Why I turned down a full time, well paying job at a small local bike shop

I was recently contacted by the owner of what will remain an unspecified long time favorite bike shop of mine.  Small, homey and friendly are all words that have described my experience at this place over the years, and I feel honored to have been reached out to by the shops founder/owner.  He offers full time (even through slow season), good pay, some perks.. not bad I am initially thinking to myself as a smile comes across my face.  I spend the afternoon pondering the though on and off, considering the pros and cons while looking at my current transitional situation as I take obligatory time off from Esperonza community bike shop after being brought on as a "seasonal" teacher/mechanic/dork.  It of course sounded appealing initially and was somewhat tough to come out and say no, but I did, it feels good, and here is why.

Sticking to my guns

 Somewhere along the line a while back I made a creed of sorts with myself that I would focus on fixing bikes and find used parts far more so than I look to sell new counterparts.  It wasn't super strict as I was working for Stevie's Happy Bikes at the time, primarily brought on to repair bikes and eventually sell mostly used bikes as well (along with the occasional new sale here and there).  I was in love with the gig: being able to fix and often resurrect what were mostly peoples older, sensible, practical and usually serviceable bikes.  It was sort of a mini godsend for me as I had such a big affinity with building up bikes for myself and friends with as many nicer quality, used parts as I could find (be it freebees, ebay and craigslist scores or "boneyard" bits from my favorite shops).  I was getting paid to do what I already so much enjoyed while having great access to unique used bits as Stevie's was truly one of the last shops to support and sell older bikes and parts.  Reviving bikes, keeping workhorses running and helping people source affordable bits for their steeds became the daily MO as it all felt right.

After leaving Stevie's and transitioning to Esperonza I got an even more in depth taste of what I so desired. Not only was I exclusively wrenching bikes without selling a single thing, but I was helping teach people how to work on the bike they already had.  Using donated parts, take off bits from otherwise useless bikes and retrofitting anything necessary to get the job done was business as usual.  Working more and more in this context had me feeling even strong motivation to encourage people to work within their means while supporting positive ideals about the kind of riding that can realistically be done on most bikes.  Between writing on the blog here and teaching/wrenching at the community shop, it was as if I was truly becoming an ambassador of the types of ethics and ideals that I have grown and am still developing.  Being able to endorse various real world thoughts and feelings without undermining any sort of bottom line has been amazing.  Not needing to push expensive upgrades and bikes at the shop or contradict the messages of hypothetical blog adverts has given me the creative freedom to make stream of consciousness recommendations, being unfiltered in my opinions and sharing giving real world, no BS feedback and honesty.

This is my idea of a shop.  Tools, a stand and peoples bicycles.

Shops, sales and growth

To tie things back into here, my fundamental problem at hand is that most of the bikes that we bike shop workers/owners end up dealing with/selling are the higher end, race oriented bike toys.  Its not that I have an issue with people going out on their weekend recreational ride with one of their usually many bikes as much as it is that I have no desire to be a sales person/facilitator for said lifestyle.  There are plenty of bike shops that are already more than happy to make this their priority and it is exactly these bike sales that keep the already close to closing doors open for these shops.  The slow season shop instability stems mostly from business models that boast growth centralized around the season to season rush for the next "new" bike/product.  This inevitably demands that newer tech which is usually no better in quality, value, serviceability or compatibility gets sold in order to keep the revenue/jobs/overhead/net going as said.

Call me crazy but I just cant bring myself to become a cog in the motion that is the buy-sell-grow-repeat bike shop formula.  $1,000 entry level mountain and road bikes coming with a gamut of parts that will only be serviceable for a limited amount of time is not something that I am quick to get behind.  Brifters that gum up and become almost impossible to bring back to good order, hydraulics that only seal for so long and can't expect to work after a few years coupled with frighteningly rare service parts, suspensions that might have product support in the future, the trickle down of electronics in mid range componentry (and inevitably the entry level bikes when cost effective enough as we saw with hydraulics, suspensions and other new tech/standards) and the ever changing dimension standards are what I have to look forward to selling, endorsing, and supporting at nearly any thriving bike "shop" today.

 I use quotations above for the word bike shop because not all bike shops actually sell product beyond service bits, accessories and some small upgrades.  Not all shops are trapped in the jaws of the dealer vice with the obligation to continue to carry the newest said bike from "x" brand to keep the doors open another day.  Though they may be few and far between today, there are indeed bike "shops" that are primarily repair based and offer something that speaks far more to me than any of the aforementioned.  

Just wanting to wrench

   Really, at the end of the day I just want more than anything to service bikes.  I want to help keep the massive abundance of stuff in this world that we have already produced functioning as long as it can.  Ultimately I want to continue to encourage people to try to the best of their ability to live within their means, unsubscribe from the heavy marketing fluff and the "its never good enough" pressure to always seek the lighter, faster, quieter, most expensive products that the over saturated market place always has to offer.  I love bikes and seeing people get on them; but I even more love helping steer people in the direction of bikes that will fulfill their desire to ride for longer than the new-standard-daily/ultra high tech/nu-material-market is willing to support. 

 I don't want to sell disposable bike stuff.  I don't want to encourage people to buy disposable bike stuff.  Even if its what people are asking for, I wont be the mouthpiece sales pitch for this stuff that I fail to find a drive to support myself.  I can't bring myself to perpetuate an industry's increasingly insatiable habit of profiting from our often feeble nature.  If cutting edge tech is what the industry wants to sell while people continue to find the need to buy it then so be it, but I won't be the next in line to dole out the product in an industry that is drowning itself in waste, redundancy and gimmicks.