My Story, and my dogs

After 30 plus years in the bicycling industry and with having a large number of different jobs and careers, I have finally figured it out and thought I'd share my story with you.

Okay, so here I am, just turned 48 years old back in October of 2009 and am going through my mid life crises.  I have pretty much been self employed trying to find what it is in life that makes me happy and could provide me with an income to support my life style.  And just so there are no hard feelings, I do have to give much of that credit to my ex-wife who I am still good friends with.  Without her, many things that I have had the opportunity of doing would not have been possible.  So I want to say Thank you, you know who you are.

Since I was a kid in High School and even before that, I have always been riding a bike.  It didn't start until 1980 when I met some people at my Local Bike Shop (LBS) Randy Williams (Rest in peace my friend) and Kevin Montgomery (where ever he is).  The only two people that visited me that night in the hospital after a bad crash into the back of a parked camper and taking 17 stitches in the head.  Back when Skid Lid helmets had just come out and I had my new one hanging on the back of my bedroom door at my house.  I guess some things just won't change.  But that was it, it was that day that I felt I belonged in the bicycle world.  With their words of encouragement and calling me to go on rides with them, at the age of 17, I finally felt that I fit in somewhere.

From then I was into the racing thing.  Never forgetting my first ever race with a USCF license in Balboa Park and Ralph Elliott doing the announcing (something else that hasn't changed).  The gun went off and within two laps, I was dropped, exhausted, and amazed at how fast this racing stuff was.  Over the next years, I spent my time learning how to race and get fast so that eventually I was upgraded to a CAT II.  But knowing what it took for me to get there after being a VERY competitive CAT III and then being dropped when put up against the CAT I and PRO's, I knew then that I wasn't going to be racing against people like Greg Lemond.  So I became a mechanic, and with my competitive nature, I became really good at doing that.  Working in numerous different bike shops in the San Diego county, I started my own business of doing Mobile Bike Service and then was quickly picked up as a Team Mechanic with Jelly Belly Cycling the first year of the Team.  After that, I did some part time work with a few other Teams like Schroeder Iron, Sierra Nevada, Saturn, and then was again picked up full time with Mercury Cycling Team.  It was there that I met some of the riders that I still keep in touch with.  After taking some time off from the travels, I started doing my own thing providing support to many local cycling events and Bike Transportation to Triathlons all over the country.  Business did get better and was finally put into the situation of opening up my own store.  After three years, it's time for me to move on again.  For the 2010 race season, I will be a Team Mechanic once again for FLY V Australia Cycling Team.