How my love for bikes happened, twice.

Bikes have been in my life since I remember.  When I was a kid, we used to go to a huge park in Mexico City where there was a paved track for bikes only. I would go there with my family and we would rent a bike. We rented because we didn’t have enough space in the little apartment where we used to live, plus bikes are expensive so renting was way more affordable. 

After that I got a bike which I really loved.It was a gift from my aunt, she was my mom’s sister. - My mom forgot over the years how to ride bikes and I don’t think I ever saw my dad riding a bike. No memories of it - My bike was heavy, but very comfortable as it had a huge seat in the shape of an L, it was like a chopper bike. Alongside my friends, I used to explore to so many places. I was always the last one because my heavy bike didn’t help plus  it didn’t have gears and yes… I was a bit overweight. 

Years passed and I moved on to explore other sports. I completely forgot about the joy of riding bikes. In fact, there was a deep fear that lived with me for many years, bikes = pain. I think I felt too many times. Not sure why, but that stayed with me for a while. 

Around my 27th birthday, I moved in with one of my best friends who was into motorcycles. He was the one who planted the seed and started to push me little by little to get a motorcycle. At the beginning, the answer was always the same, “No, If I can’t ride bicycles, I can’t ride a motorcycle” but a year later, he succeeded. I got my first motorcycle. It is crazy to think that I was riding a thing that had an engine, but I was still afraid of bicycles.

Falling in love 

Important decisions in my life took me to Toronto to study English. While being there, I met the love of my life and who in one of our first dates asked me to join her for a bike ride through downtown Toronto and a path that’s called the Waterfront, next to lake Ontario. I couldn’t say no, but I was definitely scared, nervous and at the same time, I didn’t want to look like a coward in front of her saying to not a bike ride. Because I lived in Mexico and I was visiting her, I didn’t have a bike with me so she asked her sister if we could borrow her bike. So, I was there and in front of me there was a road bike. If I was scared of bikes, a bike with skinny tires was nightmare come true. How can those tires grab onto the floor! Omg! 

I don’t know if it was this dreamy situation where I was riding with this amazing woman or if was something else but suddenly I found myself having so much fun on the bike. I don’t think I have words to describe the moment and what I was doing with the bike while I was riding with her but suddenly, I was a bike rider again and in that moment, that thing with two wheels made me feel so alive. 

As soon as I went back to Mexico City, a friend was selling his mountain bike and without asking anything or knowing anything about mountain bikes, I got myself my first mountain bike.  

Here you can see it, I think it was from Walt-mart, and when I paid $100 bucks for it I was like… WTF!  This bike is going to be with me forever. I’m not spending an amount like that for a bike ever again. Ha! Little did I know. 

I think that’s enough for this post where I would say that I found myself reconnecting with its core, going through a very intense period to become authentic, free, and start believing in myself. This period of my life was the beginning of what today is called Ollin Hub. 

Time to work on the next post. 

Thanks for reading. 

Ollin Hub

Bike specs

Frame: Turbo DS 55B 

Year: Unknown

Type: Trail 

Fork: SR Suntour 80mm

Shock: A spring with a cover (LOL)