Winter at the Shop

We often hear at the bike shop "you guys must be really be slow this time of year". The truth is, we are pretty slow. At least compared to the summer. However, what really changes is the pace of work. We still have enough to do it's just not the frantic craziness of summer. Which I is pretty nice to say the least.

So what goes on during a normal day in January at the shop? I took a few pictures of things going on around the store on a typical day.

Always lots of new bike builds....

New build, Lapierre Pulsium. Definitely has a different look to it.

Interesting rear brake adaptor. The frame is designed to work with both standard reach and "mid reach" or 57mm brake calipers. This adds some extra tire clearance for running fat road tires.

Another build starts.

New Marin Lombard, not a bad commuter bike for 1k.

Niner Jet9, another fresh build. Trying to get the tires set-up tubeless has been a bit of a project. They seem to be finally holding air now. 

Besides a lot of out of the box, new bike builds, winter is a good time for working on custom bikes. Some customers know this and will come in during the winter to work with us to build their new dream bike.

These wheels are going on a custom built Gunnar Fast Lane.

DT 350 hubs and Velocity A23 rims, designed for light touring with lots climbs for a light weight rider.  

Fat slick tires and big cassette installed on the new wheels for the Gunnar, for long and hilly road rides.

 It is always fun when new products come in that we haven't seen in person before. These are my new rims for my old, freshly painted, Gunnar. They are Pacenti SL23 rims, 24mm wide and relatively light. I'm interested to see how they build-up. More on this project later. 

Nicely finished brake track and wear indicator on the Pacenti rims.

My recently painted Gunnar, ready to be build back up.

Lots of people in madison ride all winter. So we stay surprisingly busy all year working on bikes.

Doing things like installing studded tires.

Amazing how many people use the bike path that runs by the shop.

In the summer the path can be backed up a long way with riders waiting to cross West Washington Ave.

All of these pictures were taken in about a 5 minute period, pretty busy bike path for a not-so-nice  January day.

This bike came in for a tune-up. Pretty comfy looking handlebar set-up. And yes, she wore her chain out.  

Those are some pretty sweet pedals! The bearings are a little loose, I'll tighten them up when I do the tune-up. 

Our new bike rack just got finished last week. Winter is the perfect time for shop improvement projects.

Stay warm and get out for a ride in the snow!