Passion Loungewarming December 17

Posted by Charles Fri, 07 Oct 2005 06:02:00 GMT

The Passion Loungewarming will be Saturday, December 17, 2005. Come and help Charles celebrate his 40th birthday. It’s a biggie for Charles, in many ways, with his new shop, new gray hairs, and new debt. He’s also used up all his fingers and toes counting the years, twice now.

Berry’s stoking along this tandem ride with a career change that’s keeping a big smile on his face. It’s shaping up to be a great year for them both. Let’s celebrate!

Passion Trail Bikes is hosting this great evening, with the kegerator fully tapped, and pizzeria fresh eatin’s, and a video or two for the silver screen. This lounge-warming event needs your wonderful self to make the place a hoppy great venue for hanging out after a ride!

If you are feeling inclined to bring a lounge-warming item to leave behind, you have an opportunity to give Passion’s lounge your personal touch! Our lounge is for our customer’s comfort, convenience, and relaxation. It features a kegerator, microwave, convection oven, and big-screen projector with DVD player, and a futon/loveseat. We don’t really have much other comfy seating, so we are looking for bean bags, big throw pillows, yoga pads, camp chairs and other stuff comfortable for watching DVDs and drinking a pint o’ suds. We’re planning to store the extra seating upstairs above the lounge between events, so lightweight, storable, liftable stuff is great.

Also, we still have a bunch of empty cupboards needing things like plates, bowls, serving dishes, serving utensils, bottle openers, silverware, knives, mugs, glasses, etc. A blender if you like your margaritas frozen, a BBQ if you want a bratworst with your doppelbock. The projector has arrived, but we could still use a screen, either roll up or fixed.

Anyway, none of this stuff is truly a NEED, but we thought it would be fun if you have stuff in the garage you were thinking of taking to goodwill or selling at a garage sale, to bring it by and leave a bit of yourself here to give the place some character. Please, DON’T go out and buy gifts for the party!

Posted in Passion

More on being the furniture mover

Posted by Charles Thu, 06 Oct 2005 22:50:00 GMT

Epic Contracting is still working on the floors at Passion, so I am storing my bench and fixtures in the kitchen an empty warehouse next door until they are done. I hate the idea of having to move all this stuff twice, but the floors will be worth the wait.

Posted in Shop

Today, I Am the Truckdriver

Posted by Charles Thu, 06 Oct 2005 22:40:00 GMT

And the furniture mover. Yesterday, I rented a stakeside truck in Palo Alto, and drove to Sunnyvale to pick up a workbench that used to belong Hewlett Packard. This heavy steel and wood bench will be my fork overhaul station, with drawers and shelves containing suspension specific tools and small parts. It will be an oily bench, but no metal shavings will be allowed in this area. I am still shopping for a dirty bench for my grinder and dirty vise, and may end up building one if I can’t find something just right.

Posted in Shop

The First Day

Posted by Charles Sat, 24 Sep 2005 17:08:00 GMT

This is my first day of self employment, and it feels more like unemployment. I drank a lot at my farewell party last night, and don’t remember the alarm going off at 6:00 so I could make the 8:00 ride. I did wake a few minutes after 7:00, though, clearheaded enough to know I should continue to sleep. There was no way I was going to be on time for the ride.

Eventually I got up, got a little grief from one of the guys I was supposed to ride with, and got on with my day. I have been working on refining my business plan, cruising Craig’s List looking for good deals on tools and fixtures, and took the shell off my truck. I will have a lot of big things to move over the next month or so. I drove over to Milpitas today to pick up a lovingly used parts cabinet, 400 pounds of steel that will hold my spokes, bearings, and a thousand or so other small parts that left to their own would fill countless unlabeled parts boxes. I also picked up some hand tools, a shop vac, and a few office supplies (thanks again to Craig’s List).

Posted in Shop

The Last Day

Posted by Charles Fri, 23 Sep 2005 17:10:00 GMT

One of my regular customers today congratulated me on my last day ever of being an employee. I had to stop and think about that for a bit. “Yeah, if it works” was the first thought, then I thought about the amount of change. I mean, I don’t do change well, reluctantly when I have to, and not at all when I don’t. My life didn’t change this much when I got married. I lived with this woman for a while, got a marriage license, took a day or so off work, got married, then went on with things. I got a dog the same way. Not that big a deal, little change, in little increments, got used to it.

Posted in Shop

The Lease Is Signed

Posted by Charles Wed, 21 Sep 2005 17:06:00 GMT

After watching it ricochet back and forth between mine and my landlord’s attorneys, we finally called it done and put it on the table to sign. I’ll get the keys the day before I head off to Interbike, and start moving my stuff in on October 1. The walls and ceiling are being painted now, and I hope to have the floors done by the time I get back from Vegas.

Posted in Shop

Getting Closer...

Posted by Charles Fri, 16 Sep 2005 04:59:00 GMT

I got a copy of the lease from our prospective landlord late last week, and put off reading it while running around taking care of what seems at times like more pressing business. I did take the time, however, to run it by my Father In Law, a property manager by trade, and got a handful of useful suggestions for edits and potential pitfalls. I also ran it by my lawyer, who two days later called to say “you should come by.” Yikes.

Posted in Shop

Buildings and Landlords

Posted by Charles Thu, 08 Sep 2005 05:17:00 GMT

I am writing this while avoiding making a big decision. A woman owns and manages two buildings in Belmont, both for lease under market value, have good buildout potential, and are in a great area for me. One building is nicer than the other, and it just got leased for three months, with an option to lease for longer.

Posted in Shop

About Passion Trail Bikes

Posted by Charles Wed, 10 Aug 2005 06:34:00 GMT

(Note – this was written over a year ago. As Charles took Passion from idea stage to making it a reality, some things have changed a bit. But the vision he talks about here has largely been what was implemented.)

Passion Trail Bikes will soon be the source for the highest quality equipment, advice, and repairs for those that appreciate service over price, and desire 100% confidence in their shop and their bikes. All the bikes we will sell will come with rider specific fitting and tuning, and will be built to the highest spec available. Component inventory will be chosen using quality and value as criteria. The intention will not be to stock everything available, but to ensure everything in stock is a great product, either the best in its class, or a very good value for its level of performance. Clothing and other soft goods will also fit the high value, high quality theme of the store.

Posted in Shop

Crossover Volunteer Trail Work

Posted by Charles Sat, 07 May 2005 14:00:00 GMT

A small group of ROMP volunteers kicked off the 2005 volunteer trail work season with the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District in El Corte de Madera Open Space Preserve. On May 7, Craig Beckman, the District’s Construction and Maintenance Supervisor met volunteers Paul Nam, Joan Murakami, Josh Moore, Julie Norton, and Charles Jalgunas. Our optimistic goal for the day was to complete the construction of the new Crossover Trail alignment that runs between the Timberview and Gordon Mill fire roads.

Posted in Passion