COVID.
Of course, COVID. COVID is changing everything.
It changed my world. I haven’t had it (yet), but my career-life has been impacted.
It is a good thing to be reminded that working for other people carries with it a heaping lack of control. So, because I can, I am bringing my version of extremely high-end bicycle mechanicalisms (and solipsisms) out of mothballs, and into Napa Valley.
Since moving to St. Helena, my partner and I have been put through the compounding eyes of the compounding needles of a pandemic and its crushing of the economy, Napa Valley wildfires, and a whole lot of civil unrest. All of that is behind us now. Thank goodness.
We moved to St. Helena because we are not urban people. We do love convenience, restaurants, and the constant potential to have a great time with friends. We also love the outdoors, and demand to live close to them and in them, if that is an option, which it stopped being an option for almost a year. (2020/21New Years Eve in vacant San Francisco was more than a little different from years passed.) Napa Valley is a great mélange of the things humans can do when they get artful about it. All of that enological mastery is nestled into a valley with every kind of outdoor pursuit, right outside our door. It is better to live with a mountain at the end of the driveway than it is to have a Safeway there instead. Not knocking Safeway, they get a lot of our money. But, the natural beauty of the not-totally-tamed Napa and Sonoma wine regions is more nourishing for the mind and spirit than much of anything else these days.
So, cycling.. Oh, and the best wine on Earth.
I don’t know how to make wine. Beer? Yes. Wine? No.
Bikes? I know quite a lot about that subject.
Over time, my fair reader, you will come to see that you can trust me with any of your bicycle-related needs, and can help outfit you for everything from commuting in an urban environment, to bikepacking in remote places, road racing, mountain biking (fast or slow), or really any application. I have been at this bike thing my entire life. I have done most of the things a bicycle-centric person can do on/with two wheels.
The ‘shop’ that is coming together will not be like any I have seen before. It will be a service-based business, to be grown into a full brick-and-mortar business in St. Helena, CA. As High Hill Cycles comes together, you will see a different non-corporate-bike shop focused on bikes that pair well with the best handmade wines. Handmade will be a recurring theme. California produces some of the best bicycles from some of the best handmade shops anywhere. High Hill Cycles will showcase their works while adding some of our own into the mix.
Limiting myself to 500 words. So, more to come.
Thanks!
Michael