Every once in awhile I get chance to lean back in a chair. I stare up at the ceiling of half finished frames and think about all the bikes that have rolled out of the shop. Every bike has at least one story attached to it.

There are so many stories swapped over the sounds of filing lugs and discussions of music. Workshop participants always have stories about other projects they’ve done, travels they’ve been on, scary encounters by bike, or even just how they found out about the Studio. We tell stories about each part of the process, how we figured this out, and why we do something in a certain way… And every bike built in our Studio becomes it’s own story.

The diversity of the stories is endless. We’ve had 12 year olds and 78 year olds. We’ve had Navy lieutenants and Yoga instructors, loggers and high school teachers, grandmothers and triathletes and some pretty intense punk rockers.

Everyone  struggled and triumphed at some point in the process. Each bike build has a bit of drama, a key ingredient to a good story, and something that makes it memorable. We’ve been so fortunate to have been a part of so many of these stories.

Some of the participants in the workshop have kept the building aspect of their story going… Building bikes on their own with the kits, becoming volunteers and then instructors in the workshops… We’ve even turned the San Francisco workshop over to a couple of  enthusiastic and competent builders, and one is coming to Ghana to help train the workers in the factory.

Some participants have taken their bikes on long tours across countries and continents, some commute to work, some ride with their kids, some show them off to their friends, some ride with their loved ones on the weekends… it’s always fun for us to see people again and chat about their bikes and to trade new stories and plans for the future (which are types of stories, I guess).

All these individual stories have been woven together and it’s created a nice community of builders, all telling their stories and spreading the message wherever they are.

The bulk of our business is starting to come from referrals. We’ve been flattered by the media attention, but it’s so much better to have a self seeding community of bike makers, storytellers and friends.