What does a dog house facade and a kiddie pool have to do with bicycles you ask? I'll tell you...
Go back with me to what was probably the Summer of 1993. I'd recently gotten into old and cruiser style bikes. I was probably in the garage working on one of my early builds like this one
I'd spend all my spare time in the garage tinkering with bikes and when not working on them I'm out riding them. We would ride around the neighborhood, come home switch bikes and ride around the neighborhood again. Repeating this process several times. It seems I was building or finding a bike a week.
I often wished for someone like minded (in addition to my wife) to share my love of bicycles with and wondered could there be anyone else out there that was in to these bikes like I was. In 2005 I decided to find out.
Build it and they will come...
I put on the first Midwest Bicycle Fest. I really expected it to be a one man show with only my family in attendance.
While trying to get this event promoted I heard there was a group of people in the big city that rode old bikes to bars on Thursday nights. I printed up some bike fest flyers and headed to the big city. This was the first time I attended what would come to be known as Wichita's infamous Thursday Night Pub Pedal.
To my surprise, someone at the Pub Pedal had found the bike fest website, printed flyers and was passing them out that same night.
The bike fest was a big success. We continued to attend the pub Pedals which continued to grow. I never would have guessed so many people were into these old bikes like me with more people jumping on board weekly. The Thursday Night Pub Peddlers started doing things besides drinking beer and riding cool old bikes, like participating in parades and car shows. It was decided we needed a name to put on the entry forms of these events. The Coasters Bicycle Club was created
Be careful what you wish for...
Fast forward to the present. I'm still in the garage building but instead of the floor being covered in metal shavings and grease, it's sawdust and wood glue. It does pertain to bikes though. Almost everything I do is related to bikes but in a different capacity than in the past. I can't recall the last time I did a serious bike build and riding even seems to becoming less and less frequent. We are very fortunate here to have a great custom and classic bike community. Ironically though my involvement in this great community tends to keep me from doing the building and riding that is the basis of this hobby. My time is now spent creating, organizing, planning, promoting and attending events. Managing the Coasters online presence. Editing/uploading photos & videos, creating flyers, attending meetings, e-mailing, phone calling, interviewing for magazines and more.
I hope it doesn't sound like I'm complaining. I'm not. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I really enjoy and appreciate my role in the Coasters Bicycle Club and honored and thankful I'm allowed to do it. If I have a complaint it's that there's not enough time in a day to do all the things I enjoy.
You know if it wasn't for the Coasters and I was still alone in my garage building a bike a week... I probably would no longer be married and the money I'd be spending on storage units would be outrageous.
I hope I'm not making this sound like a one man show. This is just my role in the group. There are others who work really hard at keeping the Coasters and our area's custom and classic bike community going by creating, managing and volunteering for events. Coincidentally (or maybe not) most of these guys are right here on Ratrod bikes. Thanks guys for all you do!
Too much of a good thing...
The Coaster's schedule is pretty full yet there are so many other rides and events we'd like to do. We also get asked frequently by all kinds of groups and organizations to be involved in their events but sometimes have to decline because we're just too busy. At times it's stressful and I sometimes look forward to Winter just to be able to take a breather.
Oh so back to my latest build and purchase.
These are a couple of the props/targets for the Disgruntled Paperboy Toss. One of a four events the Coasters are putting on for Pedal Mania which is part of Wichita's River Festival next weekend. This same weekend we're putting on a show at another town's river festival.
Here we are trying to pull off two major events in different cities the same weekend :shock: but I have confidence the Coasters can do it! 8)
Here is some of the media attention our fine group has gotten.
