It was not so long ago that I had a hot pencil about this trip and this new friendset. Now, you see that it has been a long time, because that was Vuelta, and now it is CX, but here is what happened:
I was thinking when I got to LA, “Great. I have worked so hard for the vacation. I will make some time for things I love. Hot Planks©, Quinoa 3 ways, Ice Yoga™, and a bike riding time. And of course, the Accu-tennis®.
So how good is it that I have sent my things for these activities in advance? “It is great! My things are on the way!” I had pre-talks with Spenckxer, founder of Ritte, about borrowing a bike. “We could maybe even ride together as new friends,” was a suggestion of mine. Spencer was amenable, so that became my plan. And my things were on the way, which would really help.
To get ready for this fun, I went by Ritte when my hurraches were on the ground in the West Los MANgeles. I wanted to meet them. I want to prove that they are not just an internet joke, but when initially I broke turf in the shop of the lion of Los Flangeles, no one was around. I was instead greeted by this:
I was afraid of touching it, really. It looked scare, but then I saw this:
Management was not around, and I thought it may all be a scam. But then I found the goods. I caught Spenckxer cold-handed, like a kid pretending to do homework while reading Rouleur. He quickly snatched up the seatpost and the fine line 3M roll and feigned craft. As he was sighting the length of the post, toiling over the alignment of his border masque while simultaneously ignoring the measuring tool next to him, I knew this was my guy.
And we spoke. We spoke of the state of industry. Do not tell Spencer that his job must be so fun. Tell him that you appreciate the fact that, despite heaps of industry ice, he is making fun road bikes. Tell him that, even though the road industry is still kind of a sore dick, you really appreciate the fact that he keeps his head in the fun with his nose pressed firmly to his stem in pursuit of sexybiking greatness. Tell him that he’s lucky he has such a great dedicated crew of like-minded fast-as-hell hotfolkz breaking the pucker of style on the daily and keeping things legitimate. Spencer knows. So does Butters.
Seeing this pin-drop excellent shop inhabited by the craft-result of smart fun was refueling. The neue-pillars of industry spoke quietly through beautiful work here as the tinny pop of MF Doom begged from an abandoned laptop, and hotbikes lay around like open bags of Skittles. They are tasting the rainbow around here.
You really need to know that Ritte wins so big. You can not shake a letterpressed custom order form at the fact that these guys love a bike more than any custom-blown-X-taper-seatstay-made-in-china-secret-proprietary fool ever did. Ever. That sentence was rough, but here is the juice: if you want a bike that is hot (industry demands that now, and few, few, few deliver), and a bike that is fast (this is not very hard to do now. we have computers and over a century of mfrg data), then there is no reason to scoff. Ritte is sexy, Ritte is affordable. Those two purchasing criteria have never come together so well.
And my things were on the way, so we made a nice plan to roadbike sexyrace early the next morning.
But then I find out they’re stuck on a train car. So I axe Spencer what to do. He should know because he has a nice bike company. So we worked it out, and we met, and we went on our bikes, and my jaw was on the stem because 7 miles from this paradise of sexybike making facility is a paradise of sexybike riding magicland. WHAT. Spencer got me kitted and Ritted, despite my extreme effort to FOR ONCE not be the dude that everyone is so glad they brought extra ___ for. We met Bobby, who is some sort of Jedi-Architect-Shaman, and the two made coyote/puma food out of me, but the trail was oh-so-fresh, and the escape was par excellence maximo.
And so as relationships are formed, I was reminded again that you need brothers in cycling. I learned that folks like the Superissimo, prepared as they may try to be, know nothing. There are players fighting daily to preserver the fun. So, thanks Ritte. I had macho fun.
And now we worked together. 100 years of Ritte stylish designing curated by Snakehawk.
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