Hello from
Santa Cruz!
Click photo
to see the view!
Bhalu likes bikes!
Click photo for a surprise!
Your Home Bicycle Workshop
by Jim Langley
Click to enlarge!
Wrenching at the 1994 World’s
If you’d like to comment on the site, ask questions, offer tips, talk about riding, feel free to email me at Jim @ jimlangley.net and I’ll reply as soon as possible. I answer every email. If you don’t receive a reply, some glitch is probably preventing my reply from reaching you. Please re-send your question, or do it from a different email address and I’ll re-send my reply. Thanks!
Who’s Jim Langley?
First and foremost, I’m a bicycle fanatic who’s been into cycling and two-wheelers since the age of ten, and who’s worked in the bicycle industry since Nixon was in the White House. I'm employed at SmartEtailing, a company providing specialty retailers online tools that make it easy for them to create and manage an online business. We work with a lot of bicycle shops and I'm the bicycle content director helping to run the editorial side of things, which includes all manner of cycling articles, product descriptions, tips and other content we're sure to dream up as new web information technologies offer new possibilities.
My bicycling résumé:
Writer/Editor
I currently freelance for “the world’s largest cycling publication,” Bicycling Magazine and for RoadBikeRider.com with my popular weekly column Jim’s Tech Talk. You can also read my Bicycle Beat blog, Facebook page and Twitter feed.
Looking back, from ’89 to ’99 I was Bicycling Magazine’s chief Technical Editor. I wrote repair articles, buyers’ guides, bike road and off-road tests, was the new products editor, mechanic, helped create bicycling.com on AOL and on the Internet, handled the Tech Q & A column, and acted as spokesman for cycling and bicycling at industry events and to the media appearing in print on the radio and TV (lots of makeup required). I’ve contributed cycling stories to Men’s Health, Self, VeloNews, California Bicyclist, Inside Cycling and Recumbent Cyclist magazines. I was also a Senior Editor for the sports-and-fitness website Asimba.com. And I edited cycling books for Rodale Press.
Author
My new book is Your Home Bicycle Workshop, which is all about setting up your own dream bike shop. I also wrote and illustrated The New Bike Book (an owner’s manual for one’s new bike, which is now getting very hard to find). And, I wrote the best-seller Bicycling Magazine’s Complete Guide to Bicycle Maintenance and Repair (you can get it at your local bike shop or from Amazon; this link takes you to the latest version, which still contains most of my work). Another fun project was writing The American Bicycle Calendar 1999, a theme calendar featuring photos and descriptions of beautiful collectible bicycles (the best part was hanging out with Mark Mattei in Chicago and seeing all these stunning treasures in person; his Ignaz Schwinn family tandem recently fetched $127,000 at auction!).
Teacher
I was a professor of bicycle maintenance at University of California at Santa Cruz for four years. I’ve taught basic and intermediate bicycle repair and wheelbuilding classes at bicycle shops.
Mechanic (if I can’t fix it, it ain’t busted)
For 17 years (’72 to ’89) I worked as a service manager and mechanic in a few good bicycle shops (International Ski & Sport/ Concord, NH; Andy’s Bike Shop;/Keene, NH; West Hill Shop/ Brattleboro, VT; West Hill Shop/Putney, VT; The Bicycle Center,/Santa Cruz, CA). I’m also a United States Cycling Federation certified technician (even wrenched at the world championships).
Collector
I’m an antique bicycling enthusiast (the vintage ads decorating this site come from my collection) and concours-winning bicycle restorer.
Inventor
I designed, built, and sold two inventions: Toolmaster (a toolboard template to make it easy to organize your home bicycle shop) and my Langley Fifth Hand Tool (a tool for resetting the spring tension, and the springs, on sidepull brakes). (And I’ve got a bunch of other ideas that I may get to someday; not all bicycle-related.)
Consultant
I have some legal experience as an expert witness in cases concerning bicycle mechanics. And I’ve counseled individuals and cycling companies such as Growth Cycle. One of my more interesting assignments was riding about forty miles on a path next to the California Aqueduct (a man-made channel that carries water from northern California to Los Angeles) to gauge whether or not it was safe to bike there.
Athlete
I’ve been competing in various contests since I joined the chess club in junior high school. I rode across America in 1979. I’ve been a runner, triathlete, road, mountain bike and cyclocross racer, and am an avid tournament table tennis player and coach.
Cyclist
Finally, I’m still as nuts about cycling as I was as a kid. In fact I’m working on my 18th year of riding every day (of course, it’s darn hard to find a good excuse to take a day off when you live in California).
