Holiday letter

Dear family and friends,

It has been cold and frosty the past few mornings here in Portland. With Christmas nearly upon us it got me to thinking about the annual Christmas letter that we never seem to get written. Well this year is the year to actually get one done!

It has been a very busy year for us this year with many changes! Linda and I began the year with a trip to Maui in February to visit an old friend. It was a great break from the wet Tacoma weather, the regular routine, and a great time to catch up with Sonny. It was fortunate that we took a break then as the rest of the year has been a whirlwind. At times it felt as if we were just along for the ride, events carrying us along.

Pretty much ever since Rachel & Josh moved to Portland our eldest daughter has waged a campaign to get the family to follow. This year the campaign stepped up a notch as Rachel started to send Linda & I job and house possibilities and announced that we would be grandparents later in the year!

With all of the kids out of the house (Epiphany living in Seattle and nephew Jason in Lacy) we began seriously contemplating the possibility of a move. Call it karma, fate, kismet, the hand of God, sometimes it seems like things are just meant to be. In the beginning of March we listed our house and started looking in earnest for jobs in Portland. By the beginning of May we had a signed offer on the house, Linda was living at Rachel & Josh’s working her new medical billing job and apartment hunting in Portland. I was splitting my time between closing Spoke & Sprocket, our business of 17 years and training for my new position at REI in Clackamas. I was splitting my time living with the rest of the family at the ‘Hotel Ferdaszewski’ as Rachel & Josh’s home had been dubbed, and living in our home in Tacoma as we moved toward closing.

We had the shop closed the end of May and our house sale closed in June. We spent the summer in an apartment in SE Portland while house hunting. By September we had closed on a house in NE Portland! It is a nice Cape Cod in a wonderful neighborhood and literally (and I mean that in the truest sense of the word) across from the bike path I take to work each day.

In the middle of the summer, Epiphany also succumbed to the siren song of Portland and moved south, finding employment with a local bike shop and a coffee shop. Our granddaughter Sophia Epiphany Ferdaszewski was born the day before thanksgiving! She is healthy, beautiful and very good natured and of course dearly loved by all!.

After Christmas Epiphany heads further south to spend time studying bookbinding at a Buddhist monastery in Sonoma, so things keep changing!

Where the heck...

Living out of boxes is just grand! Worse yet, is living out of boxes, most of which are in a 10x20 storage locker. A storage locker that is stuffed wall to wall, floor to ceiling! More times than I care to recount we have been saying "where the heck is my..." The answer is usually something along the lines of "It was in one of the square brown boxes" or something along that line. The missing box is usually in the BACK of the storage locker.

The thing is, we have temporarily downsized from our 3 bedroom house (with an additional office, full basement, and a single car garage) to a 2 bedroom apartment.  In addition we owned a business that occupied a little over 2000' square feet of retail space. After closing the shop and selling the house we have a lot of stuff to store, and not a lot of space to store it!

A good majority of the stuff is in the aforementioned 10x20 storage locker, or in a (not so stuffed) 5x10 storage locker. The rest is in our small apartment, much of it still in boxes.

The good news is that the business is indeed closed, the house is sold (the check is even in the bank) and we are now settling into life in Portland. We are enjoying our new life in Portland. We live right on the MAX light rail line and a bike path, either of which takes me straight to work at the Clackamas REI. Linda takes the MAX into downtown for work, stopping off at the gym (also on the MAX line) most mornings.

Our trusty Subaru, which has gotten a hefty workout the last couple of months as I closed the shop in Tacoma, worked at REI in Clackamas, and we packed up the house, now sits most of the time. We ride bikes, walk or use Portland's excellent public transportation system.

We can easily get pretty much anywhere we need to go via bus, rail, or bike. It is pretty rare that we drive the car these days.Except when we need to haul something to or from the storage locker that is.

And in a moment it was over.

And in a moment it was over, and we were left with what we might have been and what we had become. - Jon Stewart (musician)

Spoke & Sprocket is now history. There is still some paperwork to complete, and a couple of things to move out of the building tomorrow morning, but for all intents and purposes Spoke & Sprocket is no more.

No more bikes to sell, no more fittings, no more repairs. It is over. Spoke & Sprocket has been a major part of my life for 20 years, sometimes an all consuming part of my life. Times change, and Jim Finnell., Linda & I are moving on - life in Portland awaits Linda & I and Finnell is entering a very acrtive retirement. We are excited about our new lives, but it is sad leaving behind all that we built and all the great friends we have made throught the shop.

Many of our customers have come by the past month to wish us well and tell us how much we & the shop will be missed. thank you all so much for your kind words, you have no idea how much they mean to us. We will certainly miss the wonderful customers we have had at Spoke & Sprocket. I  am still amazed at how loyal, suportive, and helpful our customer base was (and is.) You all are great folks.

It has been a wonderful ride full of memories that I will always cherish - thank you all so very much for your loyalty and support!

All of us at Spoke & Sprocket thank you and wish you all the best in the future!

If this is Tuesday it must be Portland

Things are going great, don't getr me wrong. Linda & I both have jobs in Portland, we have an offer on our house, and the shop closing has started. But life has certainly gotten complicated. I was offered a couple of great jobs, and in the end decided to go with REI. I am now a Sales Specialist at the Clackamas REI!

The complicating thing is that I started today! I have training four days this week, and two days next week. I need a calendar to keep track of what state I am in on any given day! I started the morning in Tacoma, up a bit before six in the morning and into the shop to set up for the first day of our closing sale. I was planning on leaving town at 1pm, but a flat tire delayed me until 1:30. That still gave me enough time to get to REI by 5pm for tonights training.

It will be a busy month, between training for REI, closing the shop, and getting ready to move to Portland, but in the end it will be good. Linda & I are very excited about being close to at least one of our daughter's and discovering a new city. I am very excited about working for REI. After being self employed for 17 years I am looking forward to recieving a paycheck instead of writing them!

Burning the candle at both ends.

It has been crazy, crazy, crazy around here! With our lowest staffing level for years (just finell and myself) we have a huge influx of repairs as folks want to get 'one last tuneup' before we close. Of course everyone wants to come in and talk about the shop closing, making it difficult to get service work done during the day. I have been spending many evenings staying late to get bikes serviced.


On the home front, Linda & I have been spending most of our non-working hours getting the house ready to sell. Fortunatly the bulk of the work is done and the house has been listed!

As if that were not enough to keep us hopping, both Linda & I have been driving to Portland for job interviews.

Looks like the candle is going to keep burning for a bit...

Spoke & Sprocket closing after 20 years in business!

Yes, you read that right, Spoke & Sprocket will be closing it’s doors for good. Our last day of business will be Saturday May 28th.

As some of you may know, our elder daughter Rachel & her husband live in Portland and are planning on starting a family soon. Linda & I want to be close to our grandchildren and have been contemplating a move to Portland.

 Recently I was approached by another bike shop that wants to purchase all of our tools, stands, & workbenches. It is an opportunity too good to pass up and it pushed our plans forward. Jim Finnell’s impending retirement and Epiphany’s move to Seattle also influenced our decision and timing.
We will continue to be open on our regular schedule (Tuesday—Saturday 10am to 6pm) until may 28th. We will continue normal operations through the end of April. If you need an overhaul, tune-up, repair, bike fit, or even a new bike there is still time for us to serve your needs. In May we will be working on closing out inventory and fixtures and will have a reduced ability to perform repairs and fittings. Look for an announcement regarding some fun stuff happening in May!
We want to thank Harvey & Diane Lister who started Spoke & Sprocket and sold us the shop in 1993, the many vendors who worked with us, and of course all the loyal customers that have supported us all these years. It has been a great ride! We could not have done it without you!
In the fall of 1993 Linda and I purchased Spoke & Sprocket from Harvey and Diane Lister.
Over the years we have changed locations once, and remodeled both locations on more than one occasion.
We have had the opportunity to work with a number of great, supportive vendors and sale representatives, many of which have become friends.
The shop has truly been a family business. It has been a place for our daughters Rachel & Epiphany to grow, work and learn as well as two of our nephews, Jason & Nathan.
Many of our employees had their first work experience at Spoke & Sprocket. Former employees have moved on to jobs with higher levels of responsibility joining our nation’s armed forces, becoming mechanics for professional race teams, managers within the bicycle industry, paramedics, airplane mechanics, artists, urban planners, chefs, and television newscasters. More important to us, many remain our friends to this day.
Our customers have been the best in the world! We have been blessed with a staunchly loyal customer base, many who have built shop fixtures, helped out with remodels, moving, STP support, and set up & tear-down at bike expo among other things. Once again, just like our employees, many of you have become great friends and riding partners.
Thank you to each and everyone of you who has helped to make Spoke & Sprocket a success!


Jim Finnell, Rachel Ferdaszewski, Epiphany Couch, Jim & Linda Couch

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