Bike Shop Slang

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, Martha. This is Leslie Tweedy calling from Chicago.

Hi, Leslie. Welcome.

Hi, Leslie. Welcome to the show.

What’s going on?

Well, I know you like workplace jargon, so I was calling with some bike shop slang.

Bike shop, did you say?

Yes.

Do you work in a bike shop then?

Yes. My husband and I own Roscoe Village Bikes in Chicago.

Oh, great. Fantastic.

Yeah.

Good.

I’ve become a bike rider myself recently.

That’s what I was thinking. It’s the perfect time of year for it.

It definitely is.

So you run across all kinds of language related to bikes.

Just a repair jargon or a competition jargon or what is it?

Mostly repair jargon.

We do actually try to use the proper name of components for the most part.

Just makes things easier.

But there are some things you may or may not have heard.

Like, for example, a bike mechanic is called a wrench.

A wrench.

Okay, yeah, that conforms to some language that we see in some other industries.

Another one we use with repairs is we talk about boomerang bikes and how we don’t want to see any boomerang bikes.

Boomerang bikes. Tell us about that.

Are these lemons that have to keep coming back for work?

Exactly. It would be something that goes out the door and comes right back.

So if we change a flat tire and maybe we miss a tiny piece of glass and 20 minutes later the customer comes back and they say,

It’s flat again, that’s the last thing that we want.

So we always talk to our mechanics about how we would not like to see any boomerang bikes.

I could see that.

Another one we use is JRA.

So a customer will bring a bike in.

And do you have any ideas what JRA might be?

JRA for a bicycle?

The Justice something of America.

I don’t know.

It’s Just Riding Along.

Nine times out of ten, a customer comes in, some crazy mishap with the bike, and you say,

Oh, my gosh, what happened?

Well, I was just riding along.

And, you know, yeah, so, you know, you’ll give the bike to one of the mechanics, and he’ll say, you know, what’s going on here?

Well, JRA.

Oh, interesting.

Interesting.

Now, do you know if that’s industry-wide, or is that just in your shop?

I think that is industry-wide.

I like that, JRA.

Yeah, JRA, all bike repairs.

Let’s see, another one we have related to repairs.

We wouldn’t want to use this in a derogatory sense, but it’s a bicochondriac.

Bicochondriac, so that’s somebody who brings in a bike and they’re sure something is wrong with it, but you can’t find anything wrong?

Yes, and maybe they sort of hear little squeaks and clicks and grinds, but if you test ride the bike, you just can’t replicate it.

So we would only use this in a loving way, but it would be difficult.

More business for you, right?

Yes, that is true.

These are all good.

What else do you got?

A Frankenbike.

Oh, yeah, sure.

I bet you just take multiple pieces of multiple kinds of bikes and make one out of them?

Exactly.

We see a lot of these, so it’s nothing you could find in a catalog.

It’s nothing that was ever stocked.

An original, a mutt.

And is that a positive or just a description?

It’s a bit of both.

Somebody might refer to their own bike as a Frankenbike and be proud of the work that they put into it.

Right. Okay.

Yeah.

Oh, that’s good.

You know, I’ve got a couple terms.

I’ve been collecting language for, I don’t know, more than 10 years now, and I’ve come across a few terms.

Let me see if I can quiz you on these, see if you know these.

All right.

I’ll try my best.

Do you know what to bonk means?

Yeah.

So to bonk would be if you’re in a competition and you just kind of hit that wall.

Oh, yeah.

You’ve got nothing left.

There’s no second win, no third win.

It’s all done, right?

Yeah, they sell bonk breakers, right?

Those high-energy bars.

Oh, really?

There we go.

Okay.

And then you probably know what a sag wagon is.

Yes, it’s a support vehicle.

Right.

So if you bonk and you can’t make it any further, the sag wagon comes by and you climb aboard and throw your bike in there and you’re done.

Yeah.

The one I like is door prize.

Oh, yeah.

Or to get doored, right?

To get doored, yeah.

You’re biking along super fast and somebody just flings out their driver’s side door and you go right into it.

And then you do an endo, head over heels, right over the top.

Oh, man.

Yeah.

I almost heard it called a door prize when the car is parked there.

I learned that from some messengers in Toronto.

Oh, really?

And I understand they also use it in New York and maybe in Chicago.

Getting doored?

Yeah.

Both of those.

Actually, both are used.

Door prizes.

Yeah.

Got to be careful about door prizes.

I always think about that when I get out of the car.

That’s all the ones that I can think of off the top of my head, Leslie.

Well, I’ll keep thinking of them if we come up with any more.

Thank you so much.

This is great.

I love this insider stuff, right?

Yes.

I was just riding along, and then it broke on me.

I have no idea why the chain is wrapped around the wheel like that.

Good stuff.

Leslie, thank you so much.

You’re welcome.

Yeah, have a great day.

All right, bye-bye.

Take care.

Bye.

If you’ve got workplace jargon or anything more that, you know, slang we’ve never heard about bikes, we’d love to hear it.

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