Grimy Handshake

Prior to my self-imposed exile to a tiny mountain town in the year 2000, I lived in a
mid-sized California coastal community, where I felt like I was part of something happening. Before that, I had lived in a larger coastal California city, where I had spent a few years going from enthusiastic new mountain bike rider into completely rabid evangelical cyclist. Relocating from the city to the mid-sized community, I found myself completely immersed in cycling culture. I worked as a mechanic in a bike shop, I raced mountain bikes in the summer, cyclocross in the winter, and I wrote about riding and racing bikes. My friends were bike riders and racers, my etire social circle was defined by bicycles.