Beers for Gears

For my son’s most recent birthday, we got him a new bike. He’s 15, so it’s still his primary mode of transportation with friends, and he also bikes to school when it’s warm enough. He didn’t ride it much until it got warmer, but once he did he complained that it was slower than his friends’ bikes and couldn’t maintain speed. It was a source of family controversy for a while — on one extreme I assumed he wasn’t shifting gears correctly, and on the other there was talk about getting a new bike. Eventually cooler heads prevailed, and we decided to take it somewhere for a tune-up before doing anything else.

The obvious options were the local bike shop and the Dick’s Sporting Goods we bought the bike from, but my searches also turned up something called Beers for Gears that got my attention for self-explanatory reasons. The headline on the site is “Get your bike tuned up and put beers in my fridge”. Ok, I’m listening.

I’ll go right to the source to explain this particular side hustle:

Beers For Gears started as a pet project for me. My day job has me working a lot (but never more than I want to!) and I needed an outlet.

…

I offer a resource for people who need simple maintenance done to their bike(s). I also want to stock my beer fridge.

Therein lies the beauty of Beers for Gears. You bring me your bike. I fix it. You compensate me in cash, beer or some combination of the two. I have rates, and I can negotiate as well. It’s a pretty sweet gig.

It worked out great! Frustratingly, and unsurprisingly, the issue was that Dick’s had assembled the bike incorrectly. After the tune-up, my son can keep up with his friends and makes good time to school. And I had an excuse to buy someone Lagunitas’ Iron Maiden themed IPA.

The improved bike is great, but it’s the concept behind Beers for Gears that kept lingering with me. I’m often a man of many side projects. Are they providing an outlet that counterbalances my day job, or are they more of the same? Is one of them something that would compel people to fill my proverbial (or literal) beer fridge? Until I figure that out, I guess I’ll have to keep buying my own beer.