Tune in to Frequency Cycleworks
Bikes today are becoming more and more proprietary and working on them requires patience, expertise and a tongue firmly in the cheek.
Mechanic’s Creed: Origins
“This will be the last bike I build for somebody in my kitchen.” I said. He glared distrustingly. Or was it hopefully? Always difficult to figure out exactly what your cat is thinking, probably just wants feeding… again. But I said it for me, for myself. For my sanity and the peace of mind that comes with clearing both physical and mental clutter.
It’s a bit of a mess, you see. The kitchen. Well, okay it’s not too bad. But navigating around a bike (especially a shiny new one) in a relatively tight space is sometimes disconcerting and always annoying. You need elbow room! At least I do… I broke them both years ago on separate occasions (yes, bike related - more on that at a later date) and despite being fully healed I do feel like I now desire - no, require - wider doorways.
Where was I going with this? Oh yes, I need a new space. See I’ve been freelancing as a gun for hire in the bike industry since the time of BC (‘Before Covid’). I was a (cliché incoming) professional portrait photographer for a good 15 years, a graphic designer and sound engineer before that (and yes I DJ’d on occasion…). I was making a decent living despite being squeezed by your uncle/nephew/personal trainer who ‘just bought the same camera’ and will ‘do it for free’. I was pretty good (some even called my work ‘incredible’ despite having to pay me). But it had run its course. I’d taught myself everything I needed to know and although I was highly accomplished at the craft the only way up in an industry like that is to charge more money for doing the same thing day in and day out. I was bored. The creative stuff doesn’t pay and the stuff that does ain’t creative. Not to mention technology being what it is, the ‘art-form’ itself was in crisis, and still is (see AI…)
Luckily just as I was losing my passion for one thing, another hobby-come profession popped up - bike maintenance. I’ve been riding bikes since I was 2 years old, if the pictures are to be believed. I have that all too common childhood memory of my dad promising not to let go and then coming about only to see him standing 20 metres away congratulating me for my first pedal strokes without stabilisers. It’s a positive memory for sure but you’d think I would have some deep-seated trust issues… My dad’s an engineer and my mum a seamstress, tools were a common sight in our house and I grew up with an attitude of making and doing. I’ve been dismantling toys (and sometimes putting them back together) since I was a baby. My curiosity for how and why things work is well-documented, it’s in the blood.
Old habits die hard
Fast forward 40-odd years and as many careers as bikes later, I’m setting up my first ‘go-it-alone’ bike servicing err, service. Since having a somewhat suspicious premonition about the freelance photography thing drying up, my other half - a bike mechanic of 12 years with a bricks and mortar shop and everything - had suggested that given my penchant for bike maintenance I help out in her shop to make ends meet. Well, I ended up working in more than one workshop. Big ones, little ones and everything in between. I’d done it again, I’d taken a hobby and turned it into a profession.
I’ve done it so many times it feels familiar and it doesn’t phase me at all. Am I lying? Maybe a bit. But it’s more working out where the capital’s going to come from rather than whether or not I can do it. It’s simple, you already have the knowledge and perhaps more importantly the drive and inquisitiveness to learn anything you don’t already know - that’s the difference between an engineer and somebody just looking to make a profit (trust-fund kids - lookin’ at you). So here we are. I’m not really doing it alone, I’m surrounded by good people who are helping in lots of ways and I’ll give them individual shout outs as I progress because they all deserve an extensive introduction.
Get to the point
So here we are: Frequency Cycleworks (an anticipative name, I’ll grant you). An endeavour that began with building custom bikes for framebuilders out of my kitchen and now an official business with a logo and website I designed myself and everything! Stickers and T-shirts coming soon barring natural disaster, global thermo-nuclear war etc.
Perhaps what could be described as the antithesis of my other half’s raison d’être. She teaches bike maintenance. I don’t have the patience for that, it’s a different skill-set. What I do know is that people like me covet their bike, it has pride of place in their living room/hallway/shed and they spend more time looking at upgrades on the Internet than perhaps they should. They also need somebody to maintain said bike and aside from pumping up the tires every few days (yes every few days) when something goes awry they want to entrust the job of tinkering to somebody who’s obsessive about getting things working smoothly.
“Okay you’re a bike mechanic, shouldn’t you be working on a bike instead of composing some sort of allegorical novella?” It’s complicated. Working for yourself in 202(4)! requires a whole new ethos. You are your own web-master, marketing department, customer service agent, book-keeper and stock-keeper. A ‘blog’ (a term coined from ‘web-log’ in 1999) ticks a couple of those boxes and at the same time allows ME to communicate to YOU all of those things that people with normal jobs talk about around the water-cooler. And there’s a lot to get off my chest. Some of it's quite amusing, some of it’s downright tragic (‘bike industry in turmoil, oh however will we cope without the latest £10k bike!’). I’ll be doing some show & tell, giving examples of what to do/not to do and maybe loosely reviewing some bikes and parts (impartially). I’ll try to keep things entertaining in a vain attempt to boost my SEO ;)
‘Leave the jargon at the door, or at least explain it as you go along’ I think to myself as dear reader begins to wonder if I’m ever going to give them the recipe they googled. Oh but I’m not giving out recipes, I’m serving up my own dishes - for your bike :) So head to the contact form when your bike needs some TLC.
Frequency Cycleworks provides pro-level bespoke bike servicing from Lee Valley Velopark, 51 Abercrombie Rd, London E20 3AB.
By appointment only - go to www.frequencycycleworks.com to get in touch about servicing, custom bike builds and custom wheels.
It’s not that common, it doesn’t happen to everybody else, and it IS a big deal.
Forthcoming posts:
How much is too much? The rising cost of maintenance.
Fad from friction - How to buy a bike.
Tire pressure - This one simple trick…
The bike industry is lying to you. Again.
Upgrades: The good, the bad & the pointless.
Peace, long life and remember which side of the road to ride on.
E