Riding bikes…
So I grew up around bikes…my father worked at bike shops and rode every kind of bike you can imagine – road sport, mountain, unicycle, race tandems, etc – so I was always around it, hanging at bike shops, doing the BMX thing, freestyle thing (I had the lime green Predator with the white mags), Mountain bike thing huge throughout high school even when I was skateboarding like 4-5 hours a day, etc. Then I started ‘never not working’ and I stopped almost everything except getting out on my skateboard every so often…kind of sad. I’m happy to say that about a week or two ago I switched it up!! I started researching this whole track bike thing last year…straight up fixed gear, no brakes, intense zen biking. Researched a bike I thought I’d dig…and went for it. After about 4 weeks of hustling trying to find a dealer here in the Midwest who didn’t think I was goofy for wanting a track bike for the road…I convinced my father to drive all the way from Chicago to Indianapolis to pick up my new Bianchi Pista Concept – then drive it all the way up here to Grand Rapids…thanks dad! I can honestly say after riding every day (except one rain out) for the past week or two that its one of the better investments I’ve made. I am totally hooked on the whole concept. Maybe one of the more ‘visceral’ ways to ride a bike? I love it…I even raced in the downtown Grand Rapids Alley Cat (whats up Neil) after riding fixed for only about 3-4 days – sorry, I’m kind of proud of that. So yeah…I love it, I’m hooked, and I’m already worried about what the hell I’m going to do when it snows. Is it hipster? Sure a bit…but its also amazingly fun in a perfect sized city like Grand Rapids – yes, we have big hills. Check pictures from our local race scene at the link below…