The Drevil made me do it

Drevil, aka rickyd, in full race mode
(photo by Joe Foley) “Soooo, you’re into mountain biking eh,” Jo asks mischievously, “you should meet my boyfriend, Ricky.” A few emails and phone calls later, I’m driving into the parking lot at Wakefield to meet up with some new friends for a ride. There was Marlan, Leslie, Jo, Gina, Ricky, and myself. Yup, six pinoys on bikes. Later on in the ride, we ran into two more. What possessed eight Filipinos to show up at Wakefield on the same day, I don’t know, but the adobo vibe was strong and I was eating it up. I was just getting into biking at the time and had just graduated to clipless pedals. After a few laps around the parking lot to make sure I had the clipping out thing down, I stop to check out Ricky’s bike. Hmm, a no-name bike with only one gear. What a crappy bike, I think to myself, as I throw a leg over my $250 aluminum hardtail.

Life went on and I kept on riding and eventually got myself a new full-suspension bike. I thought little of that crappy no-name bike with one gear until I met Ricky again at a bike demo at Wakefield a few months later. I was showing off my new ride to him and couldn’t understand why he didn’t seem to be too impressed with it. After all, my new bike had front and rear shocks, 27 speeds, and set me back $1500, and he was still riding that no-name one-speed -- and this time it didn’t even have any shocks on it. “You paid what for that bike?” I ask in disbelief. “Well,” he says, “a grand for the frame, but it was custom made by Matt Chester…blah blah titanium blah. And that’s how it all started.

For the next few months, I’m getting dropped by this guy on every ride. Not only Ricky, but every one of his singlespeeder friends, I notice, are incredibly fast and, when they’re not making fun of my lack of riding skills, pretty cool. I got my first singlespeed bike and never rode a gearie again (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Just recently I put myself down on the waiting list for a Jones. It’ll be a rigid-specific 29er and it will be beautiful. When my turn comes, I’m gonna ask to not have any stickers on the frame. Crappy no-name bike with only one gear, indeed.