Best bike shop in the city

Today Omnium Bike Shop opened its doors to the public for the first time. 

I was so excited about it, that I rushed off after work over to the shop, forgetting to get gas. This ended poorly, with me on the side of hwy 280. Fortunately one of my trusty cycling friends had driven her car, and was able to bring me to the gas station, saving me a walk along the side of the highway.

I was pleased to hear that I was pretty much on her way home, and also that she was just leaving Omnium, as I was going (busy, busy!).

Finally, I made it to the shop. I've been there plenty of times before, but today was the first time seeing it as it is now, a real bike shop in a great building. Bikes were on display (one of every model they carry), shoes were out, tubes, tires, helmets, all ready to be purchased. It was a great feeling to see the shop look so complete. 

There was tons of people there, new random customers dropping in (the opening wasn't advertised, just a soft one - don't worry, there'll be a grand opening shindig soon). Active cyclists congregated, all happy to see the shop, talk about riding, and ogle the bikes. It was all a really positive experience.

I'm super stoked about riding, and the season in general.

New setup

Its time to spruce up the brewing equipment some. I've got a new 15 gallon kettle, to be used as a mash tun. This will increase my capacity significantly; previously, I was limited to a maximum of 13-15 pounds of grain, enough for lower gravity and alcohol beers, but for bigger beers I had to do 3 gallon batches. a 15 gallon kettle will let me mash 10 gallon batches of big beers even.

To complete the kettle, I also have a fitted false bottom for it, a Blichmann Brewmometer for accurate temperature control, and a ball valve.

Also today, my Autosparge (another Blichmann product, they're great) came in, it was previously backordered. The Autosparge  is the only sparging solution that I really like. This system give you the exact same wort out: sparge water in ratio, whereas others rely on the sparge water in being the best control.

It uses revolutionary toilet tank technology, a stainless steel ball float attached to an arm attached to a valve. Water flows in through a tube, creating a gentle swirling action on top of the mash. You set the valve a certain height off the top of the mash, and as it nears that height, it slows and stops. As the wort drains from the kettle, the sparge arm adds water at the same rate.

To commemorate these new equipment add ons, I've decided to share a photo of my sparge arm installed and ready to go:

Omnium Racing

A good friend of mine, Dan, is starting a new bike shop. This has been a long term dream and goal of his for a long time, one that we've talked about countless times. We also talked (more like ranted) about the state of racing, as any competitive cyclist does. All of these talks, and my experiences as a race mechanic, official, racer, spectator and general cycling enthusiast, have painted a picture in my mind of how teams can be run. I don't mean to say that there is anything wrong with local race teams, but I've had years to think about this.

Megan and I have been working to organize and start a team along with the bike shop, you'll hopefully be hearing much more about us in the future. In order to build a team with strong values, we broke down all the usual concepts, and looked at what a team was.

As a race mechanic, I worked for a team with a relatively low budget. We weren't pro, so riders didn't get paid, we didn't really have an equipment budget (at least not a huge one), so riders didn't get bikes or wheels or anything like that. But what we were able to offer was management, coaching, a mechanic (That's Me!), soigneur, etc.

Our goal was to do everything within our power so that the athletes only had to think about their upcoming race, being mentally and physically prepared, and performing well (side note, this was always my prime goal as a rowing coach). Bikes worked as they should, riders were given reminders of when they had to be at the start line, we coached and educated them on things that they might not have expected.

Bonds were forged, races were raced, a team was born.

While I can't possibly hope to have that level of support at anything less than the pro/elite level of racing, we are trying our best to capture this essence of "team," from the riders, to the support crew. It will be really exciting to see how, and if, we are able to pull it off.

Things have been a whirlwind lately, Dan an had some bumps and hurdles to getting the shop open, which they have conquered admirably in the short amount of time allotted to them. We couldn't even start in on a team until we were absolutely sure that a shop was going to happen this year. Once we were sure, things became real in an awful hurry, we had to design kits, invite riders, among numerous other tiny but not insignificant details.

Well, this has been a nice break from working on team stuff, time to get back to work, I'll keep you all posted.

In the meantime, be sure to stop in at one of our sponsors, Omnium Bike Shop, and the Cheeky Monkey Deli (more than your average deli, btw), they kick butt.