The Agate

I typically address my customers’ awesomeness in a rather general way, but I am going to gush a little bit here. The fella who commissioned this bike was one delightful surprise after the other. He is a mild-mannered and soft-spoken young neurologist just finishing his residency living on the East Coast. When he called to ask if I would build his bike, he confessed that he wasn’t an expert on bike mechanics or bike design, but he knew he wanted a Sweetpea. That is all anybody needs to know.

As we began to work together, he asked astute questions and familiarized himself with the ins and outs of high end road bikes. While most of us can appreciate when a bike “just feels right,” his intellectual curiosity led him to know the relative merits of all the components and design features of his bike. Incidentally, I asked questions about fMRIs, as I dream of performing experiments on my husband and dog, but will not be allowed to operate one anytime soon.

By the time we were done, this gentleman’s bike had come to resemble to me the perfect agate. We had cracked open a modest exterior to produce the bold sparkle that awaited on the inside. The pinks and purples, which at first might have seemed incongruous, now make perfect sense. They compliment his nature perfectly, and it is a huge compliment to me that I was asked to build it.