Cycling
Reading the heading of this page might have awoken a deep disgust within you, especially if you live in the United States, but I'll ask you to suspend your prejudice for now.
Beginnings
I don't remember learning to ride a bike, but it must have been around 2010 or 2011. My first bike was a nice trek float boy's which would have been manufactured around 2010. It was very simple: 16" wheels, single speed, rear brake only. My best memory of this bike specifically was one day I was biking around my street with my mom. It was raining lightly and we were racing from the end of the cul de sac to our driveway, I had pulled a significant lead on my mom. I looked back over my shoulder to gloat over my immenent victory, I looked back in front of me and realized I was headed straight for the rear driver quarter panel of my neighbors 6.4 f250. The next several hours were spent in the chair at the dentist, and as he extracted the slivers of my shattered incisors I reflected on the importance of humility in victory. Cars was my favorite movie at the time and I thought about how the character chick hicks was so unlikeble partially because of his pride and unsportsmanlike behavior when celebrating his victory. I had a lot of time over the next 3 years to look at my tooth gap in the mirror and promise myself I'd keep my eyes ahead.
My next bike was an early 2000s trek mt220 that my parents bought me second hand. It had 24" wheels, v brakes, 3x7 gears, and even front suspension. I think I was eight when I received this bike and I loved it. I don't have any stories to tell about this one, but I know it was ridden extensively around my neighborhood and at local parks. Eventually both the mt220 and the float would be passed to my younger siblings, who enjoyed them for a time before they were donated or resold on craigslist.
I think I must have been ten when I received my specialized hardrock. My parents spent $300 on craigslist for it and I remember being shocked they would buy me something so nice. It had 26" wheels, a black and white paint job, disc brakes, 3x trigger shifters, and a rockshox spring fork. I remember taking it off tiny dirt jumps with my best friend, and riding it to my first crush's house. It came at a time in my life where I started to care more about my image, and riding a bike seemed childish so I regretably stopped riding that bike around age twelve.
The Dark Ages
I only rode a bike a few times during this period. A few times on family trips, a few ebikes, I had a motorized bicycle for a while (yikes), and I rode my dirtbike frequently for a few years. But yeah - during this period from ~2018-2025 I basically didn't ride real bikes at all :(. It wasn't an intentional choice, but my hardrock was much too small for me, and getting a new bike was just something I never thought of. I got my driver's license and I started to feel a lot of frustration with cyclists. "Why are they so slow? Why are they always in the way? I swear I'm running over the next one I see!". Thankfully his phase didn't last.
Revival (2025-present)
My first quarter of college came with a lot of adjustments. I was homesick, having trouble connecting, and struggled with having a lot of empty time. As I spent more time at school and saw more and more people on bikes I began to think about bikes again. Specifically I wanted a mountain bike. My school is located in the san francisco bay area, the historic birthplace of mountain biking, and even has bike trails on campus.
In January 2025 I bought my first bike with my own money. Using savings I bought a very lightly used 2023 Norco Shore 1. The Shore was a huge freeride rig, and I've since sold it. Simply overkill for my skill level, but when I bought it I was instantly hooked. Flying over chunky trails in the woods reminded me of riding my dirtbike in high school, and it was great exercise. I made a few new friends and immediately felt more integrated, I was taking advantage of living in one of the world's premier MTB desinations. I could ride my bike out of my building and be at a trailhead in 10 minutes!
Later the same school year I was spending a weekend with my dad and grandma and my dad gifted me his college road bike. I was a little unsure the first time I rode it, but it quickly turned into a fixture of my daily life. This 2004 Trek 1200SL was blue and grey was a throwback to the bikes of my childhood, and the drop bars, high gears, and 25mm tires allowed me to go faster than ever before. This mean machine allowed me to get to classes and work faster than I could walk and while feeling so much freer than I did on the bus. I could also explore my town and get places with relative ease. Biking everywhere did wonders for my mental health, and I started hanging around the bike coop (my school is actually the best) where I met a lot of new people and started to learn how to work on my bike. This was when I really started to fall in love with biking.
Surly and the Steel Era
Soon after I began to hear whispers about how steel bikes with big tires ride amazing. I also desperately wanted to join my school's bikepacking club for a few weekend trips. Both these notions pushed me to make an irresponsible purchase on fb marketplace and picked up my 2009 surly long haul trucker. I'll probably make a whole seperate page for this bike so I won't say much here, but I love this bike. It finished what the 1200sl had started, transforming me from an occasional MTBer to a real bike nerd. I sold my Norco and my trek, I just wasn't riding them as much as my surly. Since then I've picked up a beautiful 1993 cannondale m1000 which I've added a surly troll fork and v brakes to. I also got my hands on a really unique 1993 saracen kili flyer fs, with super light tange prestige steel that I'm in the process of restoring - I'm really excited about that bike. I've done a lot more party pace road and gravel riding, as well as some light touring and I just love all of that.
Thanks for reading if you got this far, I'll either update this page or make a little blog in the future.