Wrenchn' for the Pro's.

I have been up here in Silver City, NM for the last two days, helping Kelly Benefits at the Tour of the Gila. It has been a great experience so far and I have learned a lot about being a mechanic on the Pro circuit. Living on the road and wrenching on bikes for pro riders is very different from your everyday wrenching at the bike shop. In fact, from a wrenching aspect, its easier. Always new parts. Always clean bikes. Always the same parts and bikes! Once you understand your given inventory you are set, not too many surprises. That is until a rider flats and you have to jump out of the car and change a wheel in under 20 sec. I would say the biggest difference is the pressure. You have to do your job well and do it well every time. Your ability to dial a bike in perfectly every day is dependent on if the rider will have a mechanical. These riders make a living riding there bike and you are there to make sure they don't have any problems. In a bike shop, it sometimes feels like there isn't as much pressure. Most of the time you are working on something older and you are trying to get it work better than it is. Or adjust a bike that has seen many miles and you are just trying to make it better. Well, in the professional world, there are no excuses. Everything is new and everything should work perfectly, you are just responsible to be perfect every time, because if you don't, you will lose your job and your riders won't do well. So the pressure is on.

So far so good though. We have had no mechanicals and our riders are doing well. Tomorrow is the TT which means there will probably be lots of dialing in and tweaking at the very last minute. For some of our riders, they havn't even ridden their TT bikes. So it will be our job to make sure that we are there when they need us. Its been a fun experience so far and I'm hoping one of our riders pulls of something great.

Anyway, enough about pro wrenching. The bike building is on a very brief hold right now until Monday, but I'm itching to get back into the shop. I have recently had more motivation than ever to build beautiful bikes. I will be around for the entire month of May and plan on spending many hours with a torch and a file in my hand. I'm excited to be home if you can't tell. I hope everyone out there is enjoying life and keeping two wheels on the ground. I will check back in very soon.

Here is a jam that I am listening too right now. I'm currently sitting in a dingy hotel room in the middle of now where. Music is on. Door is open and fresh tubulars are hanging on the chair. I'm also enjoying a cold Sierra Nevada Pale Ale with my feet up after a long hot day. Enjoy.