Ahearne Cycles | Thoughts and Words

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Greetings Brethren!

Will you just look at all this new stuff! I've been working my ass off for the past few months to get ready for the North American Hand Made Bicycle Show, and also to put together everything required to for this new website.

On the show side of things, I've got bikes, racks, forks and stems, even a custom made chromoly picture frame. In regards to bikes, there are a couple of design ideas that are new for me. Strange and interesting variations on some older, "classic" ideas. If you can make it to the show, you'll see them there. If not, you'll hear about them soon.

Another bold ray of light shining through this February gloom in Portland, at least in my little world, is this absolutely fantastic new website. Will you take a moment to take a gander? Look at how clean, clear and concise it is. Look at how easy it is to get around. Everything seems so intuitive, so sensible, and it really makes a person want to hang around for a while; click some buttons, view the pictures, read some words; generally learn something. Right? It's great! A really sizable note of appreciation is in order.

I take no credit for any of this. When you're ready to dole out the praise, you need really to give it where it's due, which is to the web guru Julie -- she's the true conductor behind the magic you see here. I'm just the troll in the workshop. She designed everything, and she put it into action. I built some bikes, wrote some words, had some pictures taken. Beyond this I've kept myself mostly to what I know, which has mostly to do with steel. I think she's done a really fine job.

Along with a new website, there's also a blog. You're reading it now. For anyone who paid attention to my old site, you may have at one point or another checked the blog. The first and, I think, last post was somewhere around this time last year. You may have checked once or twice, saw that it wasn't changing, and having assured yourself of how lame a blogger I am, you probably gave up entirely. If you didn't give up, my condolences for your futile persistence. You're right. I was a lame blogger. But the key and operative word here is "was", meaning past tense. Meaning I've vowed to be a better blogger, a better human, a better... everything (this could quickly go too far, but if you keep reading, you may begin to understand).

What does this mean, exactly? It means a lot, to be sure. But for our purposes it means that you're going to have the option, from now on, to read what I have to say. So much happens in my little world, and I may be going out on a limb here, but I suspect that at least a few crumbs of it might be interesting. Though, your level of interest isn't for my speculation. I figure I'll just have to write, and you'll read it, or you won't, and the world will keep on moving, because that's what it does.

Next, the show...