Will, So I've been open for a few days now, and things are going OK. The customers are finding me, and my sign has arrived (yellow and red Brooklyn style), written Bike Shop in Italian (OFFICINA BICICLETTA), fuck writing the name John's Garage, I'm the only bike shop in Muggiò. I'm making mistakes like crazy, but I'm learning quick. I keep giving people estimates that are too low, and I feel the need to stick to the estimate even if I don't make much profit on a job (honesty pays). I'm even (gulp) writing reciepts (for now). Today there were almost no customers. I'm selling Scout, Da Bomb and Liyang bikes, all Taiwanese. I'm buying them disassembled and will assemble them myself: chasing, facing and aligning every frame. You may want to check out Liyang- my cost on a dope, light aluminum road frame with carbon fork and integrated headset is €300. Mountainbike frames are €150 in aluminum or Ritchey steel. All of these frames are very high quality, the best asian I've seen (also the scouts which I think may come from Liyang and a couple of other builders). Scout also does some Italian to measure frames, but they're kind of pricey. Da Bomb is imported by Scout and are really nice looking mountainbike frames. I don't know the manufacturer, but I'm sure you can find them. My prices start at around €95. I sold my first Scout bike today, the Proof model. It's a really low margin considering the assembly job that I do (retail: €190 tax included), but it's for a good friend who's been waiting since October for me to fix up his old bike that was too small and kind of worn out, so I'll fix that up and sell it used and split the profit after parts. I've got 1 cromo MTB frame- Scout X-country. It's doudle butted cromo and weighs in at 2.5 Kg.Built up with a rigid fork and a complete Acera gruppo will be about €350. I've got an RST Cappa TL adjustable preload fork strapped to it Retail on the frame is €125 and the fork is €70. I'm waiting on my tools to arrive from Germany. I bought almost a complete shop, including pro-shop work, all for about €1200! They look like really good quality. The brand is called Cyclus Tools, and they're available from Renaisance Cycles in the US for slightly higher prices. The biggest thing I hear about them is they're ugly and heavy, really industrial.These are good qualities in tools, I think. Who wants to pay extra for chrome? Yeah, it cleans up easier, but what's the big deal with that. Replacement cutters are really cheap, and that means I can use them on every job I do, being the neurotic tech freak that I can be. I've mostly been working on the equivallent of Schwinn Varseties. I really enjoy that kind of work, and it requires a low investment and high margin sales. I just have to make sure the parts are high quality, and sell the job complete. I'll start going after a racing crowd in about 1-2 months, once the old guys around here start spreading my name around. A lot of these old men have a Bici Leri to leave outside of the bar when they have a coffe, and only take out the old Derosa with the Campy Super Record gruppo on Sundays... There's a lot of racing around here, and it's fairly the norm to have small shops that only sell to measure like I do, but very few really do repairs, and you have to buy a new bike every 3-4 years, and lots of people around here budget around €2000 or more for each one. I just sold a pair of Michelin downhill tires wit tubes for €90!! Most of these people don't mind waiting and leaving their bikes for a day or 2. I pass by the supplier every morning with my Ortleib bag (by bike, of course! 25km), and they have realy good prices on high-end stuff, so I can compete angainst the chain stores on prices, including professional installation. Pretty much all by catalog and my recommendations (sight unseen!!). It's not a bad way to make profit, but it's low margin, and you only have to invest in a small display and always make apropriate parts selection for a given use. I have to say that I couldn't do this without my family and friends. I really want to succeed just so I can pay them back for all of their support. I've done all of the technical stuff and sales and ordering, but everyone else does the rest. Debora's father, Roberto, has been printing up fliers and business cards, coloring them by hand (he does the same "Pezio" job for the Inter Club), and putting them in every store for 34 towns. He's great! Debora has been helping me with the legal stuff, and just generally doing everything (more another time), and my neighbors all helped with preparing the space, painting, getting the sign done, moving the equipment. And everyone's just giving me general support and offering to help however they can. Roberto's second cousin on the mother's side twice removed by remarriage, Massimo got the sign (we'll eat Easter lunch with his family), "found" the sign made exactly to my detailed specifications (available on request). My freinds(even from Capriano) come by 4-5 times a day to say hi. Well enough for now. A general plan for my shop, more technical, neurotic, smoked up ramblings later, I'm going to the inlaw's for dinner! Distinti saluti, John A. Hoeven John's Garage http://www.liyang.com/product.htm http://www.scoutsnc.it/