Hello April Snowstorm

What I'm going to do next after this bike racing thing, has been on my mind a lot lately. Obviously the body cant earn a living going hard for the rest of my life. Whether I hang up the racing bike at 21 or 51 is the question.

I picked up the new Outside Magazine today at the drugstore on the way home from work. It is the issue with the "50 coolest jobs." I thought it might give me some insight into something cool. While flipping through the pages there were tonnes of jobs like....Eco-brewery engineer, and airline pilot in the Rockies, and chef in an adventure capital sports resort...stuff like that. My parents instilled a belief in me that I could do whatever I want. Its either their greatest accomplishment in teaching me about this life, or my greatest downfall for believing it. Either way, I'll give it a go.

It was then I got to thinking....if Pro bike racer in here, this mag is full of shit. Really, when you think about it why the hell would any logical person want to be a Pro bike racer? Your job is basically putting your body through pain everyday, usually in terrible weather. A pro cyclist doesn't really have a break in 10 months of the year, and in all of the sporting world, it would have to be one of the top 10 worst paid professional sports. Being a bike racer, whether its paid or not, is a yearly life commitment. Its not a job, its a way of life. With that being said, for some reason its so appealing. Ahh to be young.

With my current career path. The next step most people would take would be to open up a bike shop of my own, or to get into ownership of one somehow. Its funny because the more bike shops I work in, the less I want to own or make a career out of working at one. 10 years of hanging out at them is enough for me I think.

I went to the BCIT open house last week and roamed around a bit. While walking around and dodging all the 14 year olds fresh out of high school, I looked through the tables and exhibits. Its funny because the mechanical engineering table was by far the most interesting. One guy made a digital weight scale, and the chip in it was about the size of 2 paper clips. Instantly my mind was like..Wattage Meter.....

It seems the bike industry has prepped me for a life in another mechanical world. Luke once told me that every basic mechanical principal, is used on a bicycle. From sculpture, to paint, to mechanics, down to the simple lever and pulley system, its all there.