After taking the first two weeks of November off from work to recover from the gnarly virus that came as part of a knock me on my arse, multipack of ailments, along with my face stopping working on one side due to my surprise case of Bells Palsy last month, I really wasn’t sure what I’d have that was interesting to write about this month. The shop, as is tradition in the bike industry, has been a little slower on the repairs front through the end of November and the start of December. Doesn’t mean there’s any reason for slowing down at Happy Days though! A few less repairs in finally gives me a chance to catch up on sorting out some of our donated bikes that have been building up through the non-stop madness of the summer. And so, of course, there is plenty to write about…
Since taking over Happy Days my faith in humanity has been regularly restored by the endless generosity displayed by our local community. We have a seemingly (and hopefully!) endless stream of donations that allows us to work the way we do. I wasn’t at the shop during the height of the pandemic but when other shops were scrambling for bikes from virtually anywhere, Happy Days were still able to provide plenty of perfect starter bikes for people to dip their toe into the cycling world.
It’s not just the basic end of the market that we cater to though, and somehow through some insane levels of generosity even our donated bikes manage to reflect that as well! As well as the Apollo’s and Carrera’s that come in day to day, we also get plenty of mid range bikes from a few seasons ago and every now and again someone will bring us in a real treat. Highlights from during my tenure at the shop include a full Dura-Ace spec, oh except for the SRAM/Quarq power meter chainset, Sunday Cycles Ti road bike. This thing was a dream machine! Mavic Ksyrium wheelset, Easton EC90 fork, all the carbony, Ti finishy bits you could want and it was donated! The fella that dropped it off hoped that it would go to a young racer, however in the end it found its new home with a lovely local lady who fell in love with it after borrowing it for a test ride. She was looking for a road bike for leisure rides, as her daily commuter with its full panniers and mudguards wasn’t exactly a joy to ride. She returned singing it’s praises claiming “it’s the comfiest bike I’ve ever ridden! “
I can attest to its comfort , I borrowed it myself for a run out to explore the dark, smooth side of my new local hills that I don’t often see on my mountain bike during the heatwave back in summer. (Remember that?)
There was also a Di2 equipped Boardman carbon aero bike with matching carbon deep section wheelset. A vintage Orange Clockwork, that ended up being fully restored and going into the personal collection of the owner of one of the UK’s biggest bike distributors. The Di2 equipped CX race bike that’s upstairs right now, just waiting for me to get it ready for someone to get a bargain entry to cross racing next year!
Oh and this rad old Ellsworth Dare, previously raced at World Cup by Jack Reading! In this rather fetching pink anodised finish to raise awareness for breast cancer research, It spent some of its later years in the loving hands of Richard Baybutt (@baybutt) from Cotic/Bolehills until he posted on his Instagram story that it was free to a good home! In YET ANOTHER case of bike shop serendipity I was the first person to message him and plead a case as to why he wanted to donate this awesome piece of MTB history to Happy Days.
I got all excited when it first came in and got it set up into a rolling chassis, however I ran out of suitable bits and so it sat in a state of half built shame upstairs for the best part of a year until this month. The stars eventually aligned, and I finally had the time, parts and impetus to get it built. Jack and I built it up together, going through the process as if we were building a World Cup race bike, except from a variety of 15-20 year old parts.
The bike built up a dream, except for the crankset, I didn’t really have a suitable crank for it. The one we ended up fitting was at least a single ring specific crank rather than the bodged up triple that was the other option, but it was a super basic Shimano copy and it was missing a preload cap. Of course a Shimano cap wouldn’t fit, that would be far too easy…
I found an old FSA crank bolt that fitted, the kind that goes behind a self extracting cap. It had a big ugly step on it that stuck out when it was fitted at just about the perfect height to cut right into the knobbliest bit of an ankle! A bit of time with a hacksaw, Dremel and various finishing abrasives and I had myself a nice polished flush fitting bolt though and with that the Ellsworth was ready to ride!
While it rides as perfectly as it can, first impressions are that DH bikes have come a loooooong way in the last 15ish years! That old 32mm Boxxer still feels absolutely dreamy though, and although it’s small and short compared to modern bikes this thing is still an absolute sled to ride and the perfect machine for a young first year shredder wanting to try DH racing.
Oh, but wait there’s more! Because the serendipity goblin that hangs around under my workbench wasn’t done with us for this month yet!
One of my old friends who I recently found out lives right nearby walked through the door with a giant bag of old rear mechs to donate, and sitting on the top of that bag like the burliest machined aluminium crown imaginable, a set of Raceface Diabolus DH cranks! There couldn’t be a more perfect crankset for this machine, built for the task, from the right era, ready to slot straight into the existing BB!
The donations we get at the shop consistently blow my mind both in terms of the quality of some of the stuff people are willing to give away to support a good cause, but more in the quantity of bikes that people have to give away! Me and Jonny are pretty sure that most weeks for every “pre-loved” bike we sell we get two more donated. We never like to turn away a donation at the shop, even the most haggard, old Argos bike may still have some usable parts that will make another donation with a simple issue like snapped brake levers or missing seat binder bolts (seriously how do so many people seem to lose these?!) Into a fully working machine.
Anything that we can’t salvage gets weighed in at our local scrap metal merchants and the proceeds go to the charity.
We have some storage off site very close to the shop that we’re very kindly given for free from another of the awesome businesses in Sowerby Bridge. Having this extra space is a godsend for us and during the summer months when I hardly have time to turn around, it’s very easy to store any donations that don’t look like they’ll sell easily or need more work to get the bike into a polished, sellable condition than is economically viable (yes even for us this is still a thing!).
The time has come to get all those stored donations shifted though, now that I’ve got time in the workshop to spend the odd day rattling through the literal stacks of donations that have been building up. I want them out there being ridden, these bikes are being wasted not being enjoyed by new owners!
Last year when we were faced with a similar situation of too many bikes in the shop we had the brainwave of having the first World Famous Happy Days Cycles Super Mega £20.00 Bike Sale. Over the week that we ran the sale we sold about 150 bikes to people who came from as far away as Bacup to bag a bargain bike. All the £20.00 bikes are the ones that come in that need more work than the bike is worth to make into a shop showroom ready machine, but a quick basic service and check over, maybe replace a couple of cables or brake pads and it’s a perfect candidate for the £20.00 rack outside. None of the bikes are going to bag you a race win but they’ll all get you to the shops or the pub safely, and as a built in bonus they’re all far from theft targets.
The sales always go down a treat and because everyone knows they’re getting a bargain, and there’s nothing but good vibes in the shop all week. It brings the whole mood of the shop up when all the customers are buzzing that they’ve got a deal. What they don’t realise is it’s all part of our secret plan to get everyone everywhere riding bikes and they’re playing along perfectly! Muahahahaha!
So we decided that now we had a load of bikes ready to roll and some space to get more ready it was time for another World Famous Happy Days Super Mega £20.00 Bike Sale. We announced the sale was starting on Tuesday 29th November. I didn’t have much hope for a £20.00 bike sale at the end of November but we sprinkled a few gems in there and some bargain kids’ bikes.
Apparently I know nothing about the market I’m serving though, because the shop’s Facebook and Instagram pages were instantly flooded with messages from people with more questions than you can possibly imagine about bikes that only cost the price of most of a takeaway for two!
Come Tuesday morning the floodgates opened and the shop was swamped all day. It was one of the best days I’ve ever had at work. We had one dude come in who hadn’t ridden a bike in 15 years. He said once he saw he could get a bike for 20 quid that it didn’t matter if he didn’t enjoy it he wouldn’t be too out of pocket. He then proceeded to buy three bikes, one for him and one each for two mates! Then as he was leaving he spotted a BMX in the sale bikes and took that too! That’s three, potentially four people riding bikes this week that weren’t even thinking about it last week and I’ve helped facilitate that. This is a fact that brings me intense joy.
Next was the young single mum who came in who had two kids that both wanted bikes for Christmas. The cheapest she’d been able to find were £80.00 each, which was way over budget. She left Happy Days with two bikes for £40.00 and we chucked in a couple of helmets as well. Those bikes definitely got a bit more TLC in the workstands than most of the £20.00 specials as well. When she came to collect them the next day she was so stoked with the bikes it made my day.
There’s been loads more like that since we started the sale and it’s been so popular (and we have so many bikes!) That we’ve decided to keep it going until Christmas.
I also really REALLY want someone to get a bike as a secret Santa gift for someone they work with! I’m also definitely willing to offer discount to meet an office secret Santa budget to make this happen! Imagine the smile on your coworker’s face when they receive a whole shiny(ish) bike on their last day before Christmas! Come on Singletrack readership, let’s make it happen!
So yeah that’s it for this month! A nice heartwarming tale to finish off for the holidays!
Happy Saturnalia folks!
