ABC Bicycles | Trek Bicycles St. Pete

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I've been riding bikes all of my life. Big wheels and trikes came first, then a bicycle with training wheels. One of my earliest memories and one of my most proud accomplishments is the day I learned to ride my bike without the training wheels. When I was in grade school, everyone rode a BMX but I had a Huffy, so my Dad helped me strip it down to the frame, clean all the parts (in Gasoline!), spray-paint the frame (Black, of course), and re-build the whole thing into a new, rad BMX machine, complete with hard plastic seat and frame pads. I've been working on my own bikes ever since.

When I was in middle school I remember being obsessed with riding the entire length of a local recreation trail that ran along a canal and I set out one summer day with some food and water in a backpack and accomplished the ride, which may have been something like 20 miles. Pretty good for a kid on his Dad's 10-speed!

In college, I used a bike as transportation and then I met a friend who introduced me to RAGBRAI, which is an annual 7-day tour across Iowa, and I quickly became a road cycle enthusiast. I went on the ride again the following year and this time I showed up with a Trek road bike, padded shorts, gloves, cycling shoes and toe-clips. Over the years I slowly graduated to racks and panniers and ultimately to the fully-loaded, self-contained touring setup I ride today.

I've now been going on that tour every summer for the past thirty years and it's what I live for. It's a rare occasion to get to ride a fully-loaded touring machine (250+ pounds of gear, human, and bicycle!), and even more rare that you get to ride it in a pack of other fully-loaded touring bikes clipping along at 20+ mph! The freedom and exhilaration of bike touring is unlike anything else in the world, and I love helping others to discover the adventures that a bicycle can provide. I am very happy to have found a home at ABC Bicycles and am extremely proud to represent the Trek brand!