Sunday, January 22, 2017

There's a new Chris in town and He is not Me (or I)...but I promise you will like him!

012217

So I sold the shop.  I guess that’s the biggest news in my life at the moment.  It is a bittersweet thing.  I am not sure what to think or say about it quite yet.  Too fresh and too strange.  I find myself just off in space a lot right now, thinking, pondering, ruminating, whatever…  It just doesn’t seem real right.  I’m glad I did it because I was just about out of energy…I mean the sort of high-functioning, aggressive energy you need to stay focused on the strategic goals and mission of a small business like the bike shop.  It has been ten years now.  And that all important energy was divided up about evenly between those years and I just plain ran out of gas.  

When Ryan and I started Motion, we were consumed with the goal of creating the best bike shop in the city of Indianapolis (and the Town of Fishers) and we worked very hard over many hours a week to accomplish that goal.  Of course we did not create the best bike shop in the city…we did not have the resources to do that…but I think we did create a pretty unique community of cyclists in our little area.  I think we really tried hard in those baby years and we put a lot of our personalities and our Essence into the thing and while I concede that we didn’t create the best shop in town, i believe we created a good one.  At times it was exceptional.  And sometimes it was bad.  I guess all businesses are like that.  I think Motion took on my personality after Ryan left and I am sort of a volatile person and the shop mirrored my mind sometimes.  I’m sometimes a very crotchety guy and i didn’t always treat people as well as I could have.  But I was many times very good at what i did and I believe that I helped to make a good number of people very happy.  Those times were the times I loved the most.  To see a genuine smile on someone’s face when they bought a great bike from us…a bike that we took the time to match up with that person based on an actual conversation and an honest and questioning demeanor.  Or to experience the satisfaction of a customer when we solved a difficult problem with their bike when we performed service for them.  Those times really got me jazzed and gave me a deep satisfaction.  I took those experiences and created an identity for myself based on them.  I was the owner of Motion Cycling & Fitness and I am proud of what I accomplished.  I am proud of what Ryan and I both accomplished, actually.  I don’t think we could have made it without him in those first few years and I am forever grateful for his partnership with me and his belief in our mission from those very first few conversations at Claddaugh Irish pub all the way to the formation of our LLC in May of 2007.  What a ride.  What a damned fine and highly satisfying ride it was.  

And I guess that last statement is why I am experiencing postpartum depression right now.  Yeah…I ran out of gas, but dammit the ride was, at times, so good, and provided me with so much during the last ten years that I can't help but replay those great experiences over and over and i am just torn up.  …also I need to find a job.

So Chris Carr is the new owner.  He is a solid guy with a lot of energy and a much more stable personality than me.  He is not easily rattled and I do not know anyone who does not like him.  He is easy to like.  He has been active in the local cycling scene for years now through his work at the Cycle Studio in Carmel, working part-time for me, and through the racing scene.  Chris is one of the strongest guys i know on the bike and will actually be riding for First IB this season.  He has completed the Leadville 100 and is strong on the mountain bike also.  I think that his enthusiasm for the sport and his drive to create something great out of Motion will serve him well.  I hope with everything in me that he can grow the shop and attract even more people into the little community that we started.  That may be the thing i miss most.  I will no longer get to see all the people I have come to call friends on a monthly, weekly, sometimes even daily basis.  The shop was a great way to stay in touch with a lot of people i know.  It really helped me to conquer my naturally introverted (highly introverted) personality and to learn to initiate conversation and interaction with people.  Were it not for the store, I would most certainly be a hermit by now…living in my adobe hut in the desert of Arizona…probably with a coyote as a pet.   Anyway, like I was saying, I hope Chris can make something great out of the shop.  I think he will.  I will be around for awhile to help out and maybe provide a bit of guidance (and do service and glue tubular tires on lots of wheels because I am the best guy in town at that…I really mean it…my glue jobs are true and they will not roll off in hard corners in fast crits, I promise).  So yeah…I’ll be around, working limited hours for a while.  

So that’s what’s going on with me right now.  I just read through this thing and it sounds very weepy and has a sort of “poor me” vibe to it.  I did not mean for that to happen.  But I guess that’s what was on my mind so there you have it.  

Oh yeah, I have been working with the First IB team to get the kits (jerseys and bibs) done and we should all be well-dressed in about a month or so.  The guys and gals are also getting some new bikes and wheels.  Felt and Zipp have once again been very generous with their sponsorship of the team and we will be FAST this year.  Check out the FB and Twitter pages for news about the team and the riders.  We’ve picked up some massive firepower during the offseason and we will be very competitive on the national race scene.  I won’t mention all the sponsors in this blog but they are all very generous and we are well taken care of for 2017.  It’s gonna be fun to watch so pay attention to those feeds for links to live-streams of the races we will do and for results.  And look out for the Whale as it lumbers its way around the country filled with people who are all faster than me and lots of bikes and bags full of lycra and beet juice.  


Okay I’m done.  I’ll do a fun one soon.