IBM Retiree Climbs Down From Bike Biz

MORGAN HILL, CA—After five years running the Morgan Hill Bike Shop, Ken Payne decided to pack it up once his IBM retirement benefits kicked in earlier this year. "As everybody knows, this is a slow year in the industry, but that has nothing to do with why I am selling. I am an IBM retiree and I am starting to draw on it this year. So I figured what the heck, I've been working long enough," Payne said. Although long employed with IBM as a self-described Mr. Fix-It, Payne's association with bikes began decades ago. "My first area of expertise was as a mechanic. I discovered long ago when I took my bikes in for repair, I would have to take them in five and six times because there was always some six-year-old kid trying to figure out what he was doing in the back. So I started doing my own repairs," he recalled. Soon Payne's residence was filled with professional tools, manuals and textbooks. "I didn't realize I was studying then, but looking back over highlighted texts I was," he said. Payne worked four years as a mobile bike doctor before buying the shop. "By the time I bought a shop I already knew what I was doing—which is not always the case in our industry," he said.