a bicycle to create an even more efficient pedaling system than what we've been told is the best?
I don't know all the physics behind this idea (for instance i the friction from multiple chain rings is more substatial than the benefit) and maybe someone will say something to make me say..."oops, yeah, there is no sense in that", but to me right now I see logic in it. There is always a better way, if that weren't true we would still be riding fixed gears or wooden wheels, or maybe solid iron framesets. Innovation drives everything, although I'm sure my concept can be shut down quickly, there is a lot that can be improved, as long as the desire to create something better is there... it will happen.
As i said before...just a thought, give me your feedback, you cant offend me.


PS...I had to pull a tick from my leg yesterday!! I hope I dont get lyme disease.

Sean Meets Parked Car...

...on a bike. The bike is ok, but I gotta wear this for 2 weeks. Nothin broke, just a damaged tendon. I'd write more but its kinda hard w/ this thing on.

Quick solution

I took my geared bike out, kept dropping the chain in the front and screwed up my ride. So to fix the problem I made a chain keep out of a front derailleur. By bending off excess parts and puting in a longer limit screw to extend the cage to the middle ring, I made something pretty small that keeps the chain on tight from both the side and the top in two spots to hold it down when the chain loses tension... I think it will work better than a 3rd eye. Anyways, here it is. Now all i need is the bash guard.