Like a race or really any hard ride, bike building has a rhythm to it. There are times you hammer – pardon the pun – and times you sit in and conserve energy. In a lot of ways, one informs the other. We ride hard as a group, after work on Wednesday nights. We sit in a little, at the office on Thursdays. By Friday morning’s trail ride, we’re ready to rock again.
On cold, wet mornings like today, there is a calm deliberation to our work. The factory is quiet as folks roll in for the day. Coffee gets contemplative as we size up the work to be done. And it’s nice to have that little bit of serenity that comes in the afterglow of a hard ride. It helps you make the right decisions. In these quiet times, you hatch your best ideas.
As the afternoon slides toward us, the pace picks up. Finished frames find boxes. Delivery trucks pull in and pull out.
Whether you’re working or riding together, pushing and testing each other every day, the pace rises and falls with energy and inspiration. And over time the best always comes out of each of us as we fall into the rhythm of the work, and in large part that’s why we’re so lucky to be able to do what we do.