Category: Crossroads

Today a customer brought his bike in and purchased a rack which the Bike Hermit installed- without charging for his time. On Saturday last, he installed a rack and new grips and frame bags on a customer’s bike. The bike and all the parts had belonged to Bike Touring News just hours before. Is that exceptional- or not even average- customer service, the Bike Hermit wonders. While visiting in Danville, CA a few years ago the Bike Hermit happened to be in a bike shop when a customer was consummating his purchase for what appeared to be a not inexpensive road bike. Part of his purchase was new road bike shoes. When he was asked by the customer how the cleats on his new shoes should be installed, the cashier person didn’t even budge from his stool as he told the customer basically to figure it out. That appears to be piss poor customer service.
From a strictly business view we should probably figure out how long each widget takes to install and charge accordingly. Maybe the Bike Hermit is the slowest bike mechanic in the world but if he charged for the time he spent installing fenders- for the most flagrant example- the labor charge would far exceed the cost of the fenders.
Working on bikes is something he would almost do for free, wait a minute……he does do it for free. Sky King and the Bike Hermit would, and do, talk about bikes and bike touring for free too. As a business model, we probably won’t be on Shark Tank soon, but as long as we can spend January in West Texas, this is the best job ever!

(NOTE: I wrote this before our recent, astonishing trip to ride bicycles in Death Valley.)
At the end of our second complete calendar year since starting the Bike Touring News blog and store I can say; “I think this might work!” Enough people appreciate the value of what we do here that we have been able to pay all of our bills. That might not seem like much to you. In the past week different customers in the store have said “….what a great hobby” and “…I assume you are semi-retired?” to which I replied; “Sure”. The fact is, we still need to work and I am grateful to each and every customer for helping to support us by buying from our online store or by appearing at the physical shop with their wallets. If you are one of these people, then thank you.

At first, I was a little unsure about how the blog and online store should relate to each other, in fact the blog came first and hence the store actually is a sub-domain URL of the blog. But going forward (I hate it when people say “going forward”) I think it makes sense to think of the blog as the marketing department of our company. Our tagline is “Empowering The Bicycle Traveler” and we want to do that with information as well as physical goods. Your feedback is important to that effort. We can sit here and look at Google Analytics all day and read forums to try to figure out what people want and/or have questions about. Or we can blather on about stuff that is interesting to us. But please let us know in the comments if there is anything you want to learn about or see or if you have any suggestions for either site.

Now for some holiday cheer:
My wife’s father passed away Sunday last. He was 88 years old and he died, officially, of congestive heart failure …really he died of old age and apathy. She had cared for him for the past seven years- ever since his wife, her mother, my mother in law, died from cancer. My wife had taken care of her mother in the final years too, since her husband had already given up and since her other daughter couldn’t be bothered, and since her sons lived out of state. None of this is surprising. I could have written the story 20 years ago when they moved here to be closer to us.
How do I feel about all this? (It is about me, after all.) I feel relief that it’s over. His care was an ever increasing drain on her time. I feel resentment towards him. I think he took advantage of her generous spirit. I feel resentment towards her. She sacrificed a lot of time taking care of her parents. How do I rather she had spent her time? I don’t know.
I married my wife because I loved her and wanted to be with her. I still do. I didn’t marry her because of her parents but I definitely inherited that, which is OK- part of the package. I was never close to my parents and I rarely miss them, but my wife loved her parents deeply and I respect that. It’s only been a few days since her father died and I’m impatient to see what not having him around means for her. I observe her even more closely and interpret her actions and moods even more inaccurately than I normally do. Do I really care about her though, or am I more concerned about what his death means for me. I feel as though I’ve been supporting and understanding, but it’s been over ten years for Christ’s sake. If I don’t really care about him and my concern for her goes only so far as what it all means for me, then why was I crying today? I have to admit that his death has affected me. There is more of a sense of finality because he was the last of our parents…..as she said moments after he died; “we are orphans now”. The existential angst has been a little overwhelming today. Will I end up in diapers, unable to speak or move, vaguely aware (or acutely aware…who knows?) of familiar voices around and have no way to communicate my desire for a beer, a little water, or oblivion? Seems nightmarish to me, though some might say; “he went peacefully, surrounded by loved ones”. I will die…. violently, peacefully, suddenly, unexpectedly, accidentally or by my own hand…. I will die. But right now I want to go ride my bicycle in the desert.

Anybody with a computer and an internet connection can have a blog. A cynic might assume that since the entry barriers are so low  bloggers might be shallow and narcissistic and their blogs trivial and insignificant.  And since traditional journalism has  fact checkers and editors it is, in theory at least, reliable. What’s to certify that a blog or blogger is accredited or has value?
In reality, the blogosphere reveals to me that there are many, many smart, articulate people out there with much to share. People who might not get a chance to share without the internets.

In “The Importance of Respect” from The Stone Mind blog Justin writes ” When we come to a climb without respect or an interest in learning, we see nothing but a goal to be achieved. In such a state, we might wish to skip to the end by any means, as a child who moves his piece to the final square of a board game and mistakes himself the winner. We might want to announce our accomplishment or log it on a scorecard, but what we have really learned cannot be verbalized or assigned a numerical value“.
The sentiment applies to bike touring.  Choosing to travel under my own power means I need to be aware and mindful of where I am. Because I don’t have any choice…I’m not going anywhere very fast. Having self-appointed expectations leads to self-induced disappointments. When I hear somebody say they want to ride the bike across the US I want to ask; Why? If it’s because they love being out on the bike for hours on end and the feeling of freedom that goes with it, then I think that’s great. If they have something to prove to themselves or to somebody else, I think why not stay home and train for a triathlon. There are too many things beyond our control on a bike tour to have unwavering goals. If we get sick or injured or have a major mechanical or simply get discouraged and decide to go home, it shouldn’t be seen as some sort of failure. I just realized that my recent tours have probably been too goal oriented. I gave myself a certain amount of time to cover a certain distance and I set it more or less in stone by purchasing airline tickets in advance. I think I’ll do an open ended tour next time. I’ll just start riding and when I run out of time or motivation, I’ll quit. In between, I’ll try to pay attention and to be present and humble.

Blogging has the power to form connections between people. I used to read the entries of a gentleman living in Bayou Blue, LA who went by the name Old Fool. He wrote about simple chores around his home, about his wife, bicycles and sometimes, obliquely, about politics. I got the feeling there was some anger, but he never came across as hateful.
Old Fool’s last post indicated he was having some difficulty typing, and I recently learned (from another blogger) that he suffered a stroke and passed away in September, 2012. I couldn’t understand how I could feel so sad about somebody I didn’t even know.  But I sensed a humble person, one with a kindred, eremitic spirit. It has been another reminder to me that I have little control over events.
R.I.P. Old Fool.

The Bike Hermit gets discouraged. Maybe too easily. He knows he’s not the only one. Sometimes the most basic of tasks are hard to get started. What’s the point after all? Typing on the computer is a struggle. The sentences come out short and clipped. What’s the problem ? It appears, outwardly at least, that everybody else takes care of the events their lives have assigned to them cheerfully and without question…..they just do what they do and they are what they are….. la,la,la,la,la. The Bike Hermit knows that’s not true. Hmmm, the Bike Hermit thinks he’s special. He knows he likes to coddle his feelings of self loathing and regret…why is he not more creative? why does he make everything so difficult? why does he sabotage himself? what value is there to what he does?

In the morning, puke it out onto the virtual page. That actually feels better. A lot better.