The Perks of Being a Bike Manager

Yesterday was my first official day as the Bike Manager at the store where I've served as a bike mechanic for most of the last year. It was a fairly uneventful day in terms of keeping busy. I am still in training mode but will get to sell some tonight and spent most of yesterday following other people in sales to see how they do it and to learn about some of the other specialty shops. Yesterday it was skateboarding, inline skates and exercise (both equipment and machines), today it will be golf.

There were a lot of reactions from coworkers to my change of apparel from a red, shop shirt to the blue shirt and tie that is worn by the sales staff. I came up with a few responses such as "I got dressed in the dark this morning" and "I made the mistake of telling them I owned a tie" just to mention a few. I've had people tell me I'm moving up, to which I respond that I'm not moving up, just to the other side of the counter. I love and respect the guys in the shop too much to act as though I'm more important than they are to the store.

I did get to help one of the new sales guys sell a bike at the end of the day. He doesn't know bikes too well and usually will be in sport & game, baseball, hockey... We tag teamed the sale and sent the customer off with a Gary Fisher Tassajara Disc women's bike that, I think, is a pretty sweet bike for the price. I let Keaton take credit for the sale since I don't even know how to report my commission stuff yet and since I'll also get a percentage of the bike department sales. I have to say it did feel very weird to bring the bike back to the shop to have it checked over. I told Lee, the shop manager, that it felt like I was doing something wrong, but I suppose I'll get used to it.

I also got a couple pieces of very fun news. The first is that I get to go to the Trek bikes mothership in Waterloo, Wisconsin next month for work. I know several of my friends who I just made incredibly jealous with that statement. It looks like it will be a three day trip and I'll be the only one from the store to go. I don't know if I'm driving or flying, but we may see about having the whole family go if I'm driving and if it's permissible by the company. The only downside is that it will only be March and I'm not sure that I'd be able to do much in the way of riding while I'm there.

The other fun news is that in addition to Trek, LeMond and Gary Fisher bikes, we'll be carrying a line of Orbea bikes. Orbea is a Spanish bike that I've been watching for the last several years in the pro ranks with the Euskaltel-Euskadi and Jelly Belly teams and is a gorgeous bike. The company is "making" us carry them. Oh well, if the company says we have to, I suppose we'll just have to suffer through having more beautiful bikes around.

So far, I love my job!