07/04/2023
This was just silly to shoot…
I was pretending to do work, you know, “sending emails”, “slapping the keyboard”, “shaking the tree”, “circling back around”, grown up stuff, really, I was just watching music videos on YouTube. Anyways, I digress.
called me and said, “Grab your camera gear, I want to hit the spine on my gravel bike.” Obviously, lots of questions, but I’ve been around Mitch long enough to just reply, “Splendid.” and follow his lead.
We pedaled our happy arses to the skatepark like a couple of 12 year old kids heading to grab the last light. Once we arrived to Roy City Skatepark we were immediately sassed by the local scooter kids, not only were they bullying us, but they wouldn’t share their GummyBears and refused to admit they had drugs to sell. Again, I digress.
Mitch took a couple laps to get the feel of his Topstone - the kids saw an old man that should be riding his commuter bike to his office at Corp America Dot Com not at the skatepark, but as soon as our boy Mitch got that twinkle in his eye and put his focus on the features the skatepark had to offer, the scooter kids, skate kids and V**e kids fell silent. Silence would only be broken by a cumulative “Daammmmnnnnn!!!” or skateboards being slapped on the deck in appreciation of this “old man” riding his gravel bike like a 20” BMX.
This is why I love bikes so damn much, it’s more than the finely engineered piece of machinery, it’s the culture, it’s the people, it’s the adventures and the interactions. Whether you’re on a backcountry adventure with no cell service, or pedaling to the skatepark to grab a lap before the sun goes down, you’re playing on your bike, you have that same physical freedom and most importantly, the mental freedom to let your imagination run as wild as that of a 12 year old.
I find myself very fortunate to still have friends that call me to “go play bikes”, I wouldn’t know what I’d do with out that.
says it best; “Get a bunch of bikes and ride them around with your friends…it’s the sh*t.”
