And the rest is history…

I truly wish I could’ve seen your face the first time you heard the name HotSalad Bicycles. It makes me laugh every time. But then, a lot of things are a ‘hot salad’ if you think about it. But here’s what HotSalad means to me..

I was teaching at the United Bicycle Institute with a run of classes scheduled around the holidays. One such Thanksgiving was an open invite to all of my students and friends; past and present. 

My apartment at the time was incredibly small and had an estimated (likely actual) one foot square of actual counterspace. As a Filipino-American pinay; family, friends, and food are the most important ways to show our love and care. It would be blasphemous to let anyone leave before having fourths and without leftovers, so there was an amazing amount of food being cooked in that kitchen. You can see where this is going right?

Needless to say, then, that a plastic bowl was set on a burner and said burner was accidentally turned on. As the smoke arose from the bottom of the bowl, a student snagged it off the burner and ran out the front door screaming “HotSalad! HotSalad!” knocking their head on the extremely low doorway in that small, small apartment. And amid gales of laughter the memory was born.

In fact, it started a new Friendsgiving tradition that continues to this day. If you’re in town, especially around the holidays. I’ll never let you go hungry, roll through!

But my sincerest wish for HotSalad Bicycles is that you create memories like this.

That this bicycle will give you that shit-eating grin and tear-inducing laughter, that the community and the space you find as a result of riding becomes this incredible core memory. That the beauty you find, chasing adventure(gravel, road, circular, mountainous, etc.) and as a result of the company you keep on your bicycle, is just as cherished as this memory of mine. And that you start to pass that on to the people you meet too.