Cycling Weekly: Philly Bike Expo
An excerpt from the article by Elisabeth Reinkordt about the SRAM x PBE Inclusivity and Diversity Scholarship Recipients.
“I want HotSalad to be about that sh$t-eating grin on your face at the end of the day because you just had a great day on the bike.”
B Vivit (she/they) of HotSalad Bicycles just wants you to ride bikes. Whatever type of bike it is, wherever you’re going, she wants you to feel free when you’re riding. For her, bikes were a way of finding and connecting with her people, and she hopes to bring this feeling to her clients, too.
“I have a stupid amount of fun on a fixed gear, my road bike will forever be my standby, but I really feel like mountain is where my heart is going, and so I’m really digging into it,” she says. “When I ride, I want to feel free, and I want to feel welcome.”
Vivit loves ideation, laughing that she had seven different designs before settling on the titanium klunker she brought to the PBE. “The bike just kind of grew as I was building it,” she says. “I wanted to make a bike that has gaps in it, to go foraging” —perhaps the next bike in the build queue— ”but then realized I didn’t have the time to make that happen right now, because I would need to fabricate parts that don’t exist yet.”
That is not to say this bike lacks in bespoke modifications nor unique details. Vivit machined rings to modify the Paragon headtube, adding dimension to the standard bell shape. The top tube is beautifully anodized with golden Shelby speed stripes that look like they have been polished with years of wear. The secondary top tube has three punched-out speed holes, for (of course) fun. Those three holes are echoed in the rear drop-outs, just below the beautiful welds attaching it to the rear triangle.
Vivit, now based in Portland, Oregon, has built bikes for many clients, and each time, she's drawn to the process. “I don’t feel like I have an ego about what different type of bikes I make,” says Vivit. “Every time I sit down to weld or every time I’m mitering, I just think, ‘this is gonna be sick!’” Because of this, she says, it is important for the people she builds for to come to them with their ideas and embrace their own participation in the process.
“I want to have a conversation where you tell me what you want in the bike; I’m not going to tell you this is what you should do," Vivit says. Vivit brings a deep bench of experience and knowledge from other parts of the industry, including as a mechanics teacher at the United Bicycle Institute, and work in bike shops on the retail and service sides to her builds.
“For years, SRAM has made levers that are a better fit for people with smaller hands, who are often women,” they say. “So when I start a build, I’m thinking about whether I’m making something with that groupset, because that’s really important when I start making those chainstays.”
This thoughtfulness about what is available or what is appropriate extends to a run of gravel bikes Vivit recently made to accommodate donated parts from a community bike shop. And ultimately, she hopes the industry continues to recognize this need for adaptability.
