St. Patricks Day parade.

We've only lived in Prairie du Chien for a short time. Less than a year in fact. So as a family, we're experiencing many things for the first time yet. Is kinda funny how time will fool you. It certainly feels like we've been here longer than we have. That being said, the parade culture in this area is crazy. They LOVE their parades here. Seriously.

Case in point was Saturday morning. People had told us (ok, told Lisa) that if the weather was going to be as nice as forcasted, there would be large crowds out. We were like, "that's nice." We were going to use the parade as a kind of presentation of the shop. Letting more people know that we were open, y'know? There's been bikes of some sort or other in the window so long that many may not realize we were open yet. So this was to be a kick off event.

Bike decorating got a tad off track at times...


The shop 'float'

It was a bit chilly in the shade there.


We had no idea what we were in for. As we crossed the bridge off of the island we saw a sea of people lining the street! Had to be 3-4 deep all along the route, for a good 4 -4½ blocks. LOTS more people than either Lisa or I expected. NICE!






More of our float. Sidra rode her Strider the whole route, no complaints. A few weeks ago, she wouldn't/couldn't walk 3 blocks to the Library. Awesome!

Did I show y'all the plants we got opening weekend? Probably not.

They look great! Added life to the store that I didn't know it needed.

Listening to: iTunes. Last five: Vision, Accident Clearinghouse; John Lee Superstar, They Might be Giants; Hell Bound 17½, Primus; Baricades and Brickwalls, Kasey Chambers; One Vision of May, Murder City Devils

Was that the sun?

Wow. Its not even full blown spring yet...and I'm getting busier by the day. I'm certainly NOT complaining though! Bring it on! The more of you on bikes the better! And lets start 'em young! I've always though bikes were great, and really enjoyed seeing kids out laughing and riding down the sidewalks. Pure and simple joy right there folks. I think I've found nirvana for the kids(and my sense of joy too). These little Strider bikes blow me away.

I don't want this to sound like an ad. It really isn't meant to pull people in to buy more of these(I won't turn you away though!). I really am just blown away by this little thing. Sidra was having trouble balancing on here pedal bike last fall. I kept tinkering with the training wheels to find that 'sweet' spot for her, but she just kept leaning on the wheels. Two days on her Strider had her cured of the balance issue. Two weeks in and I have a hard time keeping up with her on a walk! This is absolutely fantastic! Seeing her rip around the store, giggling like the little school girl she is, is awesome. With Sidra on her bike, moms and dads see how easy it is for her and how much fun she's having - it seems that they can't help but not buy one. I LOVE it!

Been busy with repairs too. Mostly run of the mill stuff. A few comfort upgrades. Some basic tune ups. Parts here. Tires there. Folks are truly apreciative to have the service in town. And I'm sure glad to provide it. The first bike to really blow me away came in a few days back though. A vintage Raliegh Sprite with a Sturmey Archer 5 speed hub. Don't see many of those around! Its just a flat out cool looking old bike. And the owner asked if it was worth the effort to tune! Oh my, yes!

The patina is great. Kinda rat rod-ish.



Escape indeed. Thats what bikes are for!

Welp off I go. Closing at 3, and I'm off for a ride. It's 50°! Yaay!

Listening to: The on/off chains of an off balance fan clicking on the light.

Timing is everything.

The first day has come and gone. And what a crazy day it was. The day dawned, as far as I remember, overcast and cool. At least it was an average temperature for this time of year. And not this near or below zero crap we've been dealing with for far, far too long here in the upper midwest. A few of you may argue otherwise (and you know who you are. Dang skiiers.. ;)..).

I honestly didn't expect to see TOO many folks stop in. I did expect the Art Circle. And they all showed. Thanks ladies! Lisa and my mom attempted to keep count of how many stopped in. By about 11:30, they either lost track, or lost count. My best guess is 50-60 popping in. To all those, THANKS!


The first official sale. I sold lots of t's Saturday.

Everyone coming in so far has been very thankful. Very excited that I took the step to open up. After hearing this for nearly a week straight, I can honestly say that I've lost all doubts about this succeeding. I think every entrepreneur has those feelings of "will it really fly?" "will people really see the value in what I'm doing here?" I guess timing really is everything. People are tired of paying so much to fill up thier cars. They are certainly seeing the value in bikes. Good on ya!

Thank you all for a fantastic opening. We'll see ya down here, eh?

Ahhh. The DAY is Nigh!

I owe some of you some pictures. I've been um, a bit too busy to play with a post of late. I'm sure y'all understand. Anyways.

Lots of midnight nights preceded by 14 hours in the shop has led to this day. To tomorrow. To doing something I've been wanting to do for years. Time and opportunity have finally presented themselves. I'm gonna take this, and I'm gonna run with it, and dammit, I'm going to enjoy it. While I've been building the shop, I've maintained an open door policy, welcoming any snoopers inside, and showing them around. Telling them what I've got going, and what riding opportunities we have here. People are at one both excited to have me open, and surprised to hear of the variety of riding opportunities that I/we have here in the Prairie du Chien area. I can't wait to start building the community.

Along the way, many people have helped out. My parents, and specifically my dad, have put a TON into this, helping me bring it to fruition.

Ryan and Seth for helping build bikes and drink beer.
Count the bottles.
Jamie and Sherri at Citizen's Bank for believing in the concept. The Art Circle for the creative support. The Courier Press for article in the paper. All the friends (and strangers too) for reading this here blog and leaving comments and ideas. And most of all, my family. My wife and kids for their enthusiastic and energizing support. Enough can't be said about Lisa. Thanks.

All right, this is too 'oscars' like.

Enough of that. Onto the pics.

First off, for Capt. Bob; the mess.



Its not all hard work at the shop. There's always time for a game of foot-hockey.


Start 'em early. She'll be building wheels before you know it!


Did someone say beer?

And now, the cleanest this place is likely to be for a long time. The Prairie Peddler as she'll open tomorrow morning, at 9 am.




I'm very happy to say that I've made all the fixtures in the store - except for the bike racks that is. It was fun to do that.

So that's it. It's time to slow down on the creatin', and ramp up on the sellin' See ya in there, eh?

the mess. THE MESS!

I mean really. Who knew that building up a shop would be so damned messy? From cutting all that wood for racks and benches and forts and stuff - to an obscene amount of cardboard and packing materials from the bikes and the Rudy Racks. I'm over flowing here man. And this doesn't even include my rather - um large ( like 22 tracking numbers large) QBP order that should be coming in today. Or the small batch of Redlines that should be coming tomorrow.

Really this could be filed under things I DON'T like. For such a clean industry - we sure do create a large mess. I know most, if not all of these materials can be recycled, but do we really, no really have use this much packing material in the first place? Yeah, we need to protect our precious goods from the shipping monkeys, I know that. Where am I going with this? Oh, I don't know. Just a bit of a rant is all.

Anyways. Anyone catch the Lunar eclipse last night? Pretty awesome. We had cold clear sky's here that made viewing a pleasure. Pretty neat stuff!

As I move on closer to my opening date, March 1 (!), I'm going to have to figure out where this blog is headed. I will have a proper website for the shop sometime, and I would like to keep this somewhat active. I need to keep my gracious readers up on whats goin' down on the West Coast of WI afterall! Riding, of course! Sales? Probably announcements of such - we'll see if locals start reading. Rumors? I'm full of them right now. Good stuff down the pipe in 29er land! Same with 650b too! Opinions. Yup, we'll have some of that too. I'm due for another 'Things I like' episode. I'll work on that for ya.

Welp - speaking of opening a shop - I better git ta work. I'll post some pics of the mess as it gets even worse! It really is BAD!

Listening to: Computer hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Furnace working overtime. Go away cold! I mean really. Its -5° again this morn.

Bikes are in!

From The Prairie P...

Twenty eight on the first shipment. Oh so close to that 'magic' 29! As luck would have it, the first bike to take the honored place at the work bench is in fact a 29" Exile SS. Pertty nice looking little rig. Nice details abound.



If you'll notice as well, the completed front counter. Pretty proud of it. Has one of the donated counter tops from Deke, plus found materials in the basement make up the rest. Key is the 17" wide heart wood 'paneling' I had planed down. Looked pretty ugly before that, but now...wow. Nice wood.

Anyways - off to build. My Dads coming in tonight to help out with a few builds, and a couple locals guys may stop by too. See ya!

Listening to: iTunes radio; Bootliquour Radio on SOMA FM. Americana Roots music for Cowhands, Cowpokes and Cowtippers.

Family > Bikes > Culture > Art

That's the new tag line that Lisa and I came up with. I really like it. Seems to confer what we're/I'm trying to do here. This lets people know, in a kind of obtuse way, that we'll also be dealing in art. We'll be hitting up local artist friends and selling stuff via consignment. This is Lisa's baby, and she's really, really excited for it. I like that it gives the shop another angle to draw folks in with. Should go good with the coffee shop next door.

I wish I had more to put here today - but not really. If you visit regularly, you'll notice that some small changes have occurred to the layout here. My actual logo in the header(at least the font), and a bunch of new stuff on the banner to the right. Changed my About me to something more shop focused. Added a bunch of bike Jamis bike reviews I found on the web. Added a slide show from the building of the shop. And a local riding link. That part is a bit sparse for now - but it'll change! I've been making a habit of taking the GPS out on rides, so I have a few ready to post up. I'll just need to find a way to put them up in the interweb so they're viewable.

As far as the shop goes, things are clicking along. Really, I shouldn't be doing this right now - but I kinda want a break from filling out forms and faxing. uhg.

I've been approved for QBP, so look for my wife and I to be attending Frostbike next weekend. Shit. That's next weekend already. SBS is on the table too. Why SBS? Weird for a midwest shop to go with them, innit? Well, there's a reason. Redline bikes! Yep, we'll be carrying the Redline banner here too. I've picked them mostly for the BMX line up. But it so happens they make pretty kick but deals for mountain bikes too! BTI should be happening soon too.

Sorry for no pics this time - but things are messy! Gimme a chance to clean up a bit, then more images will pop up!

Listening to: Pandora : stations; a mix of Arcade Fire and Ryan Adams.