We Officially Welcome BRose!

We're officially extending a hearty Golden Wrench "WELCOME ABOARD, YOU FELLOW!" to Brian Rose, the gentleman-provocateur Alpha wolf from Shockspital. He's a disarmingly jovial fellow who lives and breathes bicycle history. He knows his retro bikes, and he knows his modern bikes, and he knows his own bike, and can often be found discoursing on the strengths and weaknesses of bygone designs.

And to top it off, the man himself rides an AMP fork: not the single-sprung unit, we're talking the dual-damper, titanium-legged fork that they made right before they bowed out of the industry. That's retro-bike nerd for "legit," as many of our readership are well aware.

Offically, we welcome you, Brian Rose, to the usually-temperate basement of the Midtown Bike Center!

The man, obscured by his fork

That's our official position. Privately, however, we're a bit worried. When he actually began moving into the Midtown Bike Center, he brought with him several enormous tool chests, some housewarming decor, his own bad self, and an extensive omnium-gatherum of suspension oddments dating from my earliest memories. Red plastic bins full of bicycle suspension archaeology form a neat little bunker where BRose can work his magic.

Instant Credibility! This tool does nothing that a well-wielded hammer and a drift punch cannot, but it says AMP on it...

The trouble is not merely the presence of the bins, it is that we have to catalog and inventory their contents. The bins themselves are large and heaping-full, and they are numerous. Plus, some of the parts have long since celebrated the tenth anniversary of their parent company's closure. It's going to be a challenge.

A lively box of springs: one of many such bins in the collection.

Lo, an air can from a Stratos shock! Behold, a damper from a Noleen Smart Shock! Begorrah, if that isn't a Boxxer spring! And what is this beautiful thing? Nope, I dunno. I'll have to ask.

Well, officially, we're going to give him the benefit of the doubt. He's got a pile of stuff to do: there's a Lefty from New Mexico, a Fox Alp 4 from Illinois, an old SID from Massachusetts, a lineup of local stuff, and a bunch of conversations to keep up on. As long as those bins don't start multiplying, we should be fine...