If I owned a bike shop I'd..........

I must say this picture makes as giddy as a school girl when I think about what could be.

I'm sure it's a lot of hard work and financially very risky but I'd love to own a bike shop. When we moved to Charlotte and the wife said it was fine to get a part time job. I jumped at the chance to work at a Bike shop. Fact is I'd probably do it for free. I love talking about bikes, I love getting husbands riding with their wives, I love getting families riding together, I love helping people get back on a bike after many years of not riding (btw, the saying is true "It's like riding a bike, you never forget how to ride). It's been a dream of mine for a while. Needless to say I've been in a lot of shops over the years. When on vacation or in a new city I always try to check out the local bike shop. Over the years I've made mental notes of things of I've liked and disliked.  Here's my list of the perfect bike shop

Products- I'd carry brands and products that I believe are the best or at least serve a purpose. I would carry only quality products, if I wouldn't put it on my bike then it doesn't belong in my shop. Employees are the heartbeat of the store and know what's the latest and greatest- I'd ask them for their opinion. Ask them "What products do you want?" Then buy it and watch it sell! It's very difficult trying to sell a product that you wouldn't put on your commuter.

Service- Repairs would be quick but also thorough. If a customer came in for a derailleur adjustment but needed a wheel rebuild, I'd want them to know that before they left my store not a few days later out on the trail. I wouldn't nickel and dime every repair. If a customer bought some grips, kickstand, saddle or the like from me and I wasn't busy I'd be glad to help them out by installing it. Also my mechanics would work on every bike - my top mechanic would work on a $10,000 Specialized Venge as well as a $100 Huffy.

Community- I'd really like to be as involved in the cycling community as much as possible. I'd want my customers to know and realize that I'm fighting for their rights to be on the road, that I support all of the great bike related organizations out there such as Trips for kids, Bike Law, Bike! Charlotte, weeklyrides.com, and Take a kid Mountain Biking......... Why? Because I know how cycling can change lives. It changed mine!

Rides- Of course we would have weekly rides. Road rides, mountain rides, night rides, urban/ greenway rides, and any other fun ride I could think of. I'd also have a day set aside for employees and owners to ride together and lunch afterwards together. I'd want my employees to know I appreciate them and treat them as I would want to be treated. People in the bike industry are not doing it for the money- they are doing it because they love bikes! They love being around bikes, talking about bikes, helping others find the joy that only a bike can bring, they love bringing a family together to ride bikes. Take a kid mountain biking would be every weekend. Relevant clinics would be once a month.

Atmosphere- I would like the atmosphere to more like a neighborhood coffee shop than a Mercedes Benz dealership. I'd want my customers to be able to ask anything. I'd want them to pick my brain. I'd want them feel they could ask me a question and feel like they got an honest answer. I'd also like to serve free coffee. I'd also have a place to chill, relax, and watch a bike video, or live race. Sofas, arm chairs, and coffee tables would be just as normal as the smell of rubber tires.

Employees- I'd like my employees to work as teammates rather than adversaries! No commission sales, it's not that I don't want to reward the sales people it's that I don't like the used car salesmen pounce. Once again relaxed and comfortable I'd want the approach to be helping the customer find the best bike for them, not selling them the most expensive one. I want the customer to feel like my employees were their friends listening and giving the best advice.

It's been a wild ride so far, Maybe one day this dream will come true? If it does I hope you come see me for your next bike!

Wanna see my VD?

By the way VD also stands for Van Dessel, as in the bike company. Check them out here if you like what you see. Once I decided to try CX I wanted to get a CX bike - I could have started on a mountain bike but felt it would be a huge disadvantage. And on some courses it would be. I first bought a RedLine Conquest pro, I very nice bike and had great reviews. But there was something wrong with it. It was a 54 and I ride a 56. I thought you were supposed to go down 1 size but that was wrong. See what Mr. Myerson says on the subject here. I found this info out by helping a friend get into CX. So after realizing that the Redline was to small I've decided to find a new CX bike before the season starts. Bikes I looked at were the Redline Conquest, Specialized Crux, Masi, Marin, Rocky Mountain, and Van Dessel. After researching all of them I decided on the Van Dessel Gin and Trombones.

I've always loved the look of their bikes. A little flashy, great paint, and from the reviews I have read great geometry. The forks are massive, very stiff and full Carbon including steerer tube. They also have carbon rear stays. Ordering was painless and the frame arrived a few days later. I immediately opened it up and unpacked it. It looked great! In the box was a frame, fork, headset, carbon fork plug, and a bag of miscellaneous parts. I should say that I have never built up a bike completely from scratch before. I have always wanted to try and this was the perfect time to give it a shot because I was going to use all of the components from the Redline which included Rival, Avid Ultimate brakes, FSA stem, bars, seatpost. Just needed to order a BB30 crank since the Redline had gpx.

Build Specs

Frame - Van Dessel Gin & Trombones

Shifters - SRAM Rival

Rear Derailleur - SRAM Rival

Front Derailleur - SRAM Rival

Brakes - Avid Ultimates Canti

Cranks - FSA Omega (upgrade will be SRAM Force)

Saddle - Fizik Aliante

Wheels - Ritchey Pro (Upgrading to Industry Nine i25's)

Tires - Schwalbe Racing Ralphs

Just unpacked the G&T now it's relaxing on the sofa.

 

 

 Beautiful Carbon - looks like it's made of snake skin to me.

 

 

First time in the stand. Seat tube, Fork and headset installed.

 

 

 

Took me awhile to figure out what these little horse shoe shaped pieces were in the package. They are so you can use a mountain bike wheel with 135mm spacing instead of the traditional road spacing 130mm. I love it when a manufactured pays attention to the details!

 

Another View from the back of the spacers. 

 

 

 

Avid Ultimates and Racing Ralphs! Soon to include I9's. 

 

 

Massive Carbon fork with Ultimates. 

 

 

 Rear of the bike. This will be how all of my fellow competitors will see my bike as I go by them.

 

 

 

Clean cassette and Rival Derailleur taken from the Redline.



Still waiting on Crank. Just got an email that it should be here Monday. Hopefully by next weekend I'll be able to fine tune the fit then cut the steerer tube, and wrap the bars.

 

 

 Almost finished. Sorry about the bad picture.

 

 

 

Conclusion: I had a lot of fun building my own bike. As I said before I've wanted to do this for some time now and can now cross that off of the Bucket List. I would totally do it again given the right circumstances and being cost effective.