Introductions - New guy from the Central Valley, CA

Hello everyone at BF,

My name is Laurence; I'm from the Central Valley, CA, and am somewhat newly married (14 mos.). I have recently been reintroduced to riding by a very good friend within the last year, and now have 3 roadworthy bikes, and one I will be building in the near future. I have been employed, until recently, as a salesperson, but due to the difficulties in the economy I currently am investigating a new way to earn a living.

My current bicycles are:
-An '06 Marin Venezia road bike which I don’t like at all, but it was a great deal when I purchased it and has really gotten me serious about my bicycling.
-An '83 Univega Alpina Sport 21", which is a bit big for me, but it belonged to my grandfather so I keep it on the road for sentimental reasons, and it now acts as my urban commuter.
-An early 70's Campania Medalist (Japanese Campy at its worst), which I have converted to a fixed gear for the local bike path. I love riding this bike, but it needs brakes.
-My project build is a '62 Schwinn Tiger cantilever frame. This too will be fixed, but I hope to make it a bit more "modern" as I'm not a big fan of restorations.

I am currently building the "love-of-my-life" (my wife, fyi) a '71 Schwinn Breeze, where I have cleaned, polished and waxed, the patina'ed frame, and will be a bike path cruiser for her to join rides with friends.

I am really enjoying leaning about bicycle mechanics, and am also doing a quick clean-up of a vintage Campy Record equipped Swiss bike for my father-in-law who hopes to get back to riding as well. I hope to attend UBI soon to learn more.

I will try to post pics of my bikes to the appropriate sections soon, and I look forward to getting to know some of you.


Laurence

Tough about the job - it looks like you are well qualified for a position at a bike shop, either as mechanic or sales. You have my best wishes.

Thanks for the encouragement. My plan is a little different than that, but you're thinking in the right direction as I *think* I see a need locally and would like to meet it. So, I guess we’ll see.;)

:welcome

I too an in the doldrums due to the economy. Sounds like you have found something worthwhile to keep you busy. Be sure to hook up with your local bike shop (LBS) and establish a relationship. They're usually a good source of info.

Now that is a lot of brass air fittings http://www.liangdianup.com/subpages/airfitting_1.htm there is just about every type
of air fitting that you could want. Wholesale prices too. I guess these could be used as small water pipe fitting also. I
used some of the parts to make my babington wvo bu

Real Cinelli & Fred,

Thanks for the welcome. Fred, I'm super fortunate that my wifes job is unaffected by these hard economic times, as it affords me the oppertunity to explore other options for myself. I have always heard some of the most successful people started out during the tough times, so we shall see. Good luck to you too!