I came into bikes as an adult kind of accidentally, meaning I accidentally blew up the engine in my pick up truck and found myself a non-driver. A friend took me to a now defunct place here in Seattle’s U-District called The Bike Shack where we proceeded to assemble a bare old orange frame into a working bicycle. Watching it all come together over a matter of just a few hours was amazing to me, and I was hooked as soon as I rode it home. After riding that summer I went down to Ashland Oregon to attend The United Bicycle Institute learning wheel building , bike mechanics and frame building. I came back and lucked into a job, well really more like a 6 year apprenticeship at Wright Brothers Cycle Works in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood. It was an amazing place to learn. Owned for 40 years by master mechanic Charles Hadrann and still kicking it also functions as a Co-Op with thousands of members allowing me to see and learn about a dizzying array of bikes from every era. I may not be able to solve every problem but I’m more than willing to give it a go.
I love bikes, I thoroughly enjoy bringing neglected old bikes back onto the road or making a brand new machine hum. Sometimes I wonder which I like better, spinning the pedals or spinning the wrenches.