Please excuse the title, but holy fuck. There's a lot to be sad, angry and disappointed about right now isn't there? So we didn't think it was worth wasting our time coming up with a fabulously creative title for what might end up being a little bit of a moan! Let's start with the shitty bits and finish on a high note with more positive news, shall we.
First off. Congratulations to the website visitor that managed to piss us off this morning, before we'd even had a coffee! Getting narked because we are not willing to send through detailed bike geometry of somebody's custom order? Hahaha. Sorry that we aren't flattered by your proclamation that the bike is nice and looks to be the proportions you're looking for, so can we tell you all the dimensions so you can have something similar built, but engage your brain, please. Firstly, those dimensions are bespoke to our customer, therefore come under the remit of client confidentiality. Secondly, he invested time, trust and a significant amount of money to have us build his perfect bike. Imagine how pleased he'd be to know that someone else has something very similar, no doubt built in a kitchen and with no liability insurance. If you want to find bike geometry information, head to big manufacturer websites where nothing is custom. Cheers!
Sorry for the overshare, but we've had a suicide in the family this week. It's knocked us (Mrs. A more, as it's a member of her direct family) for six. Naturally, we started questioning what the point of everything is (hello depressed minds!) and all those little niggles that we can get past on a daily basis just got extra irritating. All the ripping-off in this industry, the time-wasting emails, the ghosting etc. We keep getting pretty close to just shutting up shop and calling it a day, not because we don't have work on, but because of all the rigmarole that gets in the way. Then we get an email from someone delightful and it reminds us why we still bother. Because we build things for people who want to just get out on their bikes. Because a lot of them need to cycle for their own mental health. These are our people. Not the ones who want the latest and greatest accessories, most expensive build-kits and bragging rights on their Sunday club rides, but those who just want to cycle. To you, we say a huge thank you. You keep us going, you refocus us when we need it and you remind us that not everyone is an arsehole.
Right. token moan over, so let's talk about some more proactive shit, shall we? The website. Urgh. The bane of Mrs. A's life. Just like our living room lighting, she never quite feels like she's nailed it and I can often hear her furiously clicking and typing in her office, accompanied by a lot of choice swearing. If you've never heard your partner muttering about "not giving a flying fancy fuck about the buy it now button font" you're missing out. Anyway. She's decided to give it a freshen up and make it really simple and understated. Forget fancy bike pictures as backdrops, it's all OSB from our workshop now. Looks great, works well and if you want pictures of bikes, just go to our gallery. Pretty simple stuff. Nobody buys a bike based on the fancypants website anyway and if they do, what a weird way to select a builder.
While she was messing about with the site, Mrs. A also updated the shop. As well as adding plenty of ready-to-buy workshop clearance bits and bobs, guess what? WE CAN ACCEPT DEBIT AND CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS NOW! This means that we can create bespoke listings or invoices, making it simpler for you to order bikes, wheels, racks, stems, forks etc from us, directly on our website or via email. We can now make a deposit listing just for you and you can pay however is easiest. Pretty good huh? No more "do I need to bring cash" emails and forget annoying bank transfers too. Hurrah!
As today is September 1st, we are gearing up to start our Ride 300 Cancer Research miles. A MASSIVE thank you to everybody who has already donated and gotten us to 70% of our target before we've even gotten on the bikes, but now we just need a final push to get us all the way. We've connected Strava to the donation page, so you can see how we are doing and Mrs. A has also connected her Peloton account (just email if you want to be 'friends' or whatever happens on there), as she's killing the game on that thing and will be aiming to get A LOT of miles in over the next four weeks. Look. We know that all the cancer fundraising gets a bit annoying. You feel like you're being guilt-tripped into donating for something with all the office bake sales and the bike rides etc. We get it, but if you can try to remember that cancer affects 1 in 2 people, you might be glad you contributed to finding a cure one day. Don't wait until it affects you or someone you love directly to be an ally when you could just donate a couple of quid now and know that you are making an enormous difference in the global fight. It's literally one less fancy coffee this week. One less pint. One less fry-up. And maybe one more person surviving. Thank you for coming to our Ted Talk.
We've got a fork build starting this week, a batch of stem racks to get on with and a few new ideas bubbling to the surface, but in terms of Instagram, we are a tiny bit burnt out at moment. It's just an unofficial Pinterest board that 'friends' use to pinch ideas and cash in on things that were paying our bills, so forgive us if we have been a little quiet. Our moods are lifting now and we will start popping some things up.
So, what's been happening with all of you? Anything fun and exciting? Anything shit that you need to talk about? Just let us know.
Rad peeps of the week:
All of our Buy Me A Coffee supporters, as always.
Auntie Gill, for bossing out G-Ma life
Scott for a belated birthday present
Anyone who hates and has never watched Love Island
Cody Rigsby for giving Mrs. A her fitness obsession and confidence back
See you next week!