My name is Chip Tredo, and I own this business. :-) I'm 56
years old (as of December 2022), and I've been a "cyclist" since
the age of 14 (started on a blue Schwinn Varsity 10-speed).
Yep... that's 42 years I've been riding.
Along the way, I've fixed more flats and changed more tires than I
can count. You know those days... riding the Hotter Than Hell
100,... around mile 70, when it's 102 degrees out... and you hit
that 5-mile stretch of road where you get not one, not two, but
THREE flats. For what it's worth (my developed policy),
ALWAYS accept the charity of others in these cases.
;-) I had a spare tube to handle the first... the second I
used the tube offered to me by a passing rider... the third...
well... let's just say that was the painful one... sitting there
in the relentless Texas sun for an half-an-hour waiting for a
sag-wagon... ack. Thanks to Dana Files from PCF for saving
my butt that day.
I started my trek (yes, all puns intended) into the world of
retail bicycle sales and service at Bicycle World in Mt Kisco,
NY. This is where I purchased my first "real" bike, a 1983
Trek 520, in Pewter. I spent a LOT of time picking this
bicycle out, learned all I could without having "the internet",
only cycling magazines. I knew I wanted a "racing" bicycle,
I mean I was what... ?... like, 16 years old? What else
would I want? So I took this job at one of the original Trek
dealers, and earned enough to afford my new steed. Of
course... I'd spend the next 10 or so years wearing out every
single part on that bike, multiple times for some. And so
began my trip as a "wrench", aka "bike repair guy".
Since my teens, cycling has been a daily activity. I was
riding 20-50 miles a day, 6 or 7 days a week. 600-1000 miles a
month. Raced Cat-4 and 5 for a few years, found out I didn't
have the legs for it. I'm big into Time-Trialling, and just
taking rides figuring out where the road is going. The
service side of things developed out of necessity. Tune ups,
flat repairs, wheel truing, bearing replacement, "tweaking" of
every little thing on the bike... had to learn how to do it all,
because... I couldn't afford to have it done for me. But
after a short while... I realized... my bicycles were
"personal". Like... well... children. I put them
together, I kept them operating, I tailored them to my preferences
with regard to "fit" and "tuning". Not something I'd leave
to some unknown person in a shop, who had no awareness of "me", or
what I wanted/needed out of the bicycle.
Starting about 7 years ago, I got a job as an Assistant Manager at
the (then "new") "big-box bicycle retailer" located in East
Plano. Stayed there for about 2 years, ended up doing a LOT
of bicycle building and repairs while working there. After
that, the long-standing Richardson-based retailer (was a service
tech, routinely working on bikes worth WAY more than my car), Sun
& Ski (bicycle department/service manager), World Cycle
(store/service manager), and about a year ago... Walmart (Dept
Manager bicycles, toys, sporting goods... which, sigh... meant I
rarely got to actually "work" on a bicycle.
So... I decided to start my own biz. I've got all these
freaking tools... might as well put them to use.
I started this during the summer of 2016, doing things strictly by
"word of mouth". This year, I posted a single message on
NextDoor, and it was like the floodgates opened. Since this
is something I do in addition to my regular full-time job, I limit
myself to The Colony, West Frisco, East Lewisville, and it keeps
me plenty busy. I'm running an ad on the back page of a
Sunday bulletin for a church here in The Colony as the rates were
favorable, and I'm interested to test out a new demographic.
We'll see how that goes, soon enough.
UPDATE 2020: So... COVID, huh? I quit the shop I was at
(Bicycles Plus in FloMo in May) in order to do this
full-time. I spent the next 2 years constantly booked out at
LEAST a month. As I write this, it's September of 2023, and
I'm still busy enough that I'm working a 5 day work-week.
Old cliche: "be careful what you wist for, you just might get
it". I haven't had a vacation in 3 years. :-)
And I've graduated to my 2nd dedicated truck:
From 23.08.12
May 10th, 2017: tune ups on a pair of bikes, with washes, for
Robert in The Colony. Robert and his wife had just moved to
The Colony from Indiana. He wanted to be sure they were both
clean, and in good operating condition, so they could get back to
their favorite form of exercise.
May 17th, 2017: Rodney in The Colony, had won a bike in a company
raffle. Wanted to have it assembled and set up as a surprise
for his son.
May 17th, 2017: Tammy in The Colony had 4 bikes that belonged to
herself, her husband, and her two sons. They were all in
various states of "unusableness".
Did full tune-ups on the 2 adult bikes (the yellow and black), the
black one needed a new tube (flat repair), the blue one needed 2
flat repairs and a bit of tuning, the white one had a flat and the
wheels needed to be trued.
July 9, 2017: I'm heading back over this week to replace the rear
tire/tube on the blue one. Apparently they were taking all 4
bikes to a nearby Arboretum/park to take advantage of the trails,
and the blue one fell off the rack on the back of the car.
It was held to the rack, but dragging the rear wheel on the
ground, which wore through the tire, popped the tube. I was
like "hmm... that's different!?"
May 24th, 2017: Noel in Frisco had a beautiful custom-built
Cannondale SuperSix that needed a good cleaning and a full
tune-up. Heading back over the week of July 12 to replace
the press-fit bottom-bracket with a new ceramic bearing version.
June 13th, 2017: Anoop in Lewisville, and his wife, had just
relocated from India. The movers were NOT nice to their
bicycles. 3 flat tires, and ALL of the wheels needed MAJOR
truing. The rear wheel on the black one I ended up replacing
from inventory I had, as it was beyond help. Also did basic
tune-ups on each. It was a new neighborhood, and I got to
take advantage of one of the independent food trucks that was
servicing the work crews in the neighborhood. Excellent
Mexican food. Yeah... ok... not bicycle related... but I
enjoy the diversion... plus... it was lunch time. :-)
June 20th, 2017: Murali in
Frisco had me over to fix the brakes on his sons mountain
bike. The pads were worn, and his son had attempted to fix
it by "flipping the pads over" so the part that contacted the rim
was not the badly worn part. Needless to say, this was not a
viable solution, and his son ended up bending the caliper arms in
the process (not quite sure how?). I replaced the caliper on
the front (that's the new one, below) and put new pads on the rear
brake. A flat repair on a second bike, and tune-ups for
both.
July 5th, 2017: Things have been going pretty well for my little
start-up-mobile-bicycle-shop. One of my biggest problems
with running this service has been... not unexpectedly... the
Texas heat. With that in mind, I elected to build myself a
shop. A "brick-and-mortar" is rather expensive, and out of
my budget, considering the part-time/seasonal nature of this
business, so... I'm building/modifying a 4'x8' trailer "kit", to
turn it into a "box-trailer". Kind of like the ones you'd
rent from U-Haul, just set up for my unique needs. The
biggest need being addressed... I'm bolting a window
air-conditioner to the front of the trailer so I can have a nice,
cool environment when I'm working on the bikes. Past that...
it allows me to get all my inventory out of the back seat and
trunk of my car... I'd like my car back. Anyhoo... here are
some pix of the build-out for this trailer:
One eye-opener, as I was laying out the parts, was the fact that
there were about 120 nut-and-bolt sets. I was going to have
to connect THAT many parts? Really?
No... I did not build it upside down. It just made it easier
to get those related components bolted together. I flipped
it over shortly after this.
Next step is to cut the plywood flooring, which, essentially,
makes it a viable trailer.
