Yesterday was the "I have an intense personality and I am going to try and ruin your day" day. I was in high spirits all day and had to deal with too many customers! Too many! The guy who got up in Keely's face while she was building a wheel, the guy who insisted on getting upset that I did not have the pursuit bars he wanted, the indecisive messenger bag girl with the "I feel guilty about not buying it from you, I gotta go." complex. The customers who acts like I am screwing them over when I sell them a tube for $4. The customers who buy expensive shit, return it, want it back and return it again. Please, just make up your mind. I don't care if you do or don't want to buy it, just figure your shit out and come talk to me.

Actually, the catch is I DO care. As frustrating as many people can be, I take all the bike shop interactions very personally. I'm still thinking about the interactions that went to shit yesterday and what I can do next time around to not let people walk out the door unsatisfied. I have been a customer in shops for years before owning one and, I swore to never be "that" bike shop. The snobby, eliteist, hard to talk to, cooler than you shop. I've been getting better at being diplomatic and, forgiving in my business interactions. Not everyone knows a ton about bikes and it can be intimidating to try and figure the stuff out. I like to think I am the exception to most shops.

But not yesterday. Some days you just do not have the energy to wade through peoples bullshit. "You know what is one of the most annoying things for a mechanic? When the customer hovers over them working." I calmly told an uber-annoying older guy yesterday. "I know, I've been a wrench for 30 years! Mt. Tam, racing, shops, old school, blah, blah, blah..." "Ok, then why are you still standing there?" I replied as I had to shoo him off, away from Keely. Shit! I don't care! Show us some respect, and maybe we will humor your senile rambling.

Ahem.

...are amazing. Truly. I still don't have any components to get them built up so I dug around upstairs, pulled some trashy wheels out of the recycling and banged them back into shape and got the A bike running. Just in time to ride out to the cross practice at Alpenrose Velodrome (good job Craig Sinanian winning the madison last night! I would have been there but, I was busy moving!) hung out at the practice and then rode home in the dark through the Oregon Zoo. Kinda scary, I did not have any lights and was not sure if any of the gates across the road were open or closed.

Thursday morning was the Sellwood cross clinic. 3-4 sets of a fast cross course set up in the Sellwood park. Rode the Vanilla down there and practiced riding from the back and moving up during the race. I get antsy when I am not in the front, get real nervous when I cannot see the lead rider and what is going on in the front of the race. Good practice. My legs are sore. "Explosive!" (that is what I say in my head on run ups.) Be explosive. I must look hilarious, just killing myself on the run up, trying to get those legs to move faster than they ever have.

I had a pair of 10v Record levers and a 9v Dura ace drivetrain, slapped that on the bike. I know, blasphemy, mixing the two together. It is all I got! Works great, just wants to drop from the 3rd to the 1st cog instead of to the 2nd position. If I feather the lever is sticks right back into the 2nd. Maybe a wafer thin spacer will fix that.

Still waiting and still debating what grouppo I should run on my cross bikes. I am committed to Campy Record. Yet, two $300 derailleurs is excessive, for me (underfunded racer). I should spend that on flight and paying Kylee to cover the shop while I go get stomped on the East coast. Shimano 9v stuff is getting cheap right now too. I could snag a pair of STI's and just go with the less expensive 9v stuff. That is what I am feeling. Though it is not going to stop me from shooting one more email to CampyUSA asking for help.

I am going to rant again. What is up with CampyUSA? I think I understand the business plan. Keep the product elite. Don't hook ANYONE up, domestic talent, teams etc, no pro deals, employee purchases, no risky/potentially pointless sponsorships. That keeps the Campagnolo name and identity "boutique". If you want it, you have to pay for it. And we ALL want it. There is this huge culture of Campy obsessed people, it has always been this far off dream of mine to actually own a full Campy Record group. A frustrating thing for me, being a tiny, tiny dealer is stocking and moving Campy product. I fill my cases with Campy and people scoff at the price. ("I can get it cheaper online.") Then, if I want to stick it on my bikes, which will only help me sell more of it, I have to put down a grip of cash and don't get any kind of discount or pat on the back. To be honest, if Campy just made a tiny effort, shit, a free tshirt or something, I would be more than willing to drop a ton of cash on Record parts, destroy them racing cross and praise Campy up and down as being the coolest company ever. I suspect they are victim to the dilemma most companies are: fed up with demanding and ungrateful racers, riders and dealers. Point being, I consider myself a great marketing opportunity, it is a shame they don't jump at it. I already push Campy a ton for very little reward, most people do NOT buy thier Campy gear in my shop and I get no product support. It is somewhat of a deadend for me business wise. What sense does it make for me to stock a product that does not sell? Hmmm...

Now, I sit, nursing my legs. A soy mocha and snickerdoodle finished. Dreading the wheels I have to build today. Not really, I love the wheelbuilding. Love it. What was yesterday? A 10v ultegra front wheel for Mark W. A 9v ultegra rebuild for Steven H on a fucked rim, gotta rebuild it today...

Ouch, got to run too. Been working on the computer for far too long!

After getting trounced by Santiam cycles (Evan Plews, teammate) and, the Bike Gallery team (Matt Slaven, Brian Wilson.) in the 2 person elite category, I am back in Portland enjoying a soy mocha. All quiet in the shop, it is Labor day. Hopefully it will stay quiet in here and, I'll be able to get my Vanilla cross bike rolling today with some parts I have laying around so I can get down to training.

I feel really good. Nice and tired. My butt hurts, my wrist is sore. We had a great weekend. Veloshop (again) had the MOST number of teams and racers out there. Our 4 person ss team won, our 2 and 4 person ladies both took silver!

A funny thing about the race, I opted to start for my team (Cary Miller), woke up at 6am and got ready, went to the riders meeting and asked the promoter "how long to the start?", "A few minutes." Ha! Not one minute after I start peeling my jacket and shoes off he shouts GO! And off the race goes Le Mans style, up the hill, away from me. I just laughed and started running as fast as I could. The tactic was for me to lay it down on the first lap and get a clear gap and then keep ahead of everyone. I'm like 500m behind the entire race. Grab my bike, run past the tail end of the race and run, run, run up to some riders I recognise, find a gap in the clogged singletrack and hop on my bike just to have the rear wheel shift out of the dropout. I pedal for a second till it locks up and then I get off and block the trail for all the riders I just passed so I can futz with my rear wheel and get back to running past them all again. I made up the lost time and just tore the descent apart! I kept passing people and asking how many more in front. I got all the way up to 3rd when I came through the start area. Ha! The promoter apologised after I rolled in. The kicker is that the fastest lap of the race won a sweet Yakima rack. Sans mechanicals and errors, I think I would have qualified.

Or not.

I do have a bone to pick about the race. Planning on emailing the promoter about it but, I am pretty sure he does not read my site so... The race cost about $50-60 a person + the $15 late fee I had to throw down cause I am too busy to get my shit preregistered! I walked away with a medal and our ss winners walked away with clocks. I got to thinking about payout and race quality. There were only a handfull of elite level racers at this really great event. I am pretty sure no one walked away with cash. My thoughts are not totally together on this but, with such high entry fees, a REALLY long drive and expenses. At least the elite men and women should get some sort of cash prize. Shit, $40 would at least buy a couple of the winners dinner or fill the gas tank for the drive home. My teammates were all pumped about the raffle, a case of Red Bull, free Clif Bars etc. I appreciate the raffle aspect of mountain racing but, if elite riders knew they would have a chance to win a few bucks I think more of them would grace these small local races with thier presence and that would raise the bar of the competition and the quality of the races.

Yeah. That is why Veloshop is paying $500 to the elite men and women (equal payout) in the first race have I ever promoted! The racers that take thier racing really seriously should get a little help for thier effort. Keep them motivated and keep them involved in cycling.

End rant.

I did have a lot of fun. It was a good kick in the pants for cross. I've got to get fast. Cary is an awesome teammate and having a grip of friends there to heckle and support each other was invaluable. Oh, HUGE shout out to Brett Jarolomiek who was not even going to race and then decides at 6am to just do it solo. He did 10 laps (my 2 person team did 12) got 4th I think.

This is my roadie teammate that has not raced in months! Amazing.

I cannot get my rent money out of the bank due to the holiday but, I CAN put an Ipod on my bank card today and get it this week! Wait, I need cranks, bars, stems, and seatposts first. And, Brian (housemate, teammate, I'll mention him alot) Ellin mentioned that MAC is releasing some Ipod-cellphone thing this Wednesday, I should wait and see if the others get cheaper, that $400 would cover my plane ticket to nationals. We did have the brilliant idea to get Apple to sponsor the team and set us up with matching pink Ipods.

Know anyone at Apple?