The Calling of Dropouts and Dirtbags

Out of college money spent
See no future, pay no rent
All the money’s gone, nowhere to go
Any jobber got the sack
Monday morning turning back
Yellow lorry slow, nowhere to go

I’ve been slaving away for peanuts in the bike shop dungeon for about a week now. 3 hours a day has been devoted to commuting by train 1 1/2 hour each way, which I actually thoroughly enjoy. I just pretend as though I’m on a Disney Monorail magical tram ride through the city. I’ve never been on the Disney Monorail, but I assume that it is pretty rad and not as clunky and smelly as the “El.”

Today it was snowing on the ride, which made it all the more surreal. Yes, it was snowing in Chicago today. It was the first snowfall of the year and the first time that Jared has ever seen snow falling from the sky (he has ridden his bike past frozen patches of snow in the mountains).

Of course, just to shove in my face how hardcore Chicagoans are, I walked out of my house in blizzard gear and the first person I encountered was a woman walking her dog in a short sleeve miniskirt.

I usually use the time commuting on the train as an opportunity to read or people watch. If you want to see interesting characters, just ride public transport around your city.

Once I get off the train, I grab some coffee and go to work until 8 p.m. The bike shop where I’m working is so completely different from Ordinary in Tucson, where I used to work as a salesperson. It is in a working class part of Chicago and doesn’t take in much money whatsoever. In the winter that means almost zero. Customers are few and far between, and even when they are in the shop I am in the other room fixing bikes and don’t get to see them. Whereas Ordinary had a huge open air garage half to the store, this shop has no windows except for the front door. It is perhaps an easier place to learn the ins and outs of wrenching because it is not the fun shop environment that Ordinary had. I’m not there to make friends or converse with customers. I practically feel like a nun. I don’t take a lunch break and rarely even stop to piss the entire time I’m there. Instead I just quietly work on the bikes, sometimes stopping to ask my zen master occasional questions. There is no music playing in the shop. It’s quiet except for the occasional commands of a crazy Italian owner who for the most part acts as though I do not exist.

The shop fixes up a lot of bikes that are beat to shit from Chicago winters, which means rust and salt all over the wheels. We also fix up a lot of old bikes. It’s fun because I’m actually getting to do mechanical things on the bikes, which sometimes doesn’t happen in these days of planned obsolescence. A lot of times nowadays things just simply get replaced rather than repaired. I actually can’t think of anything that I’ve replaced on a bike yet other than some brake cable and housing.

Each bike that I work on seems like a person of sorts. Some of them are really cranky and need tons of attention. Others are completely easy-going, fun to work with, and almost pass out of my hands too quickly. Then more cranky ones come along and the drudgery continues. Like people, most bikes suck, whine, and have existential dilemmas. But all of them can be made better to a certain degree (unless they are from Walmart..j/k…not really), and some of them are absolutely amazing.

Despite the long hours and lack of pay, I can’t deny that I enjoy what I am doing. Even when I make mistakes and have to take extra time to correct them, I find that the work is engaging. Rather than counting down the minutes until I can leave, I find myself occupied by finishing the tasks at hand and I often run out of time at the end of the day. I’m sure eventually it will become drudgery, but right now the job consists of all sorts of problem solving and learning. I guess it would be more difficult to accept the peanuts as payment if the job was monotonous and terrible.

Bike mechanics are dropouts and dirtbags. Many are there because they simply can’t handle sitting at a desk, and many that I’ve encountered seem to have problems with authority. Steve mentioned that there is a lack of “upward mobility” as a bike mechanic and I about peed myself. Nothing could be closer to the truth. I’m not really trying to become a CEO. Believe me I don’t have any delusions of grandeur here. I have delusions of making $10/hr, which would be over 2x what I am making currently…if that puts things into perspective for you.

It’s just a job. I just want to feed myself and have a roof over my head and force Jared to fix his rotting teeth. These are things that could not be accomplished on bike tour. The reality is that it sickens me to see that Jared has been in pain over his rotting jaw for the past year and I refuse to continue touring until he takes care of himself. It is easy to forget about a lot of things when you are traveling. It is required that you forget about a lot of things when you are traveling by bicycle.

-L

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