Last weekend I rode the latest edition of the “Meet Your Maker" tour, a pedaling expedition to the workshops of some of the Bay Area's finest frambuilders and component manufacturers. This regular series of rides was started last year by a tight-knit group of framebuilders who rode together regularly but wanted to show their customers and friends the sense of passion, collaboration, and camaraderie that defines their local scene. The rides are kept at a “party pace,” bike business and engineer talk is kept to a minimum, and the idea is simply to show people a good time. Based on the smiles on peoples’ faces on Saturday, the Meet Your Maker tour has definitely stayed true to that original idea.
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| Nearly 100 riders had gathered in Paragon's parking lot by 9 a.m. |
The ride started at nine a.m. at Paragon Machine Works’ shop in Richmond, CA. Mark Norstad, the founder of Paragon, showed up at eight with coffee and donuts and gave the early birds a tour of Paragon’s machining operation. Paragon supplies framebuilders with the small parts that are difficult for them to produce on their own, including dropouts, cable stops, bottom bracket shells, and other parts. They are known for their innovative in-house designs of dropouts with integrated belt drive splitters, for example. Mark walked us through the whole production and showed us all the milling machines, including one that was making new chainstay yokes with clearance for 29x3.0” monster tires.
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| The milling machine that makes chainstay yokes to fit large-volume 29er tires. |
Soon more people started to show up in the parking lot. Most would grab a coffee and start chatting with the others waiting around, while other groups would take the chance to look around Paragon’s workshop. Cars pulled in full of employees from Paul Component Engineering in Chico, Soulcraft and White Industries in Petaluma, Retrotec/Inglis in Napa, Pass & Stow in Oakland, and so on. Various groups of friends started showing up en masse all on bikes. Before long there were nearly 100 people gathered. After a short introduction and route briefing by Mark, we pulled out into the streets of Richmond.
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| Paragon's founder Mark Norstad (left) and Pass and Stow founder Matt Feeney (right). |
We pedaled to the Bay Trail and followed it all the way to the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge, which was recently rebuilt with a bike and pedestrian path that reaches almost all the way to Yerba Buena island, halfway across the Bay. The path has been very popular among cyclists and pedestrians since it opened, although it stops just after the bridge's tower and does not connect to the island yet. The plan is for the path to be connected with Yerba Buena and Treasure Island in the next few years and eventually span all the way to San Francisco, which is sure to revolutionize the commutes of many cyclists.
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| The new Bay Bridge's bike path has been a very popular destination for cyclists and runners. |
At the end of the path, we stopped for a while to take photos and marvel at the deconstruction of the old bridge, which looked very old and run down from the vantage point of the gleaming new bridge.
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| The views of the old bridge next to the new bridge shows a striking contrast. |
As we were chatting and resting at the end of the bridge a few people stopped by to marvel at Neil's Rohloff, belt-drive, and Schlumpf equipped Retrotec cruiser I borrowed for the ride.
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| Neil's Retrotec equipped with a Rohloff SPEEDHUB 500/14, Gates belt drive, and Schlumpf Innovations Speed Drive. |
We coasted the fun descent down the bridge and made landfall back in West Oakland before continuing south. West Oakland is one of the most poverty-ridden and at times dangerous places in the Bay Area, and some of the out-of-towners on the ride commented on the surprise of seeing so much graffiti and garbage on the streets. We didn’t know exactly where we were being led, but after a few turns into back alleys we stopped at a nondescript industrial building.
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| Riders filing into Pass & Stow's nondescript West Oakland workshop. |
The building turned out to be the home base and workshop of Pass & Stow, a front rack company run by Matt Feeney. Matt led us all inside to his workshop, which he shares with other artists and welders. He treated us to chips and salsa and showed all that were interested how he designs and welds his racks.
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| Riders check out Pass & Stow's rack-building setup. |
After a short rest, we headed out again and rode through Jack London Square to the Fruitvale area of Oakland and crossed the bridge to Alameda. Some of the group took a wrong turn at this point and our herd was thinned out for a few minutes, but they rejoined us just as we crossed back into Oakland. After an exhilarating ride under the runway at the Oakland airport we wound up at Oyster Point, a network of bike paths with beautiful views of the whole bay.
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| Oyster Point provides views of the entire bay. |
We ended the ride at Drakes Brewery, where most riders got a pint and a burger from the food truck in the parking lot. I found some old friends and ran into some other people I knew from various bike shops in the area. We all chatted for hours, catching up and comparing our latest bike adventures. We took the time to plan some future rides in the next few weeks and exchanged phone numbers to set up routes and dates. Eventually, I pedaled to the nearby BART subway station with a few friends and got the first Richmond train back to Paragon.
All in all, the Meet Your Maker tour is a relatively new but incredibly promising part of the Bay Area bike culture. While some group rides can be too intimidating, too aggressive in traffic, or too party-oriented, the pace and feel of this ride were very welcoming and friendly. I would encourage anyone at all interested in bikes to subscribe to Meet Your Maker’s newsletter to keep an eye out for the next ride!
-Phil
We'd love to hear stories and see pictures of your Rohloff and Schlumpf equipped bikes in action! Send them to adventures@cyclemonkey.com
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