I have a semi-famous bike shop(Second Life Bikes) in a semi-famous town(Asbury Park, NJ). You may have heard of the shop on a feel-good, evening news segment. You may have heard of Asbury Park from an album cover.

Besides doing the normal activities of a community bike shop, we also dabble in brazing in our spare time. I, personally, have followed the same route as many of you: Taken local welding/brazing classes, attended UBI, ignored the torch for years, watched YouTube videos, read forums posts and practiced as much as time allows. My co-worker, Travers, and I are trying to get to the next level which means actually building frames, stems, racks, etc. He used to work for Crust bikes when they were located down the road from us.

Anyway, what we would love is to have a real-live person at our shop to ask some real-live questions. Do framebuilders ever take vacations? Was wondering if anyone is interested in staying in Asbury Park for a week or weekend (or two!). You can stay rent-free in a two-bedroom condo one mile from the beach. You would have access to hundreds of different bikes so you can road or mountain bike in the morning. Afterwards, you would come to the shop and critique our brazing skills for an hour or two. Afterwards, you can hit the beach in the afternoon and the bars at night. You don’t have to be a career framebuilder to qualify but you just have to be more experienced than we are.

Does this sound appealing or feasible to anyone?

Or just relocate here. I'll give you a bike shop job and a place to build frames.

Kerri Martin
Second Life Bikes
Asbury Park, NJ