like probably a lot of other people, i was a bmx kid. i never raced but i’d constantly being doing stupid shit with my friends that invariably involved breaking my bike or breaking myself. there was a bmx track a few miles from my house, so we’d sneak in there after-hours and ride on the track until the park rangers caught on and kicked us out. i still have the old mongoose freestyle (i think it was actually a flatland bike) frame in my garage at home.

then, predictably, came my foray into mountain biking with my 18-speed mongoose hardnose. i beat the shit out of that thing for many years, though it only got used in the summer ’cause it sucked riding the local trails when it was cold. we did try, however. i eventually “upgraded” to a haro escape (suspension!!!) and proceeded to beat the shit out of that thing too. i broke off the rear derailleur hanger whilst on an urban freeride with my friends in new haven. that kind of got me out of biking for a while and most of college because i didn’t have a bike to ride and pretty much walked or skated everywhere.

i’ll never forget this. august 2005; my friend dan calls me and says he’s at a tag sale with this road bike that he’s going to buy for me for $1. it was an old 80s motobecane 10-speed with the front derailleur removed. i rode that thing the 3 miles to campus EVERY DAY until one day when the front wheel fell off and i bent the fork. i didn’t save the frame or anything because i knew very little about bicycle mechanics at the time. the next summer i bought my first for-real road bike, a 70s libertas ten-speed. it is probably one of the most beautiful bikes i have ever seen. it’s hanging in my kitchen right now with a stripped bottom bracket shell

i rode a fixed gear for the first time in june 2007 and immediately fell in love with it. i moved to boston in july and built a fixie from an old motobecane frame (which some of you may have seen before i bent the dropouts). i’m now on my third and loving every second.