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Where Are They Now?
One of the coolest things about being open as long as we have is the number of amazing and talented people that have spent time riding, learning and working with us.
We took a minute to check in with the folks that have been on our crew throughout the years and see what they’ve been up to ever since. It’s been a lot of fun to hear about their adventures and we hope you enjoy reading about their stories too!
AUGUST
What brought you to Cycle Logic initially and what were you riding back then?
Prior to Cycle Logic I had been living in Philadelphia and I worked a part-time job at a very small bike shop there. I was not that into cycling, it was just a job for me – I had grown up wrenching on motorcycles and other things and I figured I could fix a bicycle too. When I moved to Raleigh I came to Cycle Logic looking for a job because it was near my house and seemed to be the coolest bike shop in town. I think it was the vintage sign on the front of the building that really drew me in. After bothering Minori a little bit, she hired me. Minori and Ed taught me the basics of bicycle repair and I quickly became very interested in both the mechanical beauty of the bicycle and cycling as a sport. I had a low-end Scott hardtail and a Suzuki dirt bike when I started working at Cycle Logic. When I left I had a Cannondale CAADX gravel bike and a Cannondale Trigger mountain bike.
What’s one favorite memory you have from working for Cycle Logic?
Well, all my memories from Cycle Logic are fond, but one of my favorites is going for a midweek mountain bike ride with Minori and eating croissants from Boulted Bread. And of course all the time I spent hanging out in the back of the shop with Ed and Nik Nik listening to Ed tell stories.
Where are you now?
I live in Fort Collins, Colorado.
What kind of riding are you doing/what does your current set-up look like?
Aggressive XC is my jam. My local trails are really rocky and loose. Riding on 120/100mm of travel keeps things fast and exciting. I don’t touch my road bike if the trails are open. My mountain bike is a 2021 Rocky Mountain Element that I have built up custom -- Shimano and Fox spec with DT Swiss wheel components. It feels like home. I also really enjoy bike packing. I mostly have done weekend trips, but last summer a friend and I rode from Rawlins, Wyoming back to my front step in Fort Collins which took almost a week.
What are some big life events since your time at the shop?
I moved to Fort Collins in late 2017 and I have been living here since. I am currently a mechanic at a locally owned bike shop called Drake Cycles and a senior undergrad at Colorado State University. I am studying Journalism and Anthropology. I also adopted a stray kitten a couple years ago. Her name is Scooter. I have met many amazing people and have made incredible memories because of cycling. I even met my lovely girlfriend because I fixed her bike one day! As far as I am concerned, Cycle Logic is one of the best places in the world, and I am glad to have been involved. I loved riding bikes as a kid and I somehow lost it along the way. The simple joy of riding a bicycle was illuminated to me once again while I worked at Cycle Logic.
Tell us something you’re looking forward to!
I’m always looking forward to traveling and riding in new places. When I am not working or doing school work I am pretty much trying to ride my mountain bike. I have started racing a bit. One of the races I have done this year was 24 Hours of Old Pueblo in Arizona. It was a blast and I am looking forward to participating in more events like that.
SAM
What brought you to Cycle Logic initially and what were you riding back then?
In 2018 I was finishing up my freshman year at NC State and spent all year watching people zip around campus on bikes and decided that I wanted to get a road bike. However, I went home my dad convinced me that mountain biking was the way to go and that summer I got my first real bike: a Salsa hardtail. I spent all summer riding in Asheville way above my skill level enjoying every second of it. Eventually I did get my campus commuter a little later, a stark yellow Motobecane.
I consider myself a mechanic at heart because I love tinkering and fixing things and the way a bike works was so simple and elegant to me I knew that when I got back to campus I needed to find a job in a bike shop. The day I moved back to State, I was in Cycle Logic nervously asking if they were looking for someone to do anything in the shop. I lied to them and said I could fix multiple things on the bike and understood how the gears work and could fix a flat… I think they saw through my lies after my first week. When they asked me to join the team, I remember my first day like it was yesterday. It was a super busy back to school day and I was running around trying to be helpful, asking Minori how to do anything, listening to Ed’s crazy stories, interacting with customers, all while thinking to myself “this isn’t going to be anything like you thought it was.”

What’s one favorite memory you have from working for Cycle Logic?
Possibly a common theme amongst other peoples answers but there are too many to single out just one or two. Hard to distinguish an amazing time from the good times.
During the summers we did a lot of shop rides either after work on the Wednesday or Sunday we had off and usually during those rides when everyone is relaxing, hanging out or letting off some steam is where the transitions from coworkers to friends is made. One day we were riding down to south Raleigh, I believe to stop by Pine State Coffee, and we pulled off into some neighborhood where Minori was showing us how to “properly” ride a bike. That's in parentheses because believe it or not she knows her stuff but teaching it to us probably felt like teaching physics to a 1st grader, we can try but we just like to mash gears. So many small interactions where you get to see the person who you work next to be themselves make up 99 of the 100 best memories of working at Cycle Logic.
Where are you now?
I graduated from NC State in 2021 and in the following July left Cycle Logic to work in Durham as a Mechanical Engineer. I am on a team that makes pharmaceutical machines that go in pharmacies and online prescription filling service centers. Within the machine, I am responsible for the robot arm that performs the tasks inside. If you had asked me to guess what I would be doing for a job a year ago I probably would have said something with cars or bikes and not designing robots but, I can't complain.
I am still local to the Raleigh area and commute to Durham so I still manage to pop my head into Cycle Logic enough for them to remember my face.

What are the big life events since your time at the shop?
It’s been less than a year since leaving the shop and the biggest event has been starting my first engineering job. It was very surreal to leave the structure of academia and enter the corporate world in the field that I had been studying. I like the job so far and can see myself there for multiple years so Cycle Logic will be my main shop for at least that long and probably a long while afterward. Unfortunately nothing else major has happened since leaving for me to write about but when something does happen the crew is usually one of the first to hear about it.
Tell us something you’re looking forward to!
Last summer I went on a road trip to Santa Fe, Moab and Golden CO and absolutely caught the bug for travel. Throwing the bike on the rack, grabbing a cooler, and sleeping in my Outback made me realize that seeing the places I wanted to see (and riding the places I want to ride) was way more accessible than I was telling myself. Seeing the red rocks of Utah and the crazy landscapes of New Mexico made me want to see other parts of the Western US. So this summer I am looking forward to my road trip to the Northwest.
I have never been to the Northwest and want to ride out in Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Pacific Northwest Canada. I couldn’t tell you all the places I want to go, because I don’t/can’t plan that far ahead but I know that Vancouver and Whistler are the furthest away and the biggest hitters on the list. I can’t wait to ride in a big country and the road trip is definitely the biggest thing I am looking forward to this year.
REGINA
What brought you to Cycle Logic initially and what were you riding back then?
I bought a Fuji purple road bike in high school. In college I wanted to get into mountain biking and bought a Fuji SunCrest.
What’s one favorite memory you have from working for Cycle Logic?
The shop dogs Barkley and Pup Pup were always a pleasure to have around--unless you were the mailman.
Where are you now?
Raleigh, NC

What kind of riding are you doing/what does your current set-up look like?
Currently, I ride mixed-surfaces like greenways, Umstead fire roads, and mountain bike trails. 5010 Santa Cruz and a Caadx Cannondale gravel bike are my current steeds.
What are the big life events since your time at the shop?
Adventure travel around the world, Married, kayaked 260 miles of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon for the honeymoon, survived getting hit by a car at 50 mph when cycling, raising an 11-year old son that shreds on MTB.
Tell us something you’re looking forward to!
Going to see Mountain Bike World Cup Racing in Snowshoe, WVA and my next bike from Cycle Logic :-)

MIKEY
What brought you to Cycle Logic initially and what were you riding back then?
I first came to cycle logic back in 2019 after I moved to Raleigh for Grad School. I was looking to meet people and the bike community has always been a source of good friendships in the past. Not only was Cyle Logic close to school but it was a welcoming environment and people seemed to enjoy being there.
What’s one favorite memory you have from working for Cycle Logic?
One day after work we all took mountain bikes to Dorthea Dix and bounced around for and hour or so. I think we got food afterward. It was just a nice time to spend after a day at work.
Where are you now?
I'm still in Garner (in the bus) but finishing up my last semester at NC State.

What kind of riding are you doing/what does your current set-up look like?
Unfortunately, I don't get to bike too much. I'm still enjoying the Caad X and when I do take it for a spin I'm using it on trails rather than road riding.
What are the big life events since your time at the shop?
Besides cranking away at school my family is enjoying our first grand kid. My brother and his wife are enjoying their 5 week old, Elliot.
Tell us something you’re looking forward to!
I'm excited about the bus I'm converting and excited about finishing school. Nothing else makes sense so I'm just focusing on those two things right now.

LAURA
What brought you to Cycle Logic initially and what were you riding back then?
I’ve been a cyclist since buying my first road bike from Ed at Cycle Logic back in 2006. In 2018 I had a long window between work before a move, and learning to turn a wrench while making a little extra money was a dream job! My favorite bike was my Salsa Vaya, when I wasn’t riding single track on my GT Helion.
What’s one favorite memory you have from working for Cycle Logic?
One of my favorite memories from the shop would be watching Mino put in the work on the frame build for Brett’s custom bike. First time I’ve seen a frame come together!
Where are you now?
I’m currently living in Columbia, SC. My work in the entertainment industry took a huge hit with Covid, and I was able to jump into a job at the local bike shop thanks to my experience at Cycle Logic! I’m still there full time. I’m also involved in the growing local cycling scene, and in late 2020 I started a W/T/F cyclist group with monthly rides and bike maintenance clinics.

What kind of riding are you doing/what does your current set-up look like?
My favorite bike is still my steel Salsa, and I’ve largely left the mountain biking behind me in favor of some longer dirt and gravel roads, and multi-day bikepacking trips. I’m running Shimano 105, and sporting a brooks B17 short saddle with some matching leather bar tape.
What are the big life events since your time at the shop?
When I left the shop, I headed to New Zealand to take some time on a major life-goal if completing a through-hike. I backpacked the length of the country, through the Southern Alps. It was beautiful, and incredibly tough.
Tell us something you’re looking forward to!
In August I’ll start in the masters program in library and information science at USC in Columbia, with an eye toward a career as a high school librarian.

____________________________________________________
Origin of Zen


“This is the zen-spot."
I don’t remember the rest… Isn’t it incredible that the memory can be so clear and then simply cease? It wouldn't be until much later in my life that I realized he had shown me his "zen-spot" - a place that he had gone to throughout his life to find a fragment of peace when it was most needed.


Fast-forward to my junior year of undergraduate at NC State. I had spent the summer in Kitty Hawk working in the restaurant industry and I was eager to get back and continue my studies, but first I had to move into a new apartment and unload the storage unit I had packed before the start of summer. I stopped to snag some Wendy's between trips to the storage unit. I was driving the old Land Cruiser and crested the hill on Western right by the Cook-Out and to my chagrin there was a line of stopped cars awaiting a sedan turning into a driveway just a couple hundred yards before the exit onto 440. Why on earth was there a driveway that close to the exit? I ended up rear-ending some poor unsuspecting freshman and the start of my junior year took a bit of a turn. Without a means to commute to campus I started running through possibilities until I could get my truck fixed. I spent a couple hundred dollars on new wheels that weren't tubular and got Basso tuned up. It would take about eight months before I got the Land Cruiser back.
Through scorching summer days sweating with a backpack, and icy-numb fingers with windchill in the teens, I forged a new bond with Basso and in turn with my Uncle Bob. Suddenly it made so much sense why there were an extra five pounds of mashed potatoes for Bob at family gatherings. It became a personal crucible to experience the outdoors on a daily basis with my closest of friends: Basso and Bob. I became a bicycle commuter with a penchant for circuitous routes that let me see and participate in my little world about Raleigh. In due time I would get a flat and be forced to walk the bike to a shop that could fix it for me... the closest to campus being Cycle Logic. I was but a doe-eyed amateur my first time in the shop, but I could tell instantaneously that it had a lot to give. It was early in the day between my classes, and they offered to fix it while I waited... I asked if I could watch the repair and Ed stepped me through the high points and I became - at least in my overzealous mind - a bona fide mechanic. It was through failed attempts at repairing my own bicycle that I was forced back into Cycle Logic - encountering Minori for the first time hoping to find a new spring fastening nut for a 1986 Dura-Ace rear derailleur that I had rounded out because it was never supposed to be removed... Minori let me down easy and told me that I had broken the derailleur and should source a new one and they would help me get it installed. I vaguely remember the reckless abandon that I rode with after Minori fixed up my bike... it was like it was singing for the first time and I was a part of the song, and we went dancing together. Minori would work on my bike from that point forward - and I would glean as much as I could from our interactions. Eventually Minori sold me an old pair of their used wheels and it was like I had gained super-powers. Acceleration and dexterity, the stiffer wheel set let Basso express itself even more and I had moved to SPD-clipless pedals. We were truly dancing now.

I had returned to Raleigh to begin graduate studies in the Chemistry Department, and I was periodically stopping into Cycle Logic to say "whaddup" to my homies.
There's was a distinct conversation with Minori - they told me that I had acquired the fitness and now I needed to start thinking about acquiring a bike that was my size and upgrading the equipment to continue my evolution as an athelete and a cyclist. It hadn't even occurred to me that I was a 'cyclist' at this point, much less that I had been supported in my development as a 'cyclist' by this shop and these people for many years. On one visit in the fall of my first year of grad school I stopped by the shop and Minori was scratching away with some files at some tubes. They weren't overly busy, so I was hanging out and chatting for a bit. It turns out they were making a custom frame. With a glint in my eye, I asked them if it would fit me. Minori said they could make it fit me. We worked out a deal that a broke grad-student could swing, and we were off to the races.




Roadside Repair: Damaged & Broken Chains!


The first thing to do, as with all mid-ride repairs, is to set up in a safe area off the side of the trail/road where you can comfortably flip your bike upside-down and create a stand for yourself.



The next step is to insert the master link pins through the exposed inner plates of your chain and link the pins together. To do this, the pins on each master link will need to align with the open outer plate of the opposite master link. The pins will enter the opposite master link at the wider opening and then slide into a locked position once you complete the next step.
*Remember: with a chain that has 10, 11, or 12 speeds, the master link will have an arrow on it indicating which way it should be installed. The arrow should face the direction in which the change will move as you pedal.*
The last step is to close the master link and connect the chain, which can be done without the use of a tool.


Flip your bike back over & rotate the crank to a position where you can apply downward pressure as if pedaling forward, making sure the master link is at the top of your chain line (this is critical for generating the force needed to close the link).
Hold down the rear brake, and step down on the pedal, listening for a ‘click,’ indicating that it’s popped into the locked position.
Check the pins to ensure you’ve done it correctly, pedal the bike by hand and inspect for any issues or noise, & you are ready to roll!
Reconnecting an existing chain WITHOUT a master link:
If you are reconnecting the existing chain without a master link available, it’s important to give yourself two opposite ends when you remove the damaged link(s). This time, we'll illustrate the process on a chain with a broken link.


Since we do not have a master link, we need to preserve both an outer plate with a pin and an inner plate (pin removed) so that we can reconnect the chain.
Creating an open outer plate:
Use your chain tool to push the pin only far enough out to remove the broken segment of chain. You need to leave yourself about 1-2mm of pin still in the viable outerplate. This will help you during reinstallation to guide the pin through straight.

Creating an open inner plate:
On the other end, use your chain breaker to push the pin fully out of an outer section, leaving an end with inner plates and a roller.




FLAT FIX, FLAT FIX!
- Extra tube - Be sure you pack the correct tube size. They come in a range of diameters and widths and should correspond to your tire size (printed on the sidewall).
- Levers - We like Pedro’s levers, as they are durable, stiff and come in pairs.
- Multi-tool - In some cases, a tool is not required. However, you may have a bolt-on wheel or thru-axle system, which requires a tool to install/remove (ex. 15mm wrench, 5mm or 6mm allen wrench).
- Inflation - You will need some form of inflation, whether that be a frame pump or C02 chuck.

- Pros: can fit into a saddle bag, small, lightweight, fast inflation
- Cons: minimal room for user error as it is a one time use, no gauge
- Pros: can be used multiple times to seat and reseat tires. Some models have pressure gauges to inflate precisely to recommended psi.
- Cons: can be quite a workout to get to the appropriate psi, can be heavy and have mounting limitations with certain frames




















NEW KITS!
We finally made it to Spring! While we have worked tirelessly through Winter to de-clutter Ed’s hoarding, install new lights, and fight the dust bunnies, we have also taken this time to fashion up a new shop kit!
As our space becomes brighter, so do our spirits, and that energy can be seen in the blues, pinks, and yellows within our design. With a touch of lace and some wavy callbacks to our shop socks, we present our 2021 Spring kits:






We have the following sizes in stock: Get 'em while they’re still hot!
Women’s -S, M, L
Men’s - S, M, L (XL SOLD OUT)
Here's a look at our last 8 years in kits:





PS, check out our new window display when you're out and about on Hillsborough! We can't wait to see you soon.