The process - from bringing the factory to Arkansas in March 2016 to putting out five to six bikes a week now - has been accomplished at “hyper speed,” Pickman said. Why in Little Rock? Because it’s Karklins’ hometown, where he’s been in the bike business since he was 11 years old, when he had a job at Chainwheel fixing flats. “I knew it could be done very economically here,” Karklins said. That would be $50,000 to $60,000 in Southern California.” The factory space “costs $6,000 a month to rent here. MAKING A CARBON FRAME: The manufacturing of the Alfa bike frame requires the placement of hundreds of pieces of carbon fiber into a mold that is heated, coated and heated again before it moves to the final stages of sanding and painting. Why bikes? “Because I was a troublemaker growing up,” Karklins said. “My parents had been saving money for a minivan - they were both social workers - but instead they figured out a way to buy a small piece of Chainwheel so I could get a job. They knew I was going to get in trouble in the afternoons if they didn’t plop my ass in Chainwheel. So I grew up in bike retail in Little Rock.”īy age 16, Karklins - who didn’t even ride a bike before he began working at Chainwheel - had purchased a third of the business and become manager. “It gave me a home and it was really cool. And I loved the equipment and I loved selling bikes. I’d think, ‘I did that to that person.’ I love that.” … I loved selling bikes to people like you,” he said, nodding to this reporter, “because I’d teach them about bikes and see that that customer would come back and buy a better bike and then a better bike and within two or three years be doing the Big Dam Bridge 100. Red Kit Prayer will undoubtedly find success,” said Radio Freddy.The annual Big Dam Bridge 100 is in its 11th year. While I pursue other projects, Padraig will continue writing from the unique perspective that he brought to BKW, a stance that helped shaped its content and readership. “There are many exciting topics for BKW to explore, but regretfully I haven’t had the hours in the day to give it the attention it requires. The biggest changes readers will see will be in site design and the appearance of some advertising.īelgium Knee Warmers’ Radio Freddy suggested launching the new blog. Red Kite Prayer will serve the reader by connecting the dots and making sense of a complicated sport.
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