Goddamn recyclers

Nightmare scenario-

Since I'm still working a day a week at Trophy, I've been using that as a 'reliable' place to ship stuff, since they're always open during delivery hours. Last week my Dad shipped a bike from a customer of his who had broken the frame. It arrived on Wednesday, and I stopped by to check out the box. Things seemed to have arrived intact, the frame would have been an easy fix, probably one of the easier ones I've done. I hung out at the shop a bit on my lunch break, and I opted to leave the frame at work to come and get later. It was still in the shipping box, which was in the area of the floor where boxes are often received from the shipper. I knew that it would have been better to take it with me, but it was raining and I had to get back to my office job, so I left it.

On Friday I came by the shop to pick up the frame, and couldn't find it. Not entirely unusual, since things get moved all the time over the course of the day. I asked around, and nobody had any answer. I though that it might have been taken to the basement, so I checked there. Nothing. I checked in the the storage room, the bathroom, the pile of boxes outside in the dumpster, the dumpster itself and everywhere I could think. I called all of the other employees, I had them go to look in case I am blind. Nothing. The frame was gone. No one had any idea of where it might have gone. We only knew that it was gone.

The current theory is that the frame was picked up on that Wednesday, like 2 hours after it had arrived by the recyclers. It was still in a box, but it boggles the mind to think that they would have decided that an open box with a frame sticking out of it was garbage. I have no idea.

I would have felt pretty pissed if it were my own stuff, but this was not even mine, and though it was in my care, I had no actual hand in its demise. What a crap deal. I've offered to make appropriate reparations to the owner, and am still waiting to figure out what we're going to do.

Goddamn recyclers. Get your stoner asses together!

Repair Season

I've been busy doing some repairs. I have the benefit of a team full of guys who love racing, and sometimes crashing their bikes. This is a recent one referred by a friend. The seat stay was completely blown out, and there was another crack as well in the seat stay from the flexion of the break.


I've also just managed to replace Jennifer's downtube. I'm finally getting the hang of laying down a nice finished carbon layer for aesthetics. I did a good job with that on my dad's bike, and have started perfecting it now that I've got some thinner silicone sheets.