The Fire Trail to Greatness

Dream #2

… to build a NPO, building bicycles and donating them to low income families. Dream 2 will be phase 2. Come on come on come on, we can do this!

“The Zen of Mountain Biking and Bicycle Maintenance”

Bicycle maintenance is not about the road less traveled or the outcome. It is about the full spectrum between beginning and end where success is the nature of careful and patient productivity. 

As an over analytical kind of guy, I’m certainly aware of our natural tendencies to tiredly race through life, eyes set on the finish line. After all, what is living but living to die - logically speaking? What is an essay but the grade we receive? What is a Bart train ride but our exit point? What is work but our month’s salary? 

There are three things I’ve learned since I’ve fallen in love with bicycles (Because good things always come in threes while in couples and in multitudes are either thoughtless loves or over exaggerated ones). 

As the stolen title states, the first lesson is Zen, to become one with time and place (a bit of Einstein theory if you ask me). The crowd may be jeering, chattering, and exploiting a once to reverent atmosphere, but having a calm sensibility brings peace - not to your surrounding - but to your perception of your surrounding. Zen is patience, focus, and quite easily, indulgence. It’s not that we ignore the talk or the sizzle of brazing metal. It is that we’ve come to terms with it, and we find a circular balance. This object makes noise. I am an object, as well, corresponding with its time and place. It cannot choose to be silent, but I can, so as if to appease nature, while this object makes noise, I will listen. And listen only. 

Number two, to quantify qualities, is sociability. Surprisingly, socializing is accredited by our unique techniques of listening. I can hear Mozarts concertos, but if I had not studied music theory, I couldn’t begin to summarize its complexities. How we listen and what we choose to hear is relevant to how we respond and what respond to. When a bicycle is tweaking, emanating squeaks with every pedal, what I fix is in direct relation with what I heard. When I turn my handle, does it squeak? If I stop pedaling, does it seize? If it doesn’t then well, my friend, it must be the crank set. I’ve located a problem by listening, and I act accordingly. To listen, to much importance, thus IS socializing. Another example of balance. 

Lastly, respect. If I am truly one with my work, and if I am truly listening then naturally, I am respecting an object or person as an extension of my being. Respect - speaks for itself in multitudes only others you encounter will be able to help you realize. Through appreciation and love. 

Idea

Glowing tree root
Tanks
Hangers
Infiltrated walls
Exhibit design
Bike Frame hand rails
Repair centered floor plan
… design design design 

China Camp, Marin - Trail Review #1

There are a lot of fire trails in California, but none have quite a ride like Marin’s China camp! It offers you all that an intermediate mountain biker dreams of. This trail has minor obstacles like protruding tree roots and large rocks (4-5 inches across), easy uphill climbs with wind-in-your-face yet controllable descents, and curve after curve after curve! An intermediate ride is an intermediate ride. Don’t expect big drops. If you expect a semi-pro to pro ride, you’ll be highly disappointed. 

Obviously, if you mountain bike, you don’t ride for elegance. At least, I don’t. I ride for the adrenaline rush, the gamble between coming out physically exhausted or skin torn beaten, and the short lived dominance over nature. Finishing a ride, dropping my foot to graze the ground after 2-3 hours of non-stop peddling is a bit like a nonverbal statement, “I’ve tamed this beast.” Can you imagine Leutze’s George Washington crossing the Delaware? Yea, it’s a little like that, and for that sweet decrescendo of a moment - just as epic.  

Pros and Cons

Pros - One of a kind. My description above is pretty much it. Aesthetics and medium technical, you get what you ride for. I haven’t bombed the trail in rain yet, so hopefully, when it does, I can give you the heads up on that!

Cons - This is a single, one way track. Meaning, the trail is narrow, and it doesn’t loop you back around to where you started. Some bikers like to avoid disaster and ride the paved streets around China Camp, but MOST riders will ride the trail back, so if you’ve ridden this trail before, you’re constantly on red alert riding to and from. I’m telling you, if you like to clip in, you’re going to have a heart attack when you see a rider coming your way at even 5mph. 

Advice: Don’t clip in! Some partitions are narrower than others, and riding past each other isn’t always an option (like it was a serious option in the first place!), so stopping and putting a foot on the side of the hill or a tree is your best bet. Of course, for an experienced rider, slowing down to a slow crawl but keeping enough momentum to stay up will allow you and the opposite rider to roll pass each other. Still, if your handle bars tap, it’s all downhill from there. Literally. 

Well, I hope this helped a little, guys! 

Catch you on the fire trails!
-Adrian 

Keys to Success

“Call me Ishmael”

It’s time everyone! The rest of November and the bulk of December are dedicated to scouring the greater parts of SF for our shop and restaurant’s home sweet home, and I tell ya, I’m pretty pumped! I’m looking for transparency, high traffic, and just a simple good vibe! We’ve worked very hard the past few months recruiting, researching, and planning - and it looks like we’re ready to take the first step into materializing the written into solid concrete (or in our case, Carbon fiber!). I’ve come across a lot of skeptics in the past few months, but I didn’t let that dishearten our resolve. I’ve gotten everything from “really?” to “what do you know about starting a business?” And to be honest, it did scar me for a while, and for a long time I lived by the words “fear is so much greater than I;” however, times are changing. I have made great friends, and I’ve had greater adventures the past few months that have improved my security. With that said, I remain truly inspired and motivated. The release of our name will be coming soon, so look out for that! Love, Adrian