Springing Into Action

Judging from the amount of bikes ready for sale and stored upstairs in an office at BikeWorks, there is going to be a huge rush of customers when the weather finally breaks and spring arrives permanently.  In fact, I thought the onslaught might actually start during this shift at the bike shop.  There were two factors that I hadn't taken into account.  One was the three feet of snow that fell at the end of the week and the other factor was only discovered after the shop had been opened for two hours.



Ready and waiting

A patron came into the shop to ask what our hours were and when he spoke to our host Claire, it was revealed that the fellow came in to see if it really was "Women Only" day at the shop.  Inadvertantly I had placed the wrong sign out in the alley and my having done so may have scared away a good portion of our clientele.

Oops! (File photo)

With no one coming in needing help, I occupied my time counting spoke holes in hubs and then labelling the hubs.  Thinking my efforts were rather lame, I was gratified when Chris, a bike courier came into the shop to browse for parts and when he found my heap of hubs and noticed the spoke count was labelled on each one, he let out a whoop of joy that made me smile as I realized my efforts were not in vain.

Mound of joy

We have already had six months of winter and what with the huge dump of snow last week, I've had to rethink my decision not to bicycle commute in fresh snow.  We've had an inordinate number of days below minus 15 and that has kept me off my bike as well since I can't seem to stay warm enough during my 30 km. daily commute.

The first snowfall of winter - October 10th

I can only imagine that when it is warm and dry enough for the majority of cyclists to hit the road that there will be a huge pent up demand and not only will the roads and bicycle paths be busy but BikeWorks will be hopping whether it is "Everyone Day" or "Women and Trans Day".