First Annual Pay It Forward Buildoff

I've barely worked on mine. This is my busy time of year at the shop and there's little left for much after a day in the trench. Plus, mountain biking and trail building is eating into my spare time which ain't a bad thing!
 
Lorien said:
I've barely worked on mine. This is my busy time of year at the shop and there's little left for much after a day in the trench. Plus, mountain biking and trail building is eating into my spare time which ain't a bad thing!
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Priorities, Priorities!
 
I have been in the same situation as Lorien, also the same reason I have problems with my elbows now:( This time of year you can spend 16+ hours a day 7 days a week in a shop working on and selling bikes.
 
I'll get er done! I thrive on pressure ; )
 
Lorien said:
I'll get er done! I thrive on pressure ; )
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I was just the lowly basement mechanic, they chained me to the work bench with guilt, then piled the work on till I broke:(

I miss my job, my boss and coworkers were good people. I don't think I will be missing the Winnipeg winters though.
 
ah, I see that you are now in Ontario.
The bicycle biz is very difficult to leave, not that I've ever really tried, but I've seen people go and then come back.
I got my start as a lowly backroom mechanic, moved up to lowly basement mechanic, thence to lowly store manager and now I'm a lowly shop owner.
It's a lot of hard work, but at least the pay sucks.
 
I had little run of bad luck and ended up with no choice but to leave both my job and Winnipeg. My elbow didn't take to the surgery so the doctor pulled my off work again and my landlord sold the house I was living in out from under me and threatened to hit me with a falsified eviction notice if I didn't move out in 2 weeks. No job and no home I was forced to borrow money from my mother and move back to Ontario and in with her till I get WCB straightened out and some money ahead to get my own place again. The landlord was supposed to pay $500 of my reasonable moving cost, but he is fighting that now and got a lawyer to fight so he doesn't have to pay, so that is tied up in the channels. The good thing is that I have a garage to set up shop in, I just have to organize it a bit more and build a solid work bench. Once the postal strike is over I can get he 3 blades I have ready for HT off to Rob, order some belts and steel and I am back in business for making knives. The bad elbows have pretty much eliminated the hand polished mirror finishes for a while though:(

Phil, the owner of Bikes and Beyond said that he would sign me up for the BTAC show if I wanted to go check it out because I am not that far from Montreal, so I just may go see whats new for next year and hunt down some of those cash and carry deals like I got on my Dark Cycles bash ring, $5 cash and carry on the last day, if I hadn't gone drinking with the reps the night before I would have bought a dozen or so.
 
btac and their show get a lot of flack, but Montreal is awesome no matter how you look at it and the show really should get more support from the industry. Guess the big complaint is they don't deserve it. These arguments are so circular, they never seem to go anywhere. At any rate, I'd love to rip over for the show one of these days. Long way away though.

And after much thought, I think I got it backwards about the bike business, so let me correct myself; the pay sucks, but at least you get to work your ass off.
 
It would be nice if the show traveled from major city to major city across Canada, Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Manitoba/Saskatchewan, Calgary, Whistler. A lot of the companies are just doing product releases on their own now, but for me the idea of seeing everything in one place is appealing.

Enough about bikes and the industry, get to work on your knife:p looks like the postal strike may be over next week, and I can get back to making knives again:thumbup:
 
Here's Ryan's in plastic pants.

ryankith.jpg


And with it's brethren.

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I'll shoot you the tracking number this evening Ryan. I gotta go to a wedding right now.
 
RyanW said:
Wohoo! Very nice Kiah! Doesn't get any better than that...
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Thank you, sir.

and I thought you were already hitched?:D
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Nah. I'm diametrically opposed to the whole marriage thing. At least until Angelina Jolie dumps that funny looking guy and proposes. It was my sister's wedding.
 
man that's some fine blade garb!
 
Kiah said:
Thank you, sir.
Nah. I'm diametrically opposed to the whole marriage thing. At least until Angelina Jolie dumps that funny looking guy and proposes. It was my sister's wedding.
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opposed to marriage but love Kids! Nice... :p
 
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