In the end, we are the stories we tell: the black bear that chased its cubs down the road in front of us story, the I got boxed in at the finish story, the then the ranger told us there was no where to get water for thirty miles story. Much has been made about cycling’s secret handshakes, its racing culture, its sharp-jawed elite participants and its vanity. (All of which, to be fair, is one pillar of what makes pedaling great.) But those aren’t the whole deal.
On the whole, cycling is about the experience of moving. That a human pedaling a bike is the most efficient method of animal locomotion- three times the speed of walking with five times the efficiency – offers a perspective that quite literally nothing else in the world can match. It’s not possible to see more with less energy. The act of pedaling, itself, is a tale.
Furthermore, a rider lives more in the time that they pedal. Unencumbered by any enclosed space, held aloft, riding is a platform, a way to take in more. Ride 90 miles in the rain and your understanding of rain changes. Pedal for three days with someone and how they trade time in-and-out of the wind will give you real insight into the fabric of their character. Pedal from pavement to dirt road to two-track to a forgotten game path in a lonely wood and the memoir of a landscape writes itself under your tires in progressive chapters.
The goal of Velocio is to create clothing that improves the experience of riding, to get at the stories told by cycling more efficiently, more comfortably, more absolutely. We do this by marrying technological progress in apparel with the natural progress of pedaling. We celebrate design that adds to the conversation, that says “hello” when you pass by and that encourages a little more so here’s what happened with every ride.