Some of you liked my last story, so here is another one for you.......
One day (maybe late 1992ish ?) Klein dropped the linier fade bomb!
Most of us stood, mouths agape, staring at pure artistry, hanging by a string from the bike shop ceiling.
Nobody had ever dreamt of painting anything like it, let alone a mountain bike that would be ravaged, muddied, battered and bruised! They were in a different league (and still are today.)
$3650.00 for a frame, painted Rock Shox-Mag30 and a Mission Control, it was tough albeit beautiful pill to swallow but few did. I was in deep and the meager hourly refill rate of my wallet was insufficient compared to the two wheel outflow. I had just plunked down thousands for Adroit #1, I had talked my way into building a full custom Cannondale Mountain Tandem to be displayed at the Kamakaze in Mammoth and Interbike.
I had gotten Hed and Cooks and my local shop to throw parts at me, but I still had to buy the Tandem…Thanks dad! LOL
There was just no chance that XL green monster would end up hanging in my garage.
So I put it out of my mind and moved on with my life, kids, wife, house, you know the drill. The Mississippi that was my bicycle spending river turned into a trickle, then Death Valley. And in that time the market had changed. The art of building full custom bikes from bare frames had slipped away. Just too much work and effort for the Instant gratification generation. C’est la vie.
I would still come and visit my friends at the shop, but we would talk about business, family and the other parts of our lives. I did little buying save for bikes with training wheels, tubes and patch kits.
The green monster hung around for years, moved from the center stage into and overhead library rack of un-wanted and unloved relics from a bygone era. I wish I had taken a picture of the 30” row of dusty frame sets up near the roof. Yeti’s, Fat Chance’s, Dean, litespeed, Klein. The murderers row of vintage hardware.
So one day I stopped by and the shop had moved across the parking lot, better frontage, twice the footage, bright and airy like a chain store. But lost were the dark, narrow, treasure laden recesses and dimly lit glass cases of the old gold mine. Surely the new was better for the IG crowd, not so much for me. All the rafter treasure was gone.
When I asked, the owner said, “Yea that old crap got moved to the warehouse” I asked about the old XL GF Adroit, he says ‘yea I still got that thing, You want it? What are you gonna do with it?” "It will be my Someday Adroit, when I have time and funds” I said.
We haggled like the old days for a little while and struck a deal. We jumped in his Truck and drove over to the Well of Souls. After a half hour of opening dusty old bike boxes, it emerged glowing and shinny like the day it was entombed. Just as beautiful as when I first saw it hanging from a string…
Jason
One day (maybe late 1992ish ?) Klein dropped the linier fade bomb!
Most of us stood, mouths agape, staring at pure artistry, hanging by a string from the bike shop ceiling.
Nobody had ever dreamt of painting anything like it, let alone a mountain bike that would be ravaged, muddied, battered and bruised! They were in a different league (and still are today.)
$3650.00 for a frame, painted Rock Shox-Mag30 and a Mission Control, it was tough albeit beautiful pill to swallow but few did. I was in deep and the meager hourly refill rate of my wallet was insufficient compared to the two wheel outflow. I had just plunked down thousands for Adroit #1, I had talked my way into building a full custom Cannondale Mountain Tandem to be displayed at the Kamakaze in Mammoth and Interbike.
I had gotten Hed and Cooks and my local shop to throw parts at me, but I still had to buy the Tandem…Thanks dad! LOL
There was just no chance that XL green monster would end up hanging in my garage.
So I put it out of my mind and moved on with my life, kids, wife, house, you know the drill. The Mississippi that was my bicycle spending river turned into a trickle, then Death Valley. And in that time the market had changed. The art of building full custom bikes from bare frames had slipped away. Just too much work and effort for the Instant gratification generation. C’est la vie.
I would still come and visit my friends at the shop, but we would talk about business, family and the other parts of our lives. I did little buying save for bikes with training wheels, tubes and patch kits.
The green monster hung around for years, moved from the center stage into and overhead library rack of un-wanted and unloved relics from a bygone era. I wish I had taken a picture of the 30” row of dusty frame sets up near the roof. Yeti’s, Fat Chance’s, Dean, litespeed, Klein. The murderers row of vintage hardware.
So one day I stopped by and the shop had moved across the parking lot, better frontage, twice the footage, bright and airy like a chain store. But lost were the dark, narrow, treasure laden recesses and dimly lit glass cases of the old gold mine. Surely the new was better for the IG crowd, not so much for me. All the rafter treasure was gone.
When I asked, the owner said, “Yea that old crap got moved to the warehouse” I asked about the old XL GF Adroit, he says ‘yea I still got that thing, You want it? What are you gonna do with it?” "It will be my Someday Adroit, when I have time and funds” I said.
We haggled like the old days for a little while and struck a deal. We jumped in his Truck and drove over to the Well of Souls. After a half hour of opening dusty old bike boxes, it emerged glowing and shinny like the day it was entombed. Just as beautiful as when I first saw it hanging from a string…
Jason
great story
