I realize the hypocrisy of my position in life. I work in retail. I sell things everyday to make a living. Being anti-capitalist this puts my in a rather distinct place. I hate the concept of my job but I love what I do. I love what I do because I get to be around the greatest invention humanity has ever come up with, the bicycle. Plus I get to be a part of a community of people that are trying to better their surroundings and themselves. And of course, I get to bring happiness to people because I get to fix their broken down love-machines. But this is about Paul…

Paul is one of our own. I don’t feel right calling him a customer because the relationship he has with the shop is more than a dollar and cents type of a deal. I get to see Paul almost every day.

I first met Paul about two years ago, in passing. My first impression of him was much like a lot of people who come to see my boss, Jeff Keller. They don’t seem to care much about the rest of us and I am better off not getting involved. I felt this way about Paul until about four months ago. He came in looking for Keller and started talking bikes. Up to this point I had no idea he even owned a bicycle. I had never seen him with one. He started talking about old Masi’s and the new fix gear trend that we all love to hate. Paul didn’t just talk about old bikes, he knew old bikes.

Paul is from Boston. He has more stories than a bar on a Saturday night and is more than willing to share. From what we can gather, he is better connected than any crack dealer and he has no problem dropping names. Now I say “from what we can gather” for a couple of reasons. First, Paul likes to talk and likes to tell stories. Second, we have no proof of said affiliations beyond that of his own assurance.

Paul loves old Masi bikes. He talks almost exclusively of them, especially those made before the master moved to California and sold part of the company. In regular Paul fashion, he has claimed to own anywhere from 50 to 100 different bikes over the years and he says he has many of those in his possession. Which begs the question, why haven’t I ever seen him with a bike? I started to give Paul shit about a month ago for said reason. Also, I wanted to see the bikes and I wanted to know if he was legit or not.

Saturday morning, I’m in the shop just after opening. It’s cold. There isn’t alot going on. I’m at the back computer checking email and doing the stuff I do in the morning. The bell rings and I look up to see who it is. No one seems to be coming through the door. The bell rings again and I can tell someone is having trouble getting through the door. This is typical when someone tries to bring a bike in with them. The bell rings again and then I see the giant front wheel of a Penny Farthing pop into the store. Then Paul comes gandering in behind it. It was obvious I had just been trumped. I could no longer give him shit because he just walked through my front door with a bike that was well over 100 years old. I walked up to help him out and we placed the Penny Farthing in the shop. He then proceeded back out of the shop and told me to come check out his Masi.

We walked out into the cold to the back of his truck and there it was, a Masi Nuova Strada complete and hand made in Italy. He was excited to say the least. This was a new addition to his collection and it had just arrived. We brought it in and hung it in the stand as the newest ornament for the shop. We awed and oh-ed for a while. And then Paul spent the rest of the day cleaning and tuning his bike. He was the personfication of the cliche, “as happy as a kid on Christmas morning.”

And all of that to tell you why I love my job. Bicycles can change the world, but most importantly they make people happy. Working in the shop allows me to be part of that connection, to be part of the community of people out there to change something, to make things better for all of us. Yeah, I sell stuff and that is Capitalism, but much more importantly I get to meet people and connect with them, all because of bikes.

Life goes on. Ride it on a bike.

P.S. I will post pictures of both the Penny Farthing that now resides in our shop and Paul and his Masi as soon as I get Photoshop working. Until then…