April 30, 201015 Comments on Everyday adventure
How does your everyday adventure look?
This is me on a fixed gear bike, 1850 feet above sea level and about 10 miles from home on a fixed gear bicycle. And this is the story of how I got there.
March 15, 20101 Comment on Santa Cruz Metro considers Highway 17 fare increase
The Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District board voted in favor of a fare increase on the popular Highway 17 service to “maintain an optimal farebox recovery ratio.” Most fares will increase 25%. A public hearing and second vote is required before the fare increase, scheduled for June 10, takes place.
July 21, 20092 Comments on 2009 Santa Cruz Mountain Challenge Scotts Valley California
Who’s coming to visit my town for the Santa Cruz Mountain Challenge this weekend? Are you doing the 100 mile or the Metric?
The last day to register is Wednesday, so do it quickly if you haven’t signed up yet.
July 20, 20092 Comments on Santa Cruz Fixed Gear Freak
I’ve never been to Bicycle Shop Santa Cruz aka “Fixed Gear Freak” before last weekend. There are a couple of other shops that are closer and more convenient to me, but half the kids I talk to in the South Bay with fixed gear bikes tell me they got their conversions from this shop, so I checked it out and talked with the owner, Eric, for a little bit.
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Eric saw the market for fixed gear conversion bikes fairly early. When he first looked at it he figured out pretty quickly he couldn’t make money spending $25 on a junk Univega, spend $125 cleaning it up and converting it only to see people willing to pay only $50 for the bike.
But then the market for fixie conversions started picking up, especially after the cruiser bike market “fell of a cliff,” says Eric. “Back then you couldn’t get a cheap track frame,” he says, “and a lot of people noticed that these old bikes have horizontal dropouts. But the big bike shops wouldn’t touch this stuff.”
For many bike enthusiasts, it seems like simple work, but Eric tells me that word got around about his little shop on Mission Street. “People came from all over just to buy my bikes. I had two ladies from Seattle fly into San Francisco, rent a car and drive here to get bikes. They picked out their frames, we built them up overnight, boxed them up and they flew back to Seattle the next day.”
The one thing you notice about the shop is the amazing selection of Velocity rims hanging from the ceiling like so much eye candy.
The Yelp reviews are interesting — people either absolutely hate them or love them. The complainers either complain about the service (seemingly at or below par for many other bike shops, though I found Eric and Chris to be friendly and open in spite of a busy weekend), or the prices are too high for old 70s & 80s bikes. My opinion: $600 for a tarck bike conversion does seem a tad high, but there’s a market for their wares, and not everybody is willing or able to do their own conversions. Think $120 for the frame, $120 for wheels, another $200 for other assorted parts, and at least another $150 in labor and their profit margin starts to look a little thin.
Bicycle Shop Santa Cruz seems to cater a lot to the UCSC college crowd. They’re located at 1325 Mission Street about halfway between Bay and Laurel. And as you can see in the first photo of Eric, they don’t just sell tarck bikes and accessories!
February 17, 20092 Comments on Bike Girls Santa Cruz
February 17, 2009Leave a Comment
Here’s my obligatory Tour-free post: Photos of Santa Cruz Bike Boys. Enjoy!
Coming next: Bike Girls Santa Cruz!
