Redeeming the Human Race: One Bike at a Time

Our donation drive was successful! Eric and his girlfriend Maria pose with the fruits of the cycling community's generosity.

Yep, life sucks. There are nasty people in the world and it seems like there are a whole lot of them. Bike thieves, deadbeat dads, frauds who rip people off, women who drive while putting on make-up and folks who refuse to pick up after their dogs.  Sometimes the world just seems like a place devoid of human kindness and heart. Just when it feels like you want to throw up your hands and give up on the human race, a ray or two of sunshine can peek out and illuminate an act of kindness. On Wednesday, April 27th 2011 we GroveTribers got to witness the culmination of human generosity at MadCat Bicycles in Sacramento.

In early January we heard of a fellow Hammerin’ Wheels member who had his (locked) mountain bike stolen. We posted a blog about Eric Taylor and the challenges he faced and asked for help to find his missing Trek. No luck. When it seemed that there was no way to recover Eric’s bike we didn’t want to just walk away from Eric with a curt, “Good Luck, kid!” so we posted another blog a few weeks later asking for the cycling community to come together to help one of their own get back on the trails.

It took a while to coordinate the details but we were able to get in touch with Mike Upchurch, owner of MadCat, and he was able to help facilitate the gathering of donations and purchase of a new bike for Eric.




Mike Upchurch (left), owner of MadCat, greets Eric.

  It didn’t take long before donations came in from folks known and unknown and the amounts quickly added up. With a little schedule shuffling the planets aligned and we were able to meet up with Mike, Eric and his girlfriend, Maria Chavez, at MadCat witness Eric to claim his new ride.

Mike, Eric, Dawn and the new ride!

Eric and Maria were very appreciative (we must have heard “thank you” a hundred times while we were there) and we all wish to express our heartfelt thanks to the following people: Cindy Emch, Body Concepts Inc., Matthew Findley, Mike Upchurch, Eric’s family, friends and everyone else who helped make this possible. Thank you for proving that there are some good folks out there in the world.



On Wednesday May 4th Eric resumes his role as an organizer of rides for the Hammerin’ Wheels Mountain Bike Club. He also plans to work on getting back in cycling shape and tackling some races soon. We can only hope that when he is in a position to help a fellow cyclist, he will pay it forward. If more people went out of their way to help another, maybe we can be the change we want to see in the world. Maybe life doesn’t have to suck after all. Peace.