Opening Trailside Cyclery

It was over two years ago since my cousin Pat asked me to run his bicycle shop while he underwent radiation treatment, and chemotherapy for a cancerous brain tumor. I hadn't worked in a bike shop for sixteen years. There were a lot of mixed emotions about working there. I felt bad that I was having so much fun while Pat was living a nightmare. It wasn't long before he couldn't walk.

I was in a heaven here on Earth. During the sixteen years I'd worked at Boeing, I forgot how much I really enjoyed working with customers, and all the bikes that would come through the door each day. But it didn't seem right that I should enjoy myself so much while Pat suffered so terribly. It was his shop and at times I felt like I was tresspassing.

I think every man at times would like to work for himself. I never fully realised the heart; and soul it takes to start your own business. It's one thing to think about it, and to plan for it but to actually put your money and your back into it and stop bluffing and go for it is entirely another school of thought.

Around the same time Pat was calling and end to Sumner Bicycle, a building here in Orting became available for lease. By then I'd written countless business plans for a bicycle shop here in Orting; but something always proved to be a stumbling block. Number one was fear. Then there was lack of start up capital. Then the lease was always going to be too much. There are all sorts of good reasons not to go into business for yourself. There are also a lot of reasons to go ahead and do it too. All the business plans in the world will not tell you for certain if a venture such as this will succeed. Actually, all factual indicators will tell you that a bicycle shop has one of the worst case failure rates of all retail endevors.

Of course I ignored them all. In the end, I figured I could just as easily loose as much in a bad investment somewhere else or by buying a hot tub and a new car. In a few years, the value of a new car would depreciate as would a hot tub. I figured too that maybe I'd at least break even; and at the outside chance that I'd make a profit, maybe I could still buy that hot tub.

First lets get one thing straight. I hated working at Boeing. The only thing I liked about working at Boeing was the paycheck and benifits. I'm strickly speaking for myself but I believe most people who work there feel the same way. I'm sure there are people at Boeing who like their jobs and for them I'm happy. They are truely blessed. But for me, I felt like a drone. Lets face it, it's a factory; and I did the same job day in day out for the better part of 18 years. Sure there are different jobs there, but after you learn a job there on the Wingline to where you can do it with your eyes closed, it's all the same. Like the Dire Straights song, "Industrial Disease", I had it bad.

So this building became available; and I jumped in head first. The Monday after Christmas in 2004, I signed the lease and unlocked the double doors in front. I'll never walking in the front door carring a ladder and thinking to myself, "What the hell am I doing?" My longtime best friend Phill and I started tearing out old wall board at this building at 207 Van Scoyoc Ave SW, here in Orting, Washington and so, I was committed. It took every waking available spare minute for 7 weeks to get it ready for opening day on February 16th 2005. Keep in mind, I was still working full time at Boeing...Forty Hours a Week!

Pat died on February 25th a little over a week after I opened. He was more than a cousin to me. Pat was my mentor and friend. He was like the big brother I never had. I still miss him a lot, and wish I could ask him for advise on this and on that; but he's gone. One thing I know for certain is that I'll see him in Paradise on some bright morning. More on that some other day. So this Blog, and my business is dedicated to Patrick Pryne.