Recycled Cycles - Team Night

A week or two ago - been a little slow on the blog action - official team night for our school mountain bike teams.  Just so happens one of the boys on my junior high team, his dad owns Recycled Cycles, here in Seattle.  He offered to host a team night for the junior high and high school teams, complete with pizza and families invited.  Awesome.  Plus 10% off shop goodies and free reign to use the bike stands and tools.  Sign us up.

We had about 25 folks show, students and parents alike.  General chatting, milling about, and eating of pizza.  I didn't grab many pics, too busy yapping with folks and working on bikes.  A fun night and good excuse for the teammates to goof around a bit.

Steve, owner of Recycled Cycles, stares down a spinning wheel.  I was actually wrenching on teammate Scotty's bike, while my son Ian grabs the secret photo.  My own bike shop days ended in the mid '80s, yet it feels so right standing at the bike stand, searching for tools on the workbench and soaking up the shop vibe.

Recycled Cycles specializes in used bikes, but also carry brand spanking new models from Raleigh, Kona, Marin and Diamondback.  Plenty of bins with used parts to fish through, along with some cool vintage stuff to gawk at.  Mix of Old 'N' New to entertain all.

Old school steel Merckx with vintage Mavic goodies as added bonus.  Yes please.

Interesting stuff hangs from above.

Need a frame?  Take a gander, including the sweet Gunnar.

Just a sample of student riders and racers that attended.

This bike stuff is serious business.

So there you have it, a glimpse of the night's activities.  Fun and frolicking included at no extra charge.  Big kudos to Recycled Cycles for hosting and feeding us all.  When in Seattle, stop by and check 'em out.  To old school me, a "real" bike shop worth a visit.

Coaching and being part of the Washington Student League has been a blast so far.  Stay tuned for more details.  We now return to our regular programing, already in progress...

The Bicycle Shop Decal Project

Found this fun site - well, fun to bike geek me - that posts nothing but dealer stickers.  Old school and new.  Current and long gone shops.  Little adhesive backed pieces of bike culture and history.

My old shop, Whippany Cycle, where I spun wrenches and made a few friends for life back in the early '80s, even featured for all to gawk at.  I got a kick out of cruising though the pics - shops I've visited, purchased from, or know folks that worked there - cool little reminders.

Maybe you'll get a kick out of it too...

Elliott Bay Bicycles - Project Hakkalugi

Took a little lunch time walk to pick up my freshly repaired Hakkalugi from Elliot Bay Bicycles. Their in-house frame shop, Davidson Bicycles, straightened out the severely bent derailleur hanger, along with changing the rear dropout spacing from 135 mm to 132.5 mm.

Now I can run a rear mountain or road hub, allowing the use of the current XTR hub I've been running, and a road hub later down the road. Pretty handy, eh?

Elliott Bay is a smaller shop, but always has some interesting bikes to gawk at while visiting. There's some modern production bikes on the floor from Bianchi, Orbea and a few others. The really fun stuff comes from Davidson, or the older bikes - restored and original - sprinkled throughout the shop. A few examples...

Vintage restored Eddy Merckx and Colnago share a rack. Very nice bikes.

The Colnago sports this amazing blue paint. Looks even better in person, the pic doesn't do it justice. If I ever went for a custom frame, this would be the color choice.

Another classic, the restored vintage Masi. My bike shop days were in the early '80s, so these classic bikes look great to me.

There's usually a few used steel frames in stock to ponder and consider building up.

A new titanium Davidson competes with the classics for floor space. Super nice indeed.

Another Davidson, this one in the Randonneur style - 650B wheels and front bag included.

Vintage Cinelli anyone? Yes, please.

Elliott Bay Bicycles is a great shop to visit. For old school me, it's a "real" bike shop. How many shops still have a frame building operation in the back? Not many. If you're the old school roadie, a fun place to check out and talk with the folks running the show.

If I was in the market for a custom frame, I'd go for a Davidson. Steel frame and fork, plain lugs or maybe TIG welded. Race geometry, but room for fatter tires. Oh yeah, in that Colnago blue. Ultegra or Chorus build. Tell me that wouldn't be sweet.

Bill Davidson himself worked on my twisted Ibis frame, explaining what he did while I paid the tab. Modern off-shore production bikes are better then ever. Still, there's something to be said having a local frame builder - with decades of experience - repair and realign your steel frame.

The straightened Ibis Hakkalugi hanger glows with anticipation. Either that, or the camera autofocus can't get over its fascination with the carpet pattern. You be the judge.