My name is Beth Permenter, and I am a professional bicycle mechanic. Here is a snapshot of a day in my life. It’s 10 A.M. I ride up to an old brick building. I pass under a green awning stamped with a faded logo of a bicycle above the words Bikes@Vienna. I swing open the door, the cone wrench chimes clinking behind. Vintage folding bikes hang from the ceiling. Recumbent tricycles are lined up from wall to wall.
Tarik Saleh, a bicycle enthusiast who is known for starting the “Ride Bikes and Don’t Be an Asshole Club,” coined our shop as the house of small wheel madness, a nickname well earned due to our specialization in weird bikes with 20 and 16-inch wheels, such as Bromptons and Terns.
I enter the service area to four work stands each holding a different bike. One holds a vintage Bike Friday folder in the middle of an overhaul. Another holds a new Tern e-cargo bike being built for a customer. The other two stands hold bikes I’m fixing up for friends in my spare time. One is a twenty-year-old Niner mountain bike I’m restoring for my trail partner.
“I always loved tinkering with things. Early on, my mom noticed this trait in me, and was happy to encourage this interest.” – Beth Permenter
