Merchandise

As a great man, (or anthropomorphic lizard???) once said, "Spacebaalls the T-shirt, Spaceballs the Coloring Book, Spaceballs the Lunch box, Spaceballs the Breakfast Cereal, Spaceballs the Flame Thrower." And Now....Spaceballs water bottles;

The new Pedal House water bottles are in. Specialized, so they won't leak all over you while you try to drink from them,...Nat. We will be donating these, along with a bunch of other gear to the Laramie Mountain Bike series, so if you don't want to shell out the four dollars, go and race and win one.

In other news, I finally got out on a bicycle and turned over a few pedals. It was fun, but I got dropped by my riding buddy, who was so excited about the possibility of a ride he was geared up from the get go.

Dmitri was a rock star and I think that he is going to be a beast this season on the bicycle, so all you Juniors out there, you should know he already has a wool jersey. Happy trails from the Pedal House.

A Few More Changes

I was working in a kitchen once when a good friend of mine, and my boss at the time, Gabe Aragon told me that in any good restaurant, the cooks have to run the place. That is where the old saying comes from; if it is too hot, get out of the kitchen.

The same thing is true when you are working in a bike shop. Keep the cooks happy! And the only way we can help do that is by keeping the guys who work on their bicycles happy. At the Pedal House we wanted some room to move around, room to grow, room to blossom, room to....fix bikes. So Saturday we decided to jump into another project.

This is our shop area. Notice the familiar look of sawdust on the ground, however, it is not because there was another famous blowout Friday night closing "celebration." No, this time it was due to the cutting of particle board and 2x4's for new bench parts. Notice Joel on the right side of the photo installing a bench in our new and high tech "welding center." I wanted to name it "Big Al's Extravagant Table for All Things Metal", but I was outvoted.

Here we see the new Shock repair area. Our goal was to keep all of the machine work away from the areas where the mechanics do their magic. Grinder, welding, drill press, and all have been moved around the corner where the flakes can fly and you don't have to interrupt the Bike Whisperer.

So come and see our happy mechanics, a road race on the box, and let us help keep you in the saddle.

Here we go again.

I have said it before, and I will say it again, "Spring in Wyoming. It is special because we wait. We wait on the couch watching snowfall after snowfall delay our first ride of the season. We listen to all the ski bums talk about how great the snow is. We try not to choke the life out of the people who say, “We need the moisture.” We wait. We sometimes sneak in a road ride, just to be on a bike, but mainly we have to sit idly by and wait for the time between when we do our last mountain bike ride of the old season, and the first ride of the new season. " The beginning to a little piece I did for Dirt Rag...can anyone say Letter to the Editor. Now I am no Mark Jenkins, (the Pedal House's favorite modern literary luminary.) but notice how I used literary form to dramatize how much I hate snow by eluding to choking someone for trying to be optimistic.

But that is snow in the yard my friends. So, instead of being passive aggressive...again, I thought I would be pro-active. This is a great time to get your bike out make sure that you are ready to ride when the forecast snow finally melts away.

Examine a few parts for cracks and wear. Over the winter the valves on your tires will slowly let off pressure and you might have flats. Often times you just need to put some air in there, but before you do check the sidewalls of your tires for rotting or tears. If the tube is bulging, you probably need a new tire.

Check your brake and derailleur cables and housing. If there are kinks, bends, rust, or wires poking from your housing, it might be time for a full tune up. You would be amazed at how much better your bicycle will run with a little love, and we specialize in love at the Pedal House. So, hurry in and beat the rush, because when you treat your bike right, your bike will reciprocate.

New T-Shirts Are Here!

Life is all about the little things. I have always been a fan of the little nuances of day to day living. For instance; I love the smell of the top of Jeff's head. (Jeff is my dog.)

I also love the smell of a brand new t-shirt. Especially when the back of the shirt says "We Still Hang Bike Thieves in Wyoming". When we were designing the backs we knew that we wanted our t's to have the same old Pedal House feel, but with a little bit of a twist. As you can see the new design is basically the view from the throne....after you have entered the outhouse.

If I were Phil Liggett, I might call them Cheeky. What keeps us grounded in tradition is that the front is the Pedal House logo, unchanged. We hope you like them.

In other news, you might have noticed a race or two being broadcast at the shop. It has been a pretty exciting road racing season, and we intend to enjoy it. So if you like road racing, come on down and see the latest races.

Off and Runnin'

What a monumental weekend. Friday night we had an open house, and boy did we ever enjoy ourselves.

We cleared out the center of the shop so that we could accommodate a soccer game that eventually made us start thinking about putting turf in the showroom.

I do believe a good time was had by all;

We were going to have a simple little gathering from 6-8pm, but somehow we didn't get home until 2:15 in the morning, And Pedar found a new protege to mentor...in the art of bicycle mechanics of course.

The next day we had a Grand Re-Opening celebration that lasted all day. We gave out prizes, visited with old friends and family, made some new friends, and even found time to complete some mechanical work....(Thanks to Joel, Pedar and Lindsey!) So now we are in full swing, and I just can't wait for Mother Nature to provide us with some weather to ride in. Happy Trails from the Pedal House.