People rarely just stumble upon cycling as a sport. Which is odd, because so much of the sport is about time spent alone. There are those lonely solo training rides, or times when you are suffering in your basement on the trainer, or seemingly endless intervals where you’re only staring at your powermeter and all you can do is count down the seconds until you’re done. But for the most part, someone who is already deeply embedded in the sport brings you in to the fold. And they are often times the ones who teach you how to become an actual cyclist. Because cycling is a sport of intricacies, perhaps even marginal gains. Small things, that all add up to make something amazing. I remember riding with a group of masters when I was first learning who took it upon themselves to point out every mistake that I made. They made fun of me for my super short ankle socks--and I learned. They made fun of me for leaning my bike on the drive side when we stopped to pee--and I learned. They made fun of me for pulling off the pace line and leaving too much room to the guy next to me--and I learned. They also gave me the things that a young, fresh out of college student could never afford. Tires that still had some life in them when I was running on just threads, a bag of old team clothes so that I could stop wearing the same two pairs of $40 bibs over and over. They also gave me new skills. When I took too long changing a flat somebody pulled it out of my hands and did it themselves, I learned to be faster next time. I think about these little things every time I ride with a new cyclist. Every time a young kid is full of so much unbridled enthusiasm for racing and training that I want to strangle him, I think about that time that I was there, and how without amazing people to teach me it would have been that much harder for me to learn.
I feel like we’re in that same sort of spot now. While we know wheels, and we know attention to detail, and we know about the bike industry, starting a business is a new experience. And it’s really hard. Obviously we knew that it was going to be difficult, but there is a world of difference between theoretically knowing something and actually being knee deep in it. Luckily for us, this is where our friends have stepped in to help us. They’ve been like the hand on your butt from an older, more experienced cyclist as you’re about to get spit out the back of your first hard group ride. And we couldn’t be more thankful for those friends. Because we’ve been having our fair share of hurdles going through these beginning stages, but our friends are the ones that gave us the encouragement, the resources, and the motivation to keep moving forward. We’re still at the bottom of this super steep learning curve, but we’re starting to get there and we’re excited about it. We have some really great stuff coming up soon; like some pretty amazing builds, and we’re finally bringing in some stock too, to cut down on lead times. The buzz is growing and things are happening.
So thanks to all of the people that have helped us get this far. We’re incredibly thankful, and it is because of you that this is moving forward.
-Dan and Greg
à bloc wheelworks As hard as you can.