Greetings intrepid retrofiles.
The recent post about Workshops of the Rich and Famous, prompts me to do something I've been meaning to do for some time now. While not famous and certainly not rich, my shop in my old house was among those included on the site. But that was quite a while ago.......
I have finally just about finished building my new shop, after moving into a new house about two and a half years ago. As some of you know, I had a fairly extensive bike shop set up in the basement of my previous house by the time I decided to relocate, but it shared space with other storage and functional duties (the laundry room was actually in one corner). I had always anticipated building a proper, dedicated space one day. My shop, christened Black Market Bikes so long ago that I don't actually remember when, was sort-of my alter-ego life from my normal job. It has never really been a "true" business venture, but I have done a fair bit of work for others over the course of quite a number of years now, including restoration, frame prep and assembly, wheel building and a lot of wrenching for local enthusiasts and local racers (when MJ, my wife, was among them and I was spending a lot of time around the local race scene). I also generally build up and sell a few bikes in any given year, and still sell and trade parts. I was actually selling vintage parts out of my garage before there was a CR list and, of course, have been plying the swap meet scene for many years. Any money made was mostly to support my bicycle habit, rather than to realize any profit. I also immensely enjoy working on/playing with/riding bicycles and enjoy hanging out with people with similar afflictions. When I moved to my new house, I launched plans for my new shop. The intent was to not only crate a display place for my collection and a personal retreat for me and my friends, but also to hopefully be able to continue providing services to others. I don't really know what the extent of those services will be yet, or how proactively I will pursue work over the coming few years. That remains to be seen, but I have some ideas I'd like to try as my escape from the full-time professional work force looks like it may actually be happening.
Some of you have known about my shop, both in the old basement and the new emerging one. I thought those people and others might be interested in what I've been doing, so I've documented the project in an album on the Wool Jersey site. The project is not complete, but it is complete enough for now. It's been a labor of love really. I'm happy with the results, and happy to have a place dedicated to my interests and, hopefully, to the interests of others as well. The Wool Jersey album will be expanded and updated as things move forward and the shop evolves.
Along with the "christening" of the new Black Market Bikes shop, I want to offer an invitation to CR list members both local and non-local. I've been thinking about this for some time now, and want to promote a kind of co-op within the CR list membership. This also fits in well with the "Evolution of the CR Community", and the "What we have learned, what we have done" thread started by Harvey Sachs late last year. Anyway, I'm officially starting the initiative here. My offer is an open invitation to the CR community who may be visiting, or want to visit the area generally referred to as the Greater Washington Metro Area. I am offering a place to stay, a meal, camaraderie, recommendations for resources and things to do in the area, the loan of a bike, maybe a ride and, obviously, lots of talk about bikes, to anyone who might be interested. All this is, of course, dependant on my schedule and availability, size of bike needed, weather, etc., etc. (typical fine-print disclaimer stuff), but I think you get the idea. I live in a very rural setting 55 miles west of Washington DC, with lots of nice roads for riding. It's a beautiful area with lots to offer (wineries, B&Bs, antique stores, etc.) and I'm close to home most of the time when I'm not traveling for business. My impetus for doing this is to foster a sharing of similar offers from others in the CR community, and to hopefully expand the CR network beyond the mail-list and the already established events we all participate in. I've done this in a less formal fashion in the past, but want to make it more formal, and hopefully prompt others to do something similar. It's an idea that probably started with former list member Chris Beyer on one of his over-night visits to my place long ago (beer was likely involved). He and I even talked about promoting this type thing more within the CR community. Sorry to have taken so long Chris, but this effort is for you!
Ideas, comments, suggestions, questions about this initiative cheerfully accepted.
The link to my Wool Jersey album can be found here:
http://www.wooljersey.com/
I can be contacted through my current list and primary email address (wbingham@imf.org) but that will likely expire later this year. I have another email account (blkmktbks@yahoo.com) that I'll be monitoring on a regular basis now as well. My snail-mailing address and phone number are:
Wayne Bingham 37805 Clearbrook Lane Lovettsville, VA 20180 540-822-5104
Ciao -
Wayne Bingham
Lovettsville VA USA