Was I That Much of a Snob Too?

So the fan club wants more detail about the VMA's. I don't know what more to tell you. I'm guessing gossip is what you want to hear, but I haven't got anything good. I was just a lighting programmer sitting at the back of a very dull room.

The crowd was very much an L.A. crowd. With all the bands that I toured through L.A. with, it was always the same thing. It is one of the big shows on the tour (New York City is the other one), that's basically a free show that you do for the big wigs and other executives the artist needs to kiss butt too. Which makes for a pretty dull show because it's not for fans.

And so it was for the VMA's 1200 people in a room looking around to see who they need to go kiss butt too. Never mind that there's people performing and it's not about the entertainment. I think that is why, to me at least, the VMA's were dull except for the outside performances where they had the fans (think Jonas Brothers).

When Blue Man Group played L.A., it was probably the worst show we did in terms of audience. Blue Man Group is all about audience participation, and in L.A., no one wanted to participate. Typical.

Jamie Foxx was late. Lil Wayne almost didn't perform because of some unexplained backstage drama. Pink couldn't hit the window with the propane bottle during every single rehearsal, she finally hit it mostly, during the taping.

That's about it for anything I know that was backstagey and gossipy.

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Yesterday, I went to a bike shop in Montrose. I'd never been to Honolulu Avenue, which is a cute little shopping district. It's a curvy little street with cobbled crosswalks and cute boutiques and restaurants. If you live in the L.A. area, it's worth a look. The Montrose Bike Shop is at the end of the little shopping area. I was on a mission.

It seems I have a terrible problem with keeping the tops to my water bottles. I'm kinda picky and only like a certain brand that I am having an amazingly hard time finding. I went on line to the Specialized website (they manufacture the bottle) to find their nearest distributor, it happens to be the Montrose Bike Shop.

It was 2 in the afternoon when I went into the shop. Not a prime bicycle shopping hour. There was one customer in there, talking with a gentlemen behind the counter. Two mechanics in the back room working on bikes and a manager I couldn't see behind a wall in the office. I was the fat elephant in the room. You could tell everyone was a serious bicycle racer. They were all skinny with gaunt faces and well defined legs. The conversations were about component grouppos and the big topic of the day, The rumour Lance Armstrong returning to professional cycling (rumour confirmed today, a blog for another day).

I started looking around for water bottles, only to be disappointed again. A mechanic stopped his work and stood behind the counter, watching me. He never greeted me, never smiled, never asked, "Can I help you find anything?" So I walked up to him and asked him if he had any heart rate monitors. There was a bit of a pause while he sized me up and said, "Well, all we have is ones that are built into the cyclo computers." "Yeah, I was looking for a wrist one," I responded.

In a rather condescending tone he answered, "For something like that, you need to go to a sporting goods store."

I was a little shocked by the attitude. But I'm kind of used to it now. It seems most bike stores I go into size me up as the fat guy who doesn't know anything about cycling, is just starting and is way in over his head. So they seem to cop an attitude that I'm not worth talking to because I know little about the intricacies of the sport.

Or maybe I'm just making it all up in my head and they're just a bunch of kids who enjoy riding their bikes and don't have enough experience in salesmanship to be polite and helpful. Like awkward teens at a junior high school dance.

Nah, they're all just bike snobs.

I'd like to think I wasn't that way when I managed a bike store. In case you didn't know, before I moved to Los Angeles, I worked in a couple of bike shops from 1987 until 1993. The cycling boom as it were. Bicycle technology took off like a sky rocket about then, ask any roadie. I started out at Island Spokery Bicycle Works as a mechanic but was soon promoted to Assistant Manager. I'd like to think because I was good at my job, but it could also be because I was the only other employee, besides the manage who had graduated from high school. I then moved to The Bike Shop, where I started again as a mechanic but moved my way up to manager about a year before I moved to L.A..

I recall loving my job. I recall loving to ride everyday. I recall really great times. But I don't remember if I was a bike snob. Yes, I used to have great conversations with many of the serious roadies that would stop by the shop and chat about things. But I don't ever recall being snobbish to someone who was just starting. Maybe I was. I can remember talking to people about cycling and trying to find them the best deal for the price they wanted to pay. I even pulled a "Miracle on 34th Street", and often referred people to other bike shops if they couldn't find what they wanted. I can even remember saying to customers, "I don't have that part in stock right now, but I can call my other stores to see if they have it, or we can special order it if you like." I remember saying that a lot.

I may have been a snob to some people, but I don't recall it. I just wanted everyone to enjoy cycling as much as I did.

And still do. That's why I hate going into shops now. I don't like being talked down to when it comes to bicycles. I may not be the fastest on the bike, but I know my stuff, I've been invovled for a long time. Guess I'll just keep shopping on line. Which was the only place I could find the damn water bottles...

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