Saturday, November 17, 2007

Mas Wrenching

DB and I continued our "burnout" discussion today. In many ways, he's a salesman. But I mean that in a good way. He's also an accomplished wrench, a tour guide, a store owner. And this is part of what has kept it fresh for him. He's changed locations, changed demographics, changed the way he does business. He wouldn't go back to our "old life" to save his soul. He found an equation that works; that answers the question.
We were also discussing a project I have going; my "sports car" bike. As I described my plans he laughed. "You are Projects, bro," he said. "that's your niche. The project man. No out-of the-box for you."
He's right, I adore custom builds. They are the reason I became a wrench in the first place. When someone looks at factory specs for hours and realizes they want to build from the ground up, select every piece of the bike from all the available parts, that's my cue. I want to help them. Function or fashion, techno or retro, call me. Let's stare at catalogs, debate calculations, compare sizes, ponder colors. The two-week build, the two-month build. The epitome.
I sound like fucking Martha Stewart...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's right, custom builds is the way to go.

I was actually thinking about this "burnout" today, as I'm an apprentice wrench. What if you specialize in fixies, and just that? The boss counts on you as his fixed gear expert, this way, you basically get to do whatever you want and never get tired of it.

Also I read that blog on factions, and I agree on the tension between all the different groups. One place that's good for dispelling that is critical mass, I think. Here in Boston, critical mass is amazing, the one spot where all bikers bond...