Doug Sumi had been kicking around bike shops since the early 2000s before heading out to bike races in 2012. After that, there were a fair few bike races including time spent with Hagens-Berman, Jamis Hagens-Bemran, Hincapie Racing, Raleigh-Clement, Kona CX, and the US National Team. Doug now lives in Bellingham, WA and can be found this season at the Kona Bike Shop.
It’s a strange feeling, having a home.
I’ve been “professionally homeless,” as I like to call it, for the past 5 years.
My instagram feed is a daily reminder of where I usually am this time of year. My friends are getting ready for Redlands, getting packed for Europe, or enjoying the nice tan they got from a week in Columbia. (Quick aside: go to Colombia). I, by contrast, am hunkered down in The Pacific Northwest waiting for the snow to melt off of the trails so I can get back to running and maybe even participating in the sport that I have spent the last 15ish years facilitating.
My new adventure is returning to a setting that for many is day-to-day but for me is a slightly foreign concept: the bike shop.
Due to a string of good luck, I have been fortunate enough to make my living for the past few years following around people in spandex and making sure they have as perfectly functioning a bicycle as they can. And clean. Don’t forget that bit. But I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve worked on anything that didn’t have drop bars in that time. Apparently cassettes are big now, dropper posts seem to come on basically all the bikes, and there is new front hub spacing? I know how much my tools weigh depending on what case I decide to pack. I know that you can usually, although not always, carry on a workstand. I would be more than happy to glue up 100 tubulars. I am not totally confident setting up tubeless tires. I feel like there is this idea that race mechanics are somehow elite, or that working on race bikes is harder than shop life.
As someone who is transitioning back to shop life I can tell you first hand, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.
I’ve seen parts of both sides. On the race side, everything must be perfect. But, every bike is basically the same. On the shop mechanic side, perfect is often impossible, and some people just want to ride.