First of all, Happy New Year!!
2019, what a year! The year began for me thinking I would be moving into a larger work space with the potential to bring paint in house, have a great space for a studio for design and photography, potential to have bikes on display for the public to come and view as well as an actual working toilet and sustainable dry heating. Unfortunately, the plug was pulled by the current tenant who decided to stay at the last minute. Regardless, I was happy with my current set up and was happy to continue as I were.
Anyway, a few months go by and I was approached by my landlord who told me they were selling my workshop and that it was going to auction with just 6 weeks notice. I made an offer, it was accepted and I head to the bank and solicitor and a week later, the landlords solicitor advices they take the workshop to auction and not sell to me. It’s probably the most stressful thing I have ever endured. As anyone who builds custom bikes will know, we don’t have capital falling out of our ears and so moving into a new workshop with nearly no notice seemed almost impossible. All kinds of things were going through my mind as to how I would take the business forward, especially having recently bought a house and having real grown-up responsibilities, no qualifications or alternative career to fall back made me feel like the world was on my shoulders.
In the end, I found myself in a very lucky position and was able to build a custom workshop for a fraction of the price I would have paid for the old workshop and design it to suit exactly what I do and how I work. At almost half the size of my last workshop I was really worried it would be too small; even after drawing a floor plan, but in the end it has turned out absolutely perfect. It is the most efficient workshop I have ever worked in. Everything is at almost arms reach, it is so small that it forces you to be tidy and as anyone who works on the tools will know, a tidy bench is a tidy mind. Ultimately, it’s the happiest I have ever been at the bench and has meant that I have already produced some of my best work to date in just 3 months of moving in.
Meanwhile as all this was going on, we were planning a 10 year anniversary event and designing 10 year anniversary kit, which was super exciting as I have never offered any kit for sale before. It turned out absolutely stunning and I couldn’t have been happier with the outcome. Thanks a ton to Sam Hodgson and Rapha for helping make this happen. I was also incredibly lucky to be the chosen builder of a couple of Trans Continental Race bikes for a couple of riders, they happened to be two of the coolest bikes I have ever built.
The 10 Year Anniversary event went so much better than I ever could have expected. It probably wouldn’t have even happened if it wasn’t for the amazing efforts put in by Sally, it was basically her event about me. Pretty terrible on my behalf. I was more focused on the kit and the collaboration beer I brewed with Brew York, a local craft ale brewery where a really old mate of mine, Mat, works. We had over 10% of the bikes I have ever built there on the day, with about 25 out on the road for the owners ride. We rode around 45 miles, just north of HQ and took in some great local landmarks including Byland Abbey and The White Horse bank in Kilburn. Thanks to all my customers and friends and family who attended the day, you made it incredibly special. I would also like to thanks my friend Nick who came to take some photos at the event. These will be added soon as I lost them in an incident mentioned further down this post. You can see a bunch of photos taken by Jon Woodroof of TwoTone fame.
For the month of August, I was asked to display some bikes at the Rapha pop-up in Leeds, followed by a private event on the closing evening showing my most recent work. Thanks again to Rapha for thinking of me.
In September, we were lucky enough to witness the UCI World Championships right here in Yorkshire. On the eve of the Elite women and mens road race events, I was kindly asked by Katusha to join them at their pop-up in Harrogate to have a bit of a meet and greet and chat to people about my bikes and what I can offer. I had a great evening and met some brilliant future customers.
As far as actually cycling this year, there wasn’t much of it. A family trip to Tuscany with Sally’s family was the best block of cycling I did all year and it was an absolute pleasure to get out into the mountains with Sally’s brother, Tom, who was also on his Feather to make it extra special. Otherwise, I have been making a huge effort to take my customers for a ride on my local roads when they collect their bikes. There is no better feeling than watching my happy customers ride the bike I created for them, especially here on the roads I know like the back of my hand but which are completely new to most of my customers. I also dug out the BMX too and did a little riding on that after years of it being sat in the shed.
Later on in the year, things picked back up at the bench having moved into the new workshop and went incredibly well all the way until Christmas, I have built some lovely bikes and worked on some stunning paint designs with Jack. I can’t wait to share more of what we have been working on recently later this month once things pick back up. There was one last blunder when I found at the end of December that my laptop had decided it would stop working, along with the hard drive it was backed up on. Luckily, there was a few essentials backed up on another hard drive, so thankfully, not everything has gone.
2020 is looking great for the next 3 months and hopefully things will pick up even more going into the summer. I just purchased a new computer, so it feels like a true fresh start and a good excuse to get the admin just as organised as the workshop. I’m super excited about this year and seeing what it brings. I hope you all have a great decade!!