We drink a lot of coffee at Rocky Mountain Bicycles. Most of the office is somewhat dependant on nature’s hot brown nectar, and those who aren’t are completely addicted. It’s safe to say that when something gets in the way of our constant caffeination, things can get a little squirrelly around the office. Yesterday the coffee pot broke, and although we have zero proof, we’re confident our engineering intern, Mike Sullivan was responsible.
Here’s a picture of Mike we stole from his Facebook. He's dressed for what appears to be some sort of weird safari.
Hailing from what some consider paradise and what most consider the opposite of that - Waterloo, Ontario - Mike is the latest addition to the R&D department. One of the most positive changes at Rocky over the last couple years has been the intern program in which we get a fresh faced, math savvy, and socially not-so-savvy student every four months. Right as the intern’s will to live is at its breaking point from ridicule and heavy workload, a new one comes in and the cycle of torture is renewed.
Mike is kind enough to make coffee often, probably more than anyone in the office, and that is why we think it was him that broke the coffee pot. Our coffee pot is a big jug that our commercial grade coffee maker drips into. Once it’s full, you close the lid and a lever pops up with which you pump the coffee into your cup. Something in the pump broke and it was all Mike’s fault.
Being the problem solver that we’re barely paying him to be, Mike enlisted our master fabricator and frame builder Al Kowalchuk to fix the pump. They quickly identified the culprit as a broken piece of plastic that broke after eight years of heavy use. With a full machine shop at his disposal, Al began fashioning a replacement part out of aerospace grade 6061 aluminum billet.
Aluminum on the mill.
Now on the drill press.
Taking shape.
A perfect reproduction.
Ready for reassembly.
You can tell by his duck-like expression that he's happy for the heckling about the broken coffee maker to end. Special thanks to Al for fixing the coffee pot on his birthday and to Kicking Horse Coffee for keeping us buzzed.
And that, Ladies and Gentleman, is a small glimpse into what happens at Rocky Mountain each day. Lots of people think working at Rocky is all private jets and champagne, but we put our pants on one leg at the time like everyone else. Well, actually, we get Mike to put our pants on for us.
Stay tuned for our next blog update where we crush a can of Manwich in the ultimate frame failure machine.
Well Howdy there,
I've been in Tucson for about 6 days, 22 hours, and 14 minutes so far. And up to this point its been warm, its snowed, I've roomed with drunk heroin addicts, cooked some awesome meals and done a bunch of pedalling in the desert.
My first couple days I decided to live like a cheap cyclist, although I did live cheaply..I also shared a 6-bunk hostel room with some "interesting people". And by people I really only mean one dude. You can read the full story here: http://evanguthrie.blogspot.com/2011/02/drunk-heroin-addicts-in-my-room.html <http://evanguthrie.blogspot.com/2011/02/drunk-heroin-addicts-in-my-room.html> . To sum up quick, I had an experience with a drunk heroin addict puking and peeing all over the room. And it was a good thing I had a top bunk, otherwise I would have smelt pretty interesting.
After this incident I decided it was time to relocate. I luckily found an open room to rent in house for the same price as the hostel. Thanks to the one and only Cody Canning from: http://codycanning.blogspot.com/
Now to the reason I am down here. I decided it might be nice to get out of the cold and snowy Okanagan for a couple weeks and ride my bike, as the season is approaching quickly. And since 98% of my endurance work has been done on the snowshoes I knew it was time to actually ride the bike and why not in the sun. So far everything's been going great, the rides are getting longer and feeling easier. Which is a good thing, because this time last year I was down here training with Mononucleosis, and of course I didn't know. But to ride 4 hrs with 2 hrs of coasting I felt like I had just raced a 24hr solo. So this year things are back on track, and I'm ready to race again all healthy and mentally fresh!
I've had a couple chill coffee rides so far, and we tend to ride over to the University and people watch. This time of year, there's some good scenery for sure.
I experienced my first Shoot-Out ride on Saturday. It was hard and it was damn early in the AM. I was on the bicycle at 6 am sharp for my hr commute to the start. Then we proceeded to ride out of town in the Master group, having not done the ride before I didn't know why we were so much faster...Then it hit us. So we stopped and waited for the actual normal ride. I would have rather kept rolling slowly because the "normal group" had Todd Wells in it and oh boy let me tell you, never try and stick his wheel on a long uphill sprint for your "endurance ride". I think I did 1000 watts for 20 sec trying to stick it. Then I quit.. Honestly it was a wicked ride. A bunch of US U23 National Team guys were out for a training ride as well. We finished 140 km by 11 am. Then headed to the University to watch some local crit's.
Oh and by the way, the people down here are interesting. Half of the time I have a Canada vest on, and people keep asking me " Are you from Canada...Eh? haha" Sometimes I reply with no, I just like their clothing.. I've also heard some people down here talk about "ice hockey". Yes "ice hockey", not just "hockey". Had some master guy roll up beside a group of us the other and asked the same "are you from Canada" question, but this time we replied with "yes". And he asked "do you kids know the Sedin sisters?" And we were all like said hold on a minute there buddy. But he quickly came back with "do you know what colour skirts they are going to wear for the playoff?" I gotta give it to him, it was somewhat funny.
It actually snowed down here a bit the other night. Just a light dusting. but it was funny how big of a deal it was. Haven't seen a day that nice back home since like Oct.
The weather looks promising the next week, looks to be 25 degrees or more everyday. Now its time to hunker down and put in some hrs. Then back home, where is -5 and 80 cm of snow in my yard.
