Re:
so after i got back from NZ at the start of March the shop was reasonably busy for the time of year, then the lockdown happened. now truth be told i didn't get it to start with, why was Covid any worse than anything else? but the family was panicking a bit, as a result i moved in to my sisters place with her as my parents who i live with have various health issues meaning we were worried about passing it to them if i got it as i deal with the public. but one night at my sisters did my head in, so i moved into the shop. but there was also another reason, by the time i moved in to the shop the break ins had started, loads of shops and business' in the area were getting broken in to as they were empty or shut down for extended periods, also people were at home so thieves were hitting business property as opposed to home break ins.
then the poo hit the fan.
the shop went mental, i was up at 7am and drove 10 miles to my sisters place, dump/shower etc, back to the shop to find a queue at the door, mental. i was taking in sometimes 20 bikes a day, wasn't finishing for the day until 11pm if i was lucky, then hitting emails, orders, bill paying etc. after 3 weeks of lockdown i had no bikes for sale, nothing available from suppliers and a pile of bikes everyday that were mostly shed/hedge/pond finds, most needed 26" basic tyres and tubes, a bunch of cables, grips and replacement chains due to rust, it was soul destroying to be honest, although at least it was good money for feeding the till.
but i was getting knackered, at 56 days in a row of 16plus hour days i called it. shut the shop for a week.
but in that week i carried on working, to get through the back log, so i had finished on the saturday, then worked every day in the shop till friday on the repairs, then on saturday and sunday i built 2 custom bikes, then had monday off, then opened again on tuesday morning, 22 bikes came through the door in under 2 hours.
crazy :shock:
so in may i ordered the 2021 kona's. they started arrving in late july, no bike was on the shop floor more than 2 days, i went to order more, the whole range was sold out for the year. sucks. the rep has been in this week to talk about the 2022 range which shold hopefully drop end of May, brought forward for obvious reasons.
anyway here's a few pics:-
my social distance T shirt
typical start of bikes, cobwebs!
the tips were good though!