He’s back! Ranting and raving on life as a rental shop manager

It’s Saturday morning and I am just about to start my day. I’m still a bit sleepy, as yesterday we had an unexpected busy day which flowed into a need to have a double after work beer which may have turned into a liquid dinner followed by some dance moves in the nightclub. Life in an alpine town is tough. 

I’m getting ready for a particular tough part of the week called the weekend… I am talking about hordes of Joey’s, clueless Ken’s and Wild Wilburs. All out to get ‘RAD’ on the bikepark today while trashing our poor rental fleet. 

As I approach the shop, I can already see Impatient Ingrid and her Adventure date Mike waiting outside for the shop to open. Seriously, nothing is more annoying than opening a bikeshop with two people staring at you before you even managed to have coffee. And oh boy do I need a coffee. 

In record time I move out the pop up tents, banners, flags, bike stands, smelly protective gear and 40 rental bikes that block my way to the coffee machine. Let’s get Ingrid & Mike out of the shop and a dose of caffeine sorted before the masses arrive! 

First sip of my coffee and the biggest group of the day arrives. Of course. 12 people to set up on E-MTB’s, explain how they work, give them protective gear and take their money. I’m sure at least one of them will stack it at some point during the day so can’t forget to let them sign the waivers. Where is that damn colleague of mine? He should’ve been here by now! 

Halfway through set up he shows up and wow, does he look ragged. I told him to take it easy on the shots. Young kids think they’re invincible! He pulls himself together though and in no time the group is out the door. Shall I grab a new coffee or…? Naw, I’ll wait until all our bookings are on the trails. 

We set up some more people with knee pads over their jogging pants, giving them directions to the skills park and best trails of the area, but I doubt they’ll get there. You know the glazed look in someones eyes when they say “yeah yeah” but have lost you a looooong time ago. I’ll just hand them a map and hope to see them before dark! 

This is the time where I get to recover and chill in the sun with a coffee. More or less the only chill moment of the day because it won’t take long for someone to stack it and return to our rental shop with a broken bike.

Like clockwork we have the local kids crew stop by. Timmy is out of brake pads and James has a puncture. Both have no clue on how to fix their bikes, so I whip out the tools and sort them out quickly. Even though they’re just 13 years old, they rip harder than 90% of the people on the hill today. They clear all the jumps and even do the big road gap that I prefer to avoid. 

I hand them back their rides and tell em how much they owe me for the work and parts. Of course neither of them has any money with, but it’s ok. I know their parents and their family spend a fortune with us each year on bikes, parts and maintenance so we’ll figure it out later. 

By 4pm Ingrid and Mike return, miraculously both unscathed too. Some riders of the big group however were not so lucky. I see one tough guy limp out of the shop after he gave back the bike and Mr ‘I don’t need elbow pads’ has a gushing wound on his elbow. He did a proper job on bending the brake lever too. 

Next up is maintenance time.We try our best to keep them in shape, but when dragging your brakes down the entire blue trail, you’re definitely going to cook the pads and discs. I know that one of the riders of the day loved a good skid. Last week I mounted new tires on this ride and he managed to skid so much the canvas is showing through! 

As we pressure wash the bloody mud of the bikes, the bar next door brings us a round of drinks. It’s still under work time but ah well. We deserved it!

 

By IMB

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