This served me quite well in past years when my bikes were far less complex and far easier to have serviced by any acquaintance with a wrench and a desire for payment in beer. Things are changing. My needs are changing. I now have a stable of bikes - my son's Hase Pino, an HP Velotechnik Speedmachine, and a Catrike Trail. I could just bring them to RBR every time I need a fix, but why not use my time in the shop to actually learn to do this work for myself?

The smart approach would be to learn a bit at a time when my own maintenance needs arise. The smart approach is no fun. The fun approach is probably not smart, but here it is: I'm going to learn how to do full bike builds. Yep, I'm being handed a fresh boxed bike for some hands-on learning and, admittedly, some free labor for the shop. RBR will end up with a bike they can sell. I'll end up with some knowledge and a good blogging topic.

It just so happens that there are two Sun EZ-3 trikes that need a build, so I'm taking the blue one. Why blue? Because there are already two red ones on the floor. That's about as deep a rationale as you're going to get from me.

My education is sitting in a box on the floor. Later today, I'll be opening both it and my horizons. ... And don't worry, Rob will be inspecting the trike before it is sold to anyone.