tales from the laundromat

Horse riding pants are even less flattering than bike shorts. blech. I'm going to assume that, since you're doing laundry, all of your normal pants are dirty and that's why you're all equined up.

Tales from the Laudramat/Wow is all I can say

With crappy weather impending, today was destined to be a slow day. Earlier today before the precip started, a man rolled up on a motorcycle with a bag full of clothes heading in next door to do some laundry. After he got his load started, he came into the bike shop to shoot the breeze. No biggie, happens all the time. As we started talking, he told me that he'd been spending the night up in the forest with some buddies. He left his duffel bag outside overnight and woke up with a couple inches of snow on the ground so he needed to do laundry. Pretty nondescript guy riding a 15 year old Kawasaki street bike. We got talking awhile and it sounded like this guy definitely knew his way around a bike. He said he'd been racing speedway, short track, and TT motorcycles his entire life and had made a living as a professional dirt track motorcycle racer. There's not too many folks that can earn a living like that so he was quite interesting to talk to. I didn't ask many questions, just listened. I started riding motorcycles when I was a kid and had many motorcycle heroes growing up. We talked about Malcolm Smith (Tomac owner Joel Smith's father), who was one of his peers from days gone by. As it turns out, this fellow was also in the movie "On Any Sunday" as well. He was very modest and only mentioned that he was in the movie as a bit part because he was part of that scene. He was a fascinating guy to talk to with lots of great stories. He kept popping in and out as he would go next door to check on his laundry. Before he left, he asked if he could hop on my internet. He brought up a web page and asked me if I could please look at it after he left. He was planning on heading to Boulder, riding up to Ned, then to Estes and back down 36. I told him that he would encounter crappy weather on the Peak to Peak, but he wasn't concerned - said he was prepared for anything. He was extremely modest and didn't even give me his name. He walked out, started up his bike and got his laundry loaded up. Then he then turned, helmet on, and walked back into the shop. He said he wanted to introduce himself but didn't want to create a scene because of his fame. He reached out his hand, shook mine, told me his name, and I think I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. The man - Jay Springsteen - one of the winningest motorcycle racers in US history.



It was a real pleasure Jay. Thanks for spending your day in the shop and be careful out there.

Tales from the Laundromat

Many of you that have been in the shop have noted that our next door (across the corner) neighbor is the Lyons laundromat. Looking up from the counter thru the windows and over to the laundromat over the last 6 months or so has yielded some good spectating. Good enough that I've wanted to blog "Tales from the Laundromat." I've been able to hold off until just now.

Just now as in I just witnessed this. It's 10:06pm and the laundromat is closed. A woman and a crew that appeared to be her husband, son, and mother have been going in and out of the laundromat doing the wash over the last hour or so. All smokers. What I just witnessed has got to be one of the cheapest, grossest, and most dangerous things I've seen at the laundromat. Here goes. Several minutes ago, the "crew" loaded their 4 bad selves and all of their laundry into a mid eighties Cavalier. Zip, they back out of the yellow flagged off area marked "no parking" and they're gone. 10 minutes go by and they are back. Apparently, Grandma, who was riding shotgun, had left her half smoked cigarette on the outdoor windowsill whilst folding her britches. Grandma gets out of the Cav machine and walks over to the windowsill to retrieve her smoke. What the f*ck? Seriously? Not only did grandma come back for a half smoked cig that she left outside (which has got to be one of the cheapest and most desperate things I've ever seen), she left the damn thing burning while it was on the sill! Again, what the...?

Seriously!