Trekking in a Major Way
For the past several years, there has been an ongoing philosophical analysis of my use of social media, the usefulness of conversations on social media, and the influence of social media on how I feel about current events. The dominant factor regarding online discussions is the perception of whether a topic is “Conservative” or “Liberal”, “Right” or “Left”, “Red” or “Blue” and for many people, these alignments translate directly into “Wrong” and “Right” (or vice versa).
Brand loyalty comes to mind when thinking about how we treat political affiliation. Many times a simple choice determines our future shopping loyalties. Android or Apple is a huge decision that can impact not only our phone purchase but also our entire financial and payment infrastructure. Our “Internet of Things” (IoT) purchases affect our home automation, the temperature of our home, our security system, how we unlock doors, and ties directly back to our Apple or Android choice.
The choice of “Trekking” as a nickname was in part tied to my brand loyalty to Trek. It was a product of a long thought process that began with a desire to make it at least a little bit challenging to stalk me on social media through casual acquaintance. The choice reflected not only my preference for Trek Bicycles but also my view of life as a journey, the desire to literally go explore new places (mostly by bike), and that it was an active process, not a plan, a desire, or a past accomplishment.
So why the loyalty to Trek?
Similar to the earlier examples of IOT tied back to Android or Apple, I began shopping for a new road bike and Bike Mart became my final destination. My choices had been narrowed down to Trek or Specialized and I liked the way the Trek Madone felt. In many ways, it was like the Specialized Tarmac but there was something in the acceleration and something in the cornering that felt a notch better. This was going to be my next road bike. I was basically a novice when I made the purchase but I had ridden bikes all my life and had a few centuries under my belt by this time. Many thousands of miles on the Madone did nothing to prove me wrong.
Like most of us, I became more aware of Trek through the accomplishments of Lance Armstrong. Lance was from Plano and a few years after the purchase of my Trek, I came to know many people who influenced Lance’s early development, although Lance chose not to pick up on the excellent character and role models of those people who introduced him to cycling. He had the discipline and ability to dominate the sport, he shined a light on the devastating effects of cancer, gave strength to many who were fighting the disease, and started a worthwhile foundation to help them. However, like many others during that period, he cheated. He not only cheated, he was narcissistic, he lied, and he destroyed the careers of many people in the industry.
My relationships at Bike Mart grew and eventually, I worked part-time for them while working on a career change. Knowing the company from the inside, just reinforced my opinion that they are a good company with a lot of good people that love bikes. Not only that, I had begun volunteering for events such as the MS150 ride and the LiveStrong Challenge. Through these activities, I also became aware of how much Bike Mart puts back into growing bike racing and the culture of cycling in North Texas. Many times, they support an event just so that it happens. We would not have the bike culture we have in North Texas if we did not have Bike Mart and their consistent support.
I came to know more about Trek through my relationship with Bike Mart. I had the opportunity to ride more of their bikes, I owned, upgraded, and restored them. I began participating in their annual Trek 100 ride benefitting pediatric cancer research, visited their factory, and met some of their employees and leaders.
Trek grows the sport in many ways like maintaining a professional cycling team and promoting cross-racing at their factory headquarters in Waterloo, Wisconsin. They actively involve even their competitors when it comes to improving safety and growing the market. Trek is putting great effort into their Women’s racing team and doing a great deal to promote women’s racing. Having a strong female racing scene is going to have a great impact on the future success of bicycle racing for both men and women. Women have long accomplished more with fewer resources than is given the male racing circuit.
One past marketing campaign reinforced my loyalty to the Trek brand. I had learned the story of Marshall “Major” Taylor, about a decade ago. In 1899, in the United States, it was unlikely that an African American could become a sports hero. It was not without adversity but he not only did it, he was a World Champion. Unlike Lance, he was a World Champion of Character as well.
“Life is too short for any man to hold bitterness in his heart.”—Marshall Taylor
In conjunction with the National Brotherhood of Cyclists, Trek promoted the rides celebrating the life and career of Major Taylor in 2018. Major Taylor is one of the earliest cycling champions and should be celebrated. Ironically, a few years later boycotts of Trek were promoted because police were seen using Trek bicycles against rioters.
It seems that people have given up on thinking that character is important. That the team or ideology with which one is aligned is more important than the person. To me character is important, it may be challenging to be civil during adversity, and it may be hard to do the right thing when times are adverse but we must remember and acknowledge the positive examples. We must be willing to forgive, we must be willing to acknowledge when we are wrong, and we must be willing to respect another person’s right to choose their own path, especially when it does not cross our own. Major Taylor was right, life IS too short to hold bitterness in our hearts.
The Trekking Cyclist 