In The Begining

Ok Kiddies, this is an Origin story! 
A long time ago...(nope, cliche')
Once upon a time...(to overdone)
It was the best of times..(who'm I kiddin')
On December 12, 2008 after having worked in the construction industry for several years, our family was hit!  I had not worked steady in over 8 months and what meager savings we had we're sufficiently drained!  Subsisting on what small morsels of cash we could dredge up, what the pawn shop would give us, and what food we could get from the food pantry we found ourselves at a dead end. On this day we had nothing in the house to eat and needed money for dinner. What to do?
Now as parents of 8 children you can imagine we have a lot of junk in our garage, and amongst the rubble were several partial bikes and parts that the children (and I) had burnt out.  Well someone (not sure who) came up with the idea of fixin' 'em up and stickin them out to the curb with a for-sale sign and seeing what happens.  This was one time where living on a busy street paid off (compensation for all the mini heart attacks when children got to close to the road) because within 45 minutes we had sold four! We ate well that night! I believe it was Papa Johns Delivery.  The wife and kids really deserved it after going without for so long.  Whilst we scoffed down several LARGE pies, the events of the day were bantered about, and the realization that "HEY, we got something here!" hit us.
Thus RE-Cycle was born.
I'll take this moment to do a "WayBack" thing. 4 years prior after watching Al Gores "An Inconvenient Truth" My wife and I sat back in terror, knowing the planet had its problems but not knowing (or willing to except our complacency) the whole truth.  On that day we made a decision to alter certain aspects of our lifestyle.  The biggest change being that we ceremoniously sold our family van for scrap, and have been walking, riding bikes,or taking buses ever since.  Not an easy adjustment at first, but after a little while it had become old hat.
OK...SWISSSH! Time warp back to the present!
So after deciding that we were going to pursue this bike thing I and my wife (more Angela because shes the brains, and the conscience of the operation) set some ground rules;
1) utilize what has already been produced! (sometimes, some new parts are necessary, much to our chagrin)
2) Help those who need it, when they need it!
3)  NO RUST! Always deliver a clean well running bike.  Yes there used but they don't have to look or ride that way!
4) DO NOT get greedy (sometimes hard for me)  Even when you get popular and recognized realize WHY you are popular and recognized.
5) Remember, ALWAYS why you are here; The customer. Period.
6) Keep it light, personable, and fun. Once its not, 'aint no reason to be doin' it!
7) Give back to the community. Keep the money local!
8) Minimize and try to eliminate waste.
9) Be home RIGHT after closing! (thats Angi's rule)
So the ground rules being set, we began the arduous task of building our small company, and believe me its had its ups and downs.  See the problem with becoming popular no matter how well meaning your intentions may be theres always some who do not share in your happiness.  Don't get me wrong 99.9999% of the people we encounter are nothing but nice!  I could go on and on for days at all the AWESOME folks who have treated us SO WELL over the last two years, from the folks who buy or repair their bikes here, to folks who bring us homemade business cards, flyer's, t-shirts, food (thank you Keri "The Panera Bread Lady") or to folks cleaning out their garage or back yard and bring us bike donations because they "like what we do"! I can't tell you how many times I've walked out of my house to work and found one or more bikes leaning up against our garage door in need of a good home.  And always anonymously.
But as I said, not everyone shared in our joy.
Once we became known the city took notice.  Apparently they don't 'cottin to folks operatin' no business out of their home UNLESS they git their fair share.  So ok, to keep legit we went and got our "Occupational Licence" well once they had their fees...then came the rules.  Can't display bikes outside, can't see the operation from the road, can't have customers come to the house, can't put out a sign, can't advertise, can't work in the driveway, can't work with the garage door open...
Well...I've never been a big follower of some authority so...I...pushed it.
For a year and a half.
Well one thing I found is folks do like their gossip (I DO NOT exclude myself from this category) and info started to trickle down to me. Now taking it with a grain of salt I did not heed some of it, only because I really didn't think business folk could be like that.  Well I was wrong.  Turns out that even though the city cited "neighborhood complaints" as their reason for serving us several registered letters, driving by once a day to see if we we're out (hey we we're nice..we always waved) sitting in their cars across the seat to take photos of our transactions...etc, etc,etc, we had NEVER received one complaint from our neighbors, quite the contrary they we're some of our best customers (still are) and always had a kind word to say.  Nope turns out the rumors were true, confirmed by the very same city employees (code enforcement) who paid us daily visits.  Turns out that a cadre of fellow bicycle shop owners signed a petition of sorts sighting "unfair competition" (not all of them mind you, just a few).  I didn't know whether to be confused or flattered.  We didn't get into this to compete with anyone.  I mean we are trying to fill a niche' that I as a bike rider could never find.  I relied on my bike for transportation but the few times I had to have it serviced no matter where I went it would cost me as much to buy a NEW bike as it would to fix my 13 year old Huffy!  I can't speak for everyone, but there are allot of folks out there (especially nowadays) who simply cannot afford that.  Who's representing them?
well...now...us.
But the likelihood of someone bringing me a 10,000.00 bike for a tune-up?
So...the final straw came when I was ordered to appear  before the zoning commission.  My wife and I sat down and realized we had a decision to make.  Do we give it up and find day jobs, or do we pursue what had become our life goal and keep this thing moving.
Well a little $$$ and a signed lease and we began building out our little nook here at 1893 North Highland Ave (only 2 blocks from the "Old Garage")  Do I miss the old days?  Yes.  But like everything else comes change, and in retrospect the move was not as scary as we had thought.  And the best part is we didn't have to alter our ground rules or even raise our prices (ok..a tad).
Because we always said "We're not lookin' to get rich, only popular."