When it rains, it rains poop...or ...

Time for a helmet?
Ladies and gent's,
I have been a little absent lately and I thought I would drop a little blog post about what has bee REALLY going on.Well, life happens... and it happens when you least expect it.....Now lets dive in!!
A few Wednesdays ago I was in the shop doing my most favorite this ever in the office:PAPERWORK. I despise paperwork. It is horrible, dull, frustrating, and the worst is that I am not great at it, but doing this keeps me away from the bench, where I need to be. When I am not behind the bench, I am not building your bike. Things like this add up, and put me behind.Now so everybody knows, the office is located directly below the mens room of the second floor and as this is I now know the difference between the flush of the toilet to the flush of the urinal, the sink, and the knock knock knock of people hitting the soap dispenser for the soap. While this may sound a little add to you all, this is just an astute observation on my part.
Now, whilst I was doing this horrible , evil paperwork, I was listening to the sounds of someone washing their hands...for about 20 minutes...Then, I heard a little drip drip drip...onto the black plastic I mounted to the ceiling, in such a case as this would happen.
I knew exactly what was happening : the toilet was over flowing and my god please let there be no poop in it!!
I ran up stairs as fast as I could to fix this potentially "shitty" situation...and I was late. I saw water running out of the door, and oh boy I did not want to go in there. But, I had too! There was so much at stake!!
I opened the door to see about three quaters of an inch of water, the toilet clogged , and the handle still down, and water flowing out of the bowl like a righteous angry two year old crying at the supermarket.
Well , I panicked. I ran to find a plunger, but before I did that I did fix the handle, so at least the water stopped.I ran to three different bathrooms to get a plunger, but my quest was fruitless, and I decided to run to the local hardware store to buy one. Sounds like a stretch of time, but I made it there and back in UNDER SIX MINUTES.
I ran back upstairs and there was the janitor guy, and another tennant, and my shop sharer guy Erik, the "other " Erik ... He looked at me and said, :" Did you see your office?"
At that question, I just let the plunger slip out of my hand and walked away in silence, know I was walking back to a potential poop shower on most of the things I love.
Well, I was right. The office was all but destroyed...but at least it was not super poop water.
I still got bleach , and any other type of disinfectant and got to it.
I had to remove a few furniture items and discard them. I lost so much paperwork it isn't even funny, numbers, messages, invoices, a paniting, some posters, but it stayed away from my computer....I have that.
I ripped the carpet out, and got some new stuff. I also found out that my lease and my insurance do not cover any water damage....that was a punch to the baby sack I was not ready for....
AND just when you thought it was getting better....
I went to a concert a week after the toilet bowl from Hell experience , and I met a buddy there and was very excited to see one of my favorite bands play. They did not disapoint, and I left before the main act came on. I just was not that into them, and I thought if I left early, I could get to the shop early and play catch up because of the toilet incident.
What happend that night I may never know. But what I DO KNOW is that I left the show about 11 pm, and I knew I would be home by 1130 ....
I woke up somewhere in the street about 430 am.I don't remember exactly where I was, but I must have been close to home, maybe within three blocks or so...
When I came to, I was in a puddle, lying on my back, and when I moved my left arm I knew my shoulder was out of socket and that hurt, more so than usual.I was bleeding from my elbow, my left hip and lower back hurt, a lot. The lower part of my left leg hurt too, but, I had no pain in my head...for a while.
I did the collar bone check, and that is when I knew that my shoulder was out of joint, when it didn't want to move that way. I put it back in its socket and started getting up. And that took a little bit of effort, and time. As I looked around, I saw my bike, my beloved Country Mile, and while it was scratched up a bit, it looked okay. I had my wallet. I had my bag.I had all my stuff, so I am pretty sure I was not "jumped". What I do not know is the scary part:
Did I get hit and run? Did I hit a car? Did I have a small stroke? Did I have really low blood sugar and pass out?
I don't know. That is what is scary....
So after a few and wayyyyyy more than I want doctors visits, I can work, but they are all mad at me and want me to take a couple of weeks off. Well, I can't do that. We got a lot to do down here at the shop, and we are getting caught up, we are getting things done, but some times, when it rains, it rains shit.
I aint dead, and it could be a lot worse.
Be safe out there everybody, and if I have not gotten back to you in the last couple of weeks, well now you know, and Ill get to ya soon.
erik

Way better picutre thingy...

As per a request, here is a way better picture of the POPULAR MECHANICS issue we all got into.
Enjoy, and I here it's gonna be a sunny day on Sunday. Better be or I am gonna change the name of the day.
noren

Dude, its where the big Peacock is......

Well we just got in our new headbadge for the new Peacock Groove headtube standard . The new standard head tube will be 3.5 .....feet.
No really, now the pizza guy will know what we mean by :" Its right under the big Peacock....."

POPULAR WHAT??

Good evening or morning everybody.
I would like to take this little slice of cyberspace to thank all the fine folks AT POPULAR MECHANICS for the fine work and effort that went into the article that we , Peacock Groove were in.
You did just read that right, P G is in the POPULAR MECHANICS !!
This has been a long road coming, and they heard about the move and wanted to hear about what was going into the new shop. And they came down and did a photoshoot and interview and everything. It was very surreal .
I am very proud of this moment because all the time since I have been building frames the only real goal I ever had was to make my father proud of me.
Fame , fortune, and all the things money can provide were secondary. I just wanted my Dad to sit down, be reading his Popular Mechanics and say:
"Shit...that's my son!" Mostly because for years he would leave an issue out on the table wit ha note for me to read this or that article in the issue... I thought :" Wouldn't it be cool if some other Dad left it out for his son to read, about something Peacock Groove was doing?
That would make all the cuts, burns, bruises, late bikes, bounced checks, "Dad you got five bucks?" , repaints and late nights worth it. It really is that simple.
I would like to think that the return of American manufacturing is at hand, and that the people can get back to work. We can do it here, and we should.
Keep it local, and keep it PROUD .
We are labourers, we make things.
noren

The Wampa!

Well, here at Groove HQ for years we have been tossing around an idea of a big ole fork for your fat bikes....or if you just want a fork for your 29nr or 26r that can hold some fat meat...Meet.... THE WAMPA !!
This line of forks can be made to suit your braze on needs, fenders, water bottle mounts , light mounts or whatever....
the choice is yours .

Spring, sadness, and rebirth !

Happy warm weather up here everyone.
This has been a very difficult time up here in the last few months.The shop is coming along, but the move was very difficult and took much longer than I would have liked or wanted. There were and still are things that pop up and take money like you would not believe. Power, the air vent system, running air lines, prepping an area for a pint booth, yes a paint booth, and of course optimizing the space for efficiency .This all takes a lot of time, and it is finally coming to an end. I really want the 10, 12 and 14 hour days to end. I would like to ride again.
There have also been a few deaths in my family, and a close friend. When things like this happen, they can be hard to deal with on many levels : having to take off to deal with these things and not getting back to anyone, business OR personal, helping family that you have not seen since forever, and the cost of it all. But, there are good ham sandwiches to be had. Not a good trade off if you ask me. So, this has been the spring of sadness for me, and one way of taking care of this feeling is I am going to ride more. I have in the last 14 years never really just RIDDEN. More than just riding to work, or for errands, but I want to go on a RIDE ! To somewhere, to ride, and then ride home. This is one of the priorities that I am going to make for myself.
And, some of the bikes that came in for a repaint are going in the booth soon and that is the rebirth part of it all. It was nice to see a couple of these old bikes and then put some nice head tube reinforcement rings on it, and some internal brake routing. And new paint , and BAM !! New bike.
Now, I am going to go get caught up some more.Kamal, Scott and Mike , you are on deck, watch this little blog!
noren

NAHBS and oh my!

I wanted to let everybody who follows this blog, all 3 or so, to know that we survived another NAHBS, but this one was pretty exhausting .
Due to some recent health issues, and the strange fact that sleep still continues to elude me, it was all just to get through it.
But, I am back and we are catching up on e-mail and some orders.
It can be very hard doing the one man thing, and I hope ya all get it, and when we all ride this summer, well that will be just groovetastic.
Keep your eyes peeled for some NAHBS photo action.
Keep the rubber side down,
erik