086 – Beer & Bikes: How Tucson Hop Shop Created a Cycling Community Hub (Jessie Jean Mance & Sarita Mendez) - Mountain Cog

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dane (00:08):
so he wrote this music oh, that's awesome isn't it cool?

Sarita Mendez (00:12):
it's so special for you.

Josh (00:13):
How many podcasts have we had where you've told people
that I wrote this music.

Dane (00:16):
Well, I'm not doing it for our listeners.
They know, but I'm doing it forthem, I.
I think it's something to beproud of.

No, it's such a big deal like again like I'm
super into Armchair and theyhave their very specific music.
It's a big deal.

Dane (00:31):
Should.

I turn the music off so we can hear each other.
Is that better?

Dane (00:34):
Is it because your headphones don't work that
you're just going to let thatkeep playing?
Is it because my headphoneswork?
Because of what?
Because they don't work, youwere just going to let that just
keep playing.

Josh (00:42):
I didn't even know, it was still playing All right, I got
a bar joke for you guys and Iknow you've heard probably a
million of them, so I want tosee if you guys have heard this
one.
Okay, Okay.
So a guy walks into a bar.
That's how all bar jokes start.
A guy walks into a bar and hesees three pieces of meat
hanging from the ceiling, sitsdown, orders a beer bartender,

(01:03):
comes over and he's like what'swith the meat?
And the guy's like well, wehave this thing where if you
jump up and you can hit allthree pieces of meat on one jump
, this is a clean joke, Ipromise.
I promise both these ladies aregiving you dirty looks right
now.

Dane (01:19):
Okay because there's a guy hitting meat and I'm just
saying, if you can hit, allthree pieces of meat in one jump
.

Josh (01:25):
Then you get free beer for the night.
But if you miss one piece ofmeat, um, you have to buy drinks
for the whole bar.
Oh nice okay, works so thebartender says what do you think
you want to try it?
The guy looks up, looks at themeat, thinks about it for a
second and says now pass, thestakes are too high.

Jessie Jean Mance (01:46):
Ooh, I haven't actually heard that one.
I would take that, oh my God,we have a person here that's
like really into dad jokes.
So, I mean we should try tosteal it, use it on him.

Actually he's working tonight For sure.
Yeah, or wait for him to hearit on the podcast, yeah yeah,
yeah, for sure, yeah or wait forhim to hear it on the podcast.

Josh (02:08):
All right, so we are here today with Jesse Jean Mance yes,
correct.
And Sarita Mendez Hi, how'd Ido so?
Good, awesome, we're at the HopShop.
It's a bottle shop and beergarden in North Tucson and the
reason we're here is becausethis shop has like a deep
connection to both the mountainbike and pavement bike community
here in Tucson.
It's located adjacent to ourinfamous 150 mile loop paved

(02:30):
trail around around Tucson We'vetalked about that before and
it's also very close to a verypopular but wildcat trail we
call the urban assault ride.
It's a mountain bike trail.
You might call it a mountainbike trail, but it's it's pretty
mellow.

Dane (02:43):
It's very mellow, but people crash and get hurt on it,
so that's legit.

Josh (02:48):
Yeah, well, I broke my ribs in the concrete outside my
house.
Yeah.

Dane (02:54):
I wouldn't tell people that.

Josh (02:57):
So in my opinion, like this place, it's in a perfect
post-ride location.
You can get a great pint.
They actually have a neighborcalled Chow Pizza where you can
get an amazing pizza, and Chowactually comes in and delivers
pizza into the hop shop here.
So that's cool, therelationship that you guys have
and you can bring your bikeinside.

(03:19):
Yeah.

Dane (03:20):
Which is super cool.
Yeah, they have a parking inthe back courtyard yeah, a lot
of it, which is great.
Yeah, it's super cool.
Yeah, they have a parking inthe back courtyard yeah, a lot
of it, which is great.

Josh (03:26):
Yeah, it's super good and it's encouraged to come
Celebrating your ninthanniversary like next week.

This past weekend, oh, this past weekend I
missed it.

I'm sorry, I'm totally belated.
It's fine.

Josh (03:37):
Okay, so happy birthday.
Thank you and you guys do a tonof like art focused events.
You got a killer like outdoorand indoor vibe, the way this is
set up with your courtyard andjust like being upstairs here
and it's super awesome.

Dane (03:49):
They have a, they have a patio.
Yeah, patio I just hang out ona patio.

Josh (03:54):
Like how many?

Dane (03:55):
like that's, that's awesome.
In Tucson that's.

Josh (03:57):
That's very rare, Probably the only one To be able to
drink beer and sit outside andhang your bike up and be able to
make sure it's okay Yep, right.
And when I pulled up today I'vebeen here for about an hour,
kind of just like poking aroundand scoping around and stuff,
and I ordered beer, got a pizza,just was watching.
When I pulled up there was fourmountain bikers sitting out
front.
Three came in, those four left,two more came.

(04:19):
So I've seen at least a dozenmountain bikers since I got here
, like an hour ago.

It's pretty amazing.
It's fantastic, yep.

Dane (04:26):
It is.
How do you do you think that'sa big part of your business?

I don't know percentage wise, but it is
definitely a core group ofpeople that we um not only
sought out when we started thebusiness but have just kind of,
it's just grown, it's blossomed.
It's a demographic that we justlove to, um, you know, be a
part of as well and, um, I don'tknow, they've been very
supportive.
The mountain biking communityit's been super fun to get to
know so many people and to ridearound here and to drink beers

(04:56):
with them too, and yeah yeah,it's a really great um kind of
symbiosis between us it's.

Dane (05:01):
It's amazing.
Can I tell a quick story?
Go for it, man.
Um, we were out riding uh at a,a popular place in town with
our kids.
A bunch of adults with kids,nothing, nothing, uh nefarious.
We're riding around and westopped for pizza at this
popular pizza place that I won'tname because they were awful

(05:23):
they don't sell any anchovies.
Okay, yeah, they may not putanchovies on the pizza, and we
got run out of there.
At the front of the patio, Iguess there was a whole area
that wasn't being used withchairs or anything.
It was pretty dead.
It wasn't busy and there wasprobably what 10 or 15 of us.

(05:46):
Yeah, it was a big group, so 10or 15 show up to have pizza and
beer and drinks and we put ourbikes in there because we want
them safe.
I mean, these bikes are, youknow, $5,000, $10,000 bikes.
They're not cheap and they'rejust kind of security, whatever
they are uh could be both,probably both.

(06:10):
But uh, they came up and said wehave to move them.
And we said, well, uh, we needto finish our food and then we
can move them.
And they're like well, themanager said you have to move
them.
And then they, uh, we said, hey, that's, can you go double
check, because we're just eating.
They're not in the way theycame back.
He goes, yeah, he said, and Igo are they going to reimburse
us for our beers and pizza nowthat we have to leave?

(06:33):
And he goes I don't know, I'llgo check.

And he was genuinely a nice guy.

Dane (06:38):
He was yeah, but the manager man came straight at us,
super aggro um, alreadyexpecting a fight and not
diffusing the situation.
And again, we're not punk, youknow, kids?

uh, we're adults.
We had a professional littlekids with us.

Dane (06:54):
We had little kids with us .
You know, it's not like we'reunreasonable, but we're kind of
getting kicked out of a placejust because we ride bikes and
that I think that used to be aplace that we would always go
and spend our money and spendour time at, and it's never
going to be that again.

Josh (07:10):
So we all immediately jumped on Yelp and Google.
Yes, and they got 10 real greatreviews.
Man, we love Google and Yelp ishere.

Dane (07:20):
I'm sure that's sarcastic.

Yeah, I don't know why they would do that,
especially just because I don'tthink it's surprising that we
are such like a cycling town.

Dane (07:30):
And they're like always probably dealing with like
college kids and stuff like withtheir bikes, but yeah, it was
frustrating because, again,we're not just punks, we're not
raising a ruckus, we're notcausing any issues, we're just
having our food and and the waythat he came and handled it, I
mean he ruined it for manyfamilies yeah if I was the owner

(07:52):
of that business, I would bereally frustrated with that,
right, because that's.
we just told this story on thisprogram and you guys now heard
it, these guys heard, heard it,and all of Tucson and the world
is going to hear this, all ofour millions of listeners.

Josh (08:06):
We don't have millions of listeners.
There's 17.
There's 17 people Spread among60 countries.

But they're pissed, they're all pissed.
Man, nobody's going there Ifwe're in 60 countries.

Dane (08:19):
There's at least 60.
There's at least 60.
I'm the one in.

Josh (08:24):
America.

That's awesome.
I there's at least 60.

Josh (08:26):
Okay, well, there's 60, I'd like I'd like to hear about
you guys.
Yeah, we kind of just likejumped into our stories yeah,
yeah I talked, but I'd like,I'd love to hear you know about
you guys, like in in in, aboutthe hop shop.
So you know in your words, likeI'd love to hear how'd you guys
get started?

yeah, what's your, what's your involvement
with the shop and all that kindof stuff um, I'm, uh, one of the
founding co-owners and I dothink that when I wrote the
business plan, I mean thisbiking was part of the business
plan.
That's cool it really was.
And we went into it justknowing it was a group of people
in a demographic that, just byour adjacent nature to the loop,

(09:03):
that we would be able to kindof funnel some people who wanted
refreshment off the loop.
So we went into it adamantly,but also very naively, in that
we thought it was just going tobe these loop riders that were
coming in, and what we didn'testimate or even understand at
that time was the huge mountainbike contingent.
I didn't even ride at thatpoint.

(09:23):
I didn't, I didn't know, um, Iwas totally unaware.
So when they started coming inand working with Sarita, who has
ridden for a lot longer than Ihave, um, it was just
relationships.
We started building theserelationships with these
different groups.
Um, one in particular that wewere both very fond of was, uh,
the bell joy ride ride group.

(09:43):
It was a women's mountainbiking group.
That man, we made the bestfriends of our lives with that,
with that group, and are theystill around or are they defunct
?
you're speaking about it,they're kind of, yeah, dissolved
and evolved into a new group,tucson women shredders.
Okay, yep exactly.

And so I'll say, with that too, like I feel like
it was like the first year thatwe opened, like Veronique, which
I don't know if you could yes,I was trying to remember her
name.
She's awesome so she was likethe big, like big deal with Bell
and she got like thesponsorship and the
ambassadorship and so she wasplanning just monthly rides and

(10:21):
she started doing them here andit was just so cool that like
you could see the same likefaces every time, like meet up,
or it was like new people thatjust like made friends or just I
don't know wanted to be a partof it when they saw us all
riding together.
But yeah, at the time like Iwas never riding urban, like I
was riding like all the othertrails, so it is really neat to

(10:42):
like see that aspect of it.
But it is also really cool tostill have like all these like
wild, like road people, roadiesand like gravel people, like
just like for me, just because Ihelped open this place, like
I've been here for like the lastnine years.
It's been really amazing to justsee like all these like
different um I guess types ofpeople come through.

(11:03):
It's like I love the peoplethat are commuting here and like
try not to like drive theircars Like I would love to be
that person someday.
And like one of my favorites,like there's some regulars here
that are they like will randomlystop here after they like go
grocery shopping really quick,or they'll.
I mean not if they have like abunch of stuff but it's just

(11:25):
really nice.
Yeah, um.
So it's neat to like see thatroll through.
But then also you have like thefun people who are just like.
I mean not to say that that'snot fun, but I mean like the
people that just want to likehang out and like get like a
post-ride bevy or whatever, likean NA drink too.
Um yeah, I don't know.

(11:46):
It's just been really lovelyLike also seeing like the
professional cyclists like andthey're like real people and
they're like nice to us, likeyeah, we were just.

Josh (11:53):
We were just talking to one out of the professional
cycle.

Yeah, yeah, and like the dude, like Alexi with
like the wiener dog in thebackpack and you're just like
holy shit you're like famous andyou like come in here like
randomly, like it's just, yeah,I, I love that part of it.
Like we're all like real people, like wow, holy shit, you can

(12:17):
ride like crazy, but you'restill like talking and talking
to me or whatever I don't.
I've just gotten like reallyinto like all the really nice
people I love it.

Dane (12:27):
That's probably the best thing about bars, I think.
Uh, you know, you're around somany different people.
Like so many people use the baras the place to meet and hang
out and, you know, even I do.
I don't drink, so like going toa bar is seems weird, but I
love hanging out here.
We'll come whatever group, andwhat's crazy is I'll walk in the

(12:47):
door and with one group andthen there'll be four more
groups that I'll know.
Yeah, I'll just hang out withthem too yeah, it's kind of fun.

It's a microcosm of tucson it makes
tucson quite smaller.

Yes, okay, it does, and I also love that you
don't drink, though, becausethat is such like a an amazing
change in our craft beer worldI'm just cheap, don't think it's
anything.

Dane (13:06):
No, no, I just, I'm really just.

Josh (13:08):
That's all it is oh, I like that, it's not actually
straight edge.

Dane (13:13):
But yeah, I don't use a razor, as you can tell so I
don't know what you're talkingabout, but I just I.

I love that too, though, because, like so many of
us are like trying not to drinkas much, or, yeah, we just have
different interests and so,just as like a craft beer person
, like we sell out of some ofour like na ipas and pilsners
and ciders and it's just likewhat?

Dane (13:35):
like it's just, it's just been really cool to see that
change in like the last, liketwo years, totally yeah, that
means the bar culture is moreabout the people yeah and not
necessarily about getting drunk.

Josh (13:45):
We've also gotten like just in the last few years, I
think from my perspective, likethe NA options have become
actually good.

Oh my God, so much better.

Josh (13:54):
Yeah, exactly, some are so gross, so you don't feel like
the taste is like not bad, soit's funny.

Dane (13:58):
Where were we that they used the NA?
Oh, I was at a wedding in SanDiego and they talked about NA
and I'm like, is that a brand?

Who's NA brewing?

Josh (14:07):
It's what you drink, brother.
It should be Well.

Dane (14:10):
I don't even drink NA Like I literally drink soda.

Josh (14:13):
As far as I know, the only thing you drink is Diet Pepsi.
Diet Pepsi, and if I'm stuck,Like I think he's got Diet Coke.

Dane (14:24):
Oh, you got screwed over there.

Well, it's funny because that's the only drawback
that you could maybe work on.
We're criticizing already, well, and it's funny because it's
not really a criticism, becausethere's a lot of.

Dane (14:33):
I was just saying earlier that my daughter, I bring my
daughter and my son here and weride the urban trail and they
love the non-alcoholic cabinetwith all the different drinks
and they're not Diet Pepsi,they're not diet pepsi, they're
not diet coke, they're verydifferent.
And uh, jones sodas maybe, andjust all kinds of different ones
and I usually try them.
Uh, all kinds of differentnon-alcoholic drinks, including

(14:54):
beer, but but uh, the kids love,like my daughter's favorite is
shirley temple yeah and so Ijust wish there was a diet coke
in there once.
Well, thank god, chow pizza.
Oh, there you go.

Well, I can give you a taste of our
philosophy about that, and youknow I'm a Coke Zero person in
my private life too.
But what we went into with ourpurchasing here is voting with
our dollar a little bit, and wedon't buy anything beer-wise

(15:25):
that's owned by AB Inbiv.

Dane (15:26):
Okay, so Budweiser.

Yeah, if you, if Budweiser really has swept,
swept in and like bought a lotof craft breweries that you may
love and see in other places.
But they have lobbyists yeah,they have lobbyists actively
fighting to keep craft brewingdown because it hurts them and
so it's we decided.
Why would we give them money?
I think it's the same way withgood old Coca-Cola.

Dane (15:49):
Yeah, I totally get, that.
But Pepsi's good, pepsi's fine,no, they're not any better.

We're a small business.
We want to support smallbusinesses, you know.

Dane (15:57):
Yeah, I think that's awesome.
That's actually probably addsto the culture quite a bit, you
know, yeah, for sure, becauseyou know there may be 25 people
that don't notice that.
And then two, totally you know,and but that matters, you know.

Josh (16:10):
So yeah, I can go anywhere and get a diet coke yes, that's
very true, very true, yeah,yeah, I can go anywhere and get.
Unfortunately, sculpin used tobe my favorite beer, oh my gosh
point.
And then I got bought and westopped drinking it too.
I don't it wasn't a consciousdecision.

It was just like oh, that's, that's
budweiser there's been some sadlosses and all of that, but so
um, let's do a beer check.

Dane (16:30):
So, uh, josh, what are you drinking?

I'm drinking uh, it's a chocolate stout by rogue,
by rogue, okay um, I amdrinking dragoon goon fest
because it is the most magicaltime of year.
I would buy that just for thename.

Dane (16:42):
Um, yes, absolutely.
What kind of beer is it?
It is the most magical time ofyear.
I would buy that just for thename.

Josh (16:45):
Yes, absolutely.
What kind of beer is it?

It is a Fest beer , it's an Oktoberfest.

Okay.

So it's like a lager, that's like a little
malty, like a little bit creamyin the finish.

Dane (16:55):
Oh my God, that was professional talk right there it
was.
It's almost like she's workedhere for a minute, yeah,
something, but usually I'm justlying, it's all lies.

But at least this one.

This one though for serious, because I know I
can only have it for likeanother, like week or so, right,
I've got the Rogue ChocolateStout as well.

I'm a sucker for Rogue Brewing.
They are kind of my.
I went to college in Oregon andso that's where I learned to
drink beer.
It's a good place, and it was.
Rogue was like drink beer, it'sa good place.
Rogue and Deschutes were thego-tos.

Dane (17:28):
I sold a bike to a guy who owns a brewery in, I think,
portland or maybe Seattle Browns.

Josh (17:35):
That's cool, there's so many breweries.
Oh my God.

Dane (17:41):
He was one of the first.
You know how micro brews were.
I mean they were.

Josh (17:47):
You could count them at one point like there was so few
of them now it's very popular soit's everywhere so how many do
we have in tucson?
You guys know?

the breweries themselves yeah, yeah oh gosh,
I don't know that current countI mean, but it's, it's.

Josh (17:59):
It's probably close to 10 I think like you think it's that
many?

Wow.

Josh (18:05):
Okay, I know a couple have been closing.

Yeah Right.

Josh (18:07):
Oh no.
What's causing them to close?
Well, the more competition.

Dane (18:12):
Yeah.

It could be Right.

Josh (18:15):
Okay.

Dane (18:15):
Now bike check Bike check.

Josh (18:17):
Wait, jean was going to say something.
Oh, I'm sorry.

Oh no, it's okay, it's all good, it's all
good.

Dane (18:21):
Well, I just you know, the cutoff was my brain going we're
talking about beer and we'resupposed to talk about bikes.

Oh, that's right, this is a bike podcast, as much
as I love talking about beer,even though I don't drink it.
I love talking about bikes.
Dana owns a bike shop, just incase you guys didn't know.

Dane (18:40):
So bike check, we know what you ride.

Josh (18:42):
You ride that kind of beat-up thing yeah the one, the
Rocky Mountain, that I boughtfrom you.
No, no, no.

Dane (18:48):
That's the nice new one.

Josh (18:50):
Oh yeah, you ride the what's the other one, the
light-speed titanium bike that Ihave.

Dane (18:53):
Yeah, that's the older, new one.
And then what's the?

Josh (18:56):
one, the Gorilla Gravity.
Yeah, they're out of business.
Oh, I'm going to get hate forthat.
The best bike I own is my.

Specialized.
Oh no, we don't like them,right?
Yeah, I don't.
Oh wait, wait.
Am I supposed to say that youcan say whatever?

Josh (19:13):
you want, dane hates them.

So, I don't hate them?

Dane (19:20):
I don't hate them.
You know use, you know shopwith your dollars or vote with
your dollars, yeah, and they dosome stuff that's a little wanky
and not cool, especially ifyou're a bike shop.
Yeah and uh, and so I don'tappreciate the way they approach
the industry.
How's that?
Is it better than I?
Bought it, used it is Okay.

Josh (19:38):
Yeah, yeah, it feels bad.

I was helping someone.
I.

Josh (19:47):
I buy all my Coke Zeros used, all of them.
All my Bud Lights arehalf-drink.

Dane (19:50):
That's the best joke of the night.
I know it's awesome, all right.

Josh (19:55):
So what do you, ladies, ride?

Yes, Well, I just want to start off by saying,
like all I've heard about youguys is just like you guys just
ride like wild, just ride wilddownhill stuff on your free time
.

Josh (20:05):
Yeah, no, that's not.
That's Dane and Lacey.
I think you're mixing up.
I'm trying to get that Okay,but your wife, though, my wife
is, yes, that's so amazing.
Yeah, she's amazing.

And it's so cool.
My friend was just talkingabout her and just saying that
she's so hardcore.
But my friend is so hardcore,so so scary, like my most wild
friend, and I think I wastelling you like I am so scared
these days like I don't want toride anything like that anymore.
Oh, it's so fun um, I think youmixed up.

Dane (20:30):
When you're talking about me and riding, you gotta watch
out, because if you use rideit's more like crash no, I don't
believe you exchange ride forcrash no, um you want to talk
about crash.

The last crash I had was like a year ago and and
that's still Cholla in my arms.

Josh (20:48):
Oh my gosh.

And I feel like people probably think I just
have like a bad rash all thetime, but they're trying to come
out by the way for ourinternational listeners.

Josh (20:56):
We have a lot of cactus here in the desert in southwest
United States, and one of thosecactus is a Cholla cactus.

We call it the jumping cactus because it jumps
out and grabs you.
It just grabs you when you'rehaving a good time and you're
not expecting it.

Josh (21:10):
It's so sad.

Dane (21:10):
Everything in the desert wants to kill you.
So if you were going to havecactus in you, would you rather
have cholla or prickly pear.

Oh my God, prickly pear Really.

Josh (21:20):
Long and twice on Sunday yeah you just got to get.

They're going to be like long and thick, but like
they won't grab you quite asmuch Not as like tiny and like
you're just going to have tospend one year taking all of
these out.

Dane (21:33):
The little tiny, hairy ones.

Oh, they're bad With.

Dane (21:35):
Choya, you can get.
You can get them out you canget them.

No, this was Choya.
This was Are you sure I'm 100%positive.

Dane (21:43):
Yeah, because those you can get out Like you can feel
each barb, whereas prickly pearhas got the long one but it's
got all the tiny little nastyones.

It does have little tiny ones, but I feel
like you have a bigger chance ofgetting all the long ones
instead of all those little tinyones.
Totally Either way.
10-10,.
Don't recommend.

Josh (22:02):
Just try not to get any cactus in you right?

No, don't recommend, just try not to get
any cactus in you right?
Not at all.
Okay, the worst all right,sarita, what do you ride?
Okay, I, I'm like my bike is sosexy um, you guys are gonna
think it's like so cool, it is auh, 2014 salsa deadwood oh,
that's um it is this beautifulrusty color that has like a
little bit of like a glitter toit.

Josh (22:24):
Um what is the deadwood?
I don't know.
Is it a hard tail?

It is a rigid um and I tell myself that it just
helps me so much because I hateclimbing and hate doing anything
that makes me work hard.
Um, but so, as you can tell,like I don't, ride like if I
okay, so if I ride Mount lemonlike that's super random and
scary for me, but you can't ridethat on a rigid bike.

Josh (22:47):
No, I mean, you can people do it because they're crazy.
But um not advised.

I, my husband has a uh patrol, a transition
patrol and like I will ride thatlike twice a year and it's like
I've never ridden a bike beforeand then I'm like let's go, so
anyway.
But yeah, so for every trail,like around tucson.
I'm just on my dead wood andshe has like the most beautiful
Rogue Panda frame pack you knowwhat I'm saying With that

(23:12):
Arizona flag bag.
No, she's like super pretty andI'm really proud of her and I
got her when I was working onREI 1,000 years ago.

Dane (23:20):
So, yeah, that's what cycling is.
So we have customers that nametheir bikes.

they all have names you know, and things like
that and that's.

Dane (23:29):
That's I feel like cycling , uh, you know, not just
mountain biking, but road biking, but in general, that is what
we do, like people.
If people that don't understandthat think we're just playing
with toys, you know, as adults,yeah, they don't understand.
We're naming.

These are our pets, our best friends.
I mean, I don't have a name forher?

Dane (23:47):
did you call her Deadwood?
Hey Deadwood you should figureout one of the characters in
Deadwood oh yeah, and use one oftheir names.

Okay, I'm gonna have to think about it.
Who's like the hottest one?
I can't remember because youhave the whore.

Did you watch Deadwood?

Josh (24:06):
What are we talking about right now?

The whore.
She's a whore.
I think we've got the winners.
Wait, was her name.
I can't remember.

It might be her.

Dane (24:18):
They have the widow.
The widow was cool, I forgother name.

I don't know any other names.

Dane (24:25):
Yeah, there's a lot of good people to name it after.
Dude my bike names are soboring.

Is it like Chad or something?

Josh (24:32):
No, so I'm a big dude riding my brake bikes Daryl,
daryl, all my bikes are reallybig and like beefy and meaty
because frame up, and so it's.
I got my yellow bike I call bigbird.
Okay, my e-bike, I call big ebig e my gravel bike I call it's
a titanium bike.
I call big tie and then mydownhill bike or my, my gorilla

(24:54):
gravity, I call bigfoot, bigfooteverything's big, everything is
.

Yeah, those are good.

Dane (24:58):
I don't have names yeah you trade bikes.

Josh (25:00):
So much yeah it's like the .

Dane (25:03):
It's the like it's the like it's, it is every it's the
shuttle, the altitude.

Josh (25:08):
I didn't think you owned an acoustic bike for the first
10 times.
We rode.
Cause every time we showed up,you're on an e-bike, that's true
.

I want an e-bike.
How's that?
They're amazing.

Josh (25:15):
It's awesome.
Yeah, it's awesome I can goride with Dane right or ride
with Lacey, yeah, and then whenyou're like I try to ride my
e-bike like once every two weeks, so then when I'm like super
tired from the acoustic bike,then it gives me like a day that
I can go have fun and get likea zone two ride you know, like a

(25:37):
recovery ride, right, coolTraveling.

Dane (25:39):
We just traveled.

Josh (25:41):
Yeah, we did, we went and did Noble Canyon, san traveled.
And uh, yeah, we did, we went,did noble canyon, yep, san diego
.
And uh, we would have had ahard time making it up that
mountain on regular bikes.
I ran out of energy, he ran outof battery, my battery, my bat.

Dane (25:54):
Well, yeah, oh no, the last climb he had to do with it
turned off.
Oh no, oh no.
Luckily that's my lightweighte-bike, which is super light
like 30 pounds 36, 36, yeah, 36pounds.
And so, uh, it's not, you canride it like a regular bike
which is nice.

Josh (26:08):
It's funny that most men exaggerate the size on a
positive scale, but when it'stalking about bike weight, you
exaggerate it to make it lessLike it's smaller than it really
is.
Next podcast it'll be 35 pounds.
I don't believe it that you'relike 36 pounds.

Dane (26:23):
Dude, Justin keeps coming in weighing my altitude because
he's so frustrated because hetried to build his lighter than
mine and he's convinced that Ihave some sort of special frame.
Because he's like I don'tunderstand, how can you be like
three pounds?

Josh (26:34):
lighter than my weight.
You're like in there with aDremel Dremeling out the mouth.

Dane (26:36):
Yeah, like that's exactly what he thinks.

So when, when ?
Basically maybe.

Josh (26:44):
I'm calling you, jean.

I've been called Jean, that's okay, jesse
primarily, but that's okay.

Dane (26:50):
Sorry, that's what I know.

I have good friends that call me Jean.
It's all good.

Dane (26:53):
I get named all kinds of stuff.
Yeah, call me man.
I mean, that works, that's finetoo.

Josh (26:57):
Um uh what were we talking about you just started.

You just started riding, oh yeah well,
maybe like a year into thebusiness.

Josh (27:08):
Yeah, we just oh, so you've been riding for eight
years well I come.

You know we have waves.
We all do.
That's what it's like I'mkilling it.

No, now I kind of suck for a while there's
a lot of people, it's been alot of fun and, um, I have a
rocky mountain altitude.
Is that what you have?
I keep hearing like an altitude750 that I bought used, yep, um
, and it's I, I love it.
It's like to me it's like aclassic car kind of.

(27:38):
It's like a beater.
I don't think mine is light atall.
No, I, it's veryed up.
It's not like Serena described.
Her bike is sexy Mine's like.
What I get.
A lot with the trailhead islike an older man coming up and
going.
Oh, that's got nice welds.

And I'm like, what does that mean?

That's all that we could ever ask for.

We want an older man to tell us that.

Josh (28:04):
You've got such nice welds .

Oh baby, I'm an ass.

Dane (28:08):
I'm so incorporating that into my trail talk.

I like, just I don't know what it means.
I love those welds, I thinkit's a compliment, but you know
I love it.

Dane (28:16):
Be like hey, check out those welds.

Oh my gosh, oh my God.

Dane (28:25):
Of all the things that you could have said.
He's got nice welds.
He must work out.

I never, could have predicted that you'd say
nice welds.

Josh (28:31):
I didn't know where you were going.

Wait.
And then it's also used from avery like Tucson famous cyclist.
Totally From.

Veronique.

A friend of.

Dane (28:39):
Veronique's yes, exactly, nice, exactly I know, I haven't
seen her in a long time.
It's a legacy bike.
Yeah, she's doing well.
I haven't seen her in a while.

I actually okay.
So I went out on a random roadride out like in the Tucson
mountains.
It was like super magical.
I went with these people whoare crazy roadies and they were
like just waiting for me.
gross, I was so slow it was sosad and then okay, so we're on
this like little section and shecomes out of nowhere and like

(29:08):
that's the beauty of tucson.
Veronique came out of thistrail that like is technically
connected to a neighborhood andshe connected it to sweetwater
and I've never accessed it thatway I don't know if you guys
know what I'm talking about yeah, I do it's.
No, it's a private road,honestly, on the south side
southwest side yeah yeah, yeah,and we got yelled at oh, no way
oh my god, this was like,honestly, one of like the most

(29:30):
aggressive, like like I don'tknow times that I've ever
experienced um with a car like,because she accessed it from
that point.
Well, all okay, so there werelike six of us on our road bikes
and it technically it did saylike private road, so we did
take that.
But then technically there isan entrance to sweetwater.
So how can you have rules likewhat are the rules with that?

(29:52):
because, like you have to have apublic access point then right
yep so, uh, we're just ridingback and then this car just lays
on the horn and we're out inbeautiful, like tucson mountains
, like it's so quiet, so serene.
It's like, oh my god, what'sgoing on?
And it's just like this super,super old man and he is
screaming at us, telling us thatwe're making things more

(30:14):
dangerous for everyone, andveronique first.
She's just like okay, we hearyou, thank you so much.

Dane (30:21):
And he just like kept on honking did he have a sign that
said get off my lawn?

I wish he did.
Man, it was super aggressiveand we didn't know if he was
gonna like do something, butyeah, at least there were like
in total like eight of us, soyeah, but that's when I saw
veronique last this is reallymagical until then, it was so
intense it's.

Dane (30:44):
That's frustrating.
So, um, we uh we've talkedabout beer.
Uh, we've talked about the hopshop.
Um, I want to talk about thebuilding.
Who built this and who had ahand in building it, or did you
move into it this way?

we moved into it this way, um, however, it
was just.
I don't know the entire story,but it's a very unique building.
Yeah, oh my god, speaking ofwelds, um I.
Apparently there's noeverywhere there's not a nail in
the building no, it's all well,it's all welded um.
So it's a really unique spaceand most people don't even know
that this whole complex is hereyeah until they come and they're

(31:17):
like what you know, is thisheaven, yeah exactly so.
It's a super unique all metalbuilding.
Yeah, um, and it's just, Idon't we feel so lucky.
When we first moved in, we wetook one space, one studio space
, no two of them, two like twospaces, and that was.
You know, it seemed like a bigbar.
I mean it seemed like we had thebiggest beer garden in town.

(31:39):
It was just fantastic.
And after the pandemic we wereable to, the actual, the owner
and builder of this wholecomplex, sold it and so his
space became available.
So we kind of merged into thatunit as well.
So now we're a total of threeunits and you know we were super
worried that we wouldn't beable to put the butts in the

(32:00):
seats.
You know, can we fill thisspace?
It's so much bigger.
And what we realized is thatpeople weren't coming because we
were too small.
And so once they realized wehad all this seating, it was
like, you know, like the littlefish in the big pond, like
there's so many more places toroam, and so it's been really
great to fill up the space andand, like you said, there's like

(32:21):
nooks and crannies everywhere.
You know you could sitdownstairs one day and go to
this balcony the next, andthere's all kinds of fun corners
to like out front to chill.

Dane (32:30):
Exactly yeah.

Josh (32:31):
It's today's Tuesday.

Dane (32:33):
Tuesday, tuesday.

Josh (32:34):
Yeah, tuesday, and you guys are pretty busy yeah.

We're doing okay, yeah.

Josh (32:36):
I came in.
I don't know what it normallylooks like, hey this is pretty
cool.

Dane (32:42):
So I'm looking at the way that the building's set up.
We're upstairs, we're in thisbeautiful.
It looks like a living room.
Looks like you could live here,no problem.

Stained glass windows.

Dane (32:51):
I could probably live here Are those just hanging in front
of the windows.

They are yeah .

Dane (32:56):
And yeah, now that I'm looking at it, you're right, the
entire building is all metal.
I is all metal.
I was looking at because I do.

I do metal work, yeah and uh, I was looking at
the stairs.

Josh (33:08):
Actually, I was trying to figure out the design right,
deal it right, totally sothere's a this.
Is this called like the metalvillage or something?
It?

started as the metal arts village and the
owner wanted to make um spacefor artists that was affordable
so the rent was just the lowestin town because he knew these
are artists, I'm not not goingto gouge them, I want them to
make their livings.
And so when we moved here,there were you know, there was a
metal worker and a stainedglass worker and another village

(33:33):
.
I guess, yeah, um, but I stillthink we have a great, like you
said, an art community and wehave an artist vibe.
To be honest, you know so, butit is, it's a cool place yeah,

(33:55):
the metal village, the artitself, yeah, it's just really,
it is for sure, and I wasnoticing on your instagram page
you guys have a lot of like artinspired events.
Yep.

Josh (34:05):
Like art shows or like come and do art here at the.

Yeah, we're doing a fun like candle making,
one like later this month.
That'll be fun.

Candles and coasters that just sold out
which is fantastic.
We'll squeeze you guys in yeah.

You've got to get in touch with that side of
your brain.

Dane (34:22):
Oh, yeah, why not?

Josh (34:23):
Yeah.

Right, you gotta get in touch with that
side of your brain.
Oh yeah, why not?
Yeah, right, but uh, one of ourbiggest events is the queer
bazaar.
We hold that about twice a yearand it's all artists of the
lgbtq community that come outand we have we take over the
whole parking lot and it's likea street fair basically that is
and it is just a lot of fun.
I mean that that's the one ofthe happiest events we host and
we do it twice a year and itmakes I don't know the artists

(34:46):
seem very happy with sales andit's just a great way to
celebrate community.

Josh (34:51):
Right on, do you shut down the parking lot and have
vendors out there so they cansell their stuff?

Exactly.
That's super cool.

Dane (34:59):
It's super fun.
Success in building thebusiness you know with bikers in
general, like what if you weregoing to like?
We've got all these listenersall over the world, probably at
least 62 of them um at least 62,one in each country Right.
But um, there may be somebodywho's listening who would want
to do something like this tokind of make that leap from just

(35:21):
a bar to a more of a meetingspace for all kinds of people.
What's your best advice thatyou could give?

I think you've got to go into it with
that outlook at the forefront.

Dane (35:32):
Like plan from the beginning.

Plan from the beginning.
We wanted to be a communityspace.
We wanted to be a space wherewe had the focus on the people
and their families and theirfriends.
And beer is almost like what wedo, you know.

Dane (35:46):
On top of that, you know, yeah, yeah, totally.

And I know it's a big, important part of
it's where we make our money on.
But but really, if you put thefocus on the people and their
needs and their hobbies and youknow it, it makes everyone feel
like they're a part of this.

Dane (36:02):
And it's not just a business.

Yeah, like they're a part of this and it's
not just a business.
Yeah, it's not pandering, we'renot trying to, you know, suck
up to anyone.
It's like we are a part ofbuilding what you want to see
here yeah and I think that's howsome of our bike facilities
have grown is just based on whatwe we saw was needed yeah you
know, like the bike racks in thebeer garden yep we're like
people keep wheeling their bikesthrough and they're just
leaning them against walls andstuff.
What would be?

(36:25):
What would be better than that,you know?
So I think it's just we've.
We've crafted it and grown fromthere.

Dane (36:32):
I think that's awesome, cause it's truly that's what it
is is.
People don't come here to get abeer.
They come here to be here andto see their friends and get
together with each other, andthen they drink a beer while
they're here and you've createdthis space where you're like
okay, well, how do we pay for it?

Right, exactly, it's awesome man.

Josh (36:50):
I mean like I probably would never go ride the urban
assault trail if it wasn't forthis place.

It's pretty convenient, right, so you go
ride it.

Dane (36:58):
Come here, get a pizza, get some beer, hang out one or
two beers super symbiotic youhave one thing that causes
another and they work together.
Which?

Josh (37:05):
is awesome.
I noticed on your website right.
It says bike friendly, kidfriendly, friend friendly, right
oh, you allow, friends whatnice welds you have look at the
welds on that guy.
I also noticed on there thatyou have a certification or an

(37:28):
award a bronze award from theLeague of American Bicyclists,
which is a grassroots movementto create safer roads, stronger
communities and abicycle-friendly America for
everyone.
This is an organization thatwas established in 1880.

Wow, jesus, that's crazy.

Dane (37:42):
I didn't even know that.
That's crazy.
That's right after I was born.
It's like the penny farthingdays.

I think it is right.

Josh (37:50):
And you are one of only 11 businesses in the entire state
of Arizona that has thiscertification.

And.

Josh (37:57):
I was telling you earlier about 50%.
They put on their website themetrics of how many businesses
have applied and how many haveactually been granted it and
about 50% get it.
And so just tell us a littlebit about like that process,
like why did you do it?
What was the process?
Do you remember?
I know it was a while ago.

It was a while ago, I don't remember way
back into the memory.
I don't remember who inspiredus.
Where did I see that first?
In town, um, but I know I sawit and I'm like we got to get
this we got to figure this out,and so it was in your business
it is.
Yeah, it is a lengthy, you know,application process and you
know it involves a lot of things, not just bike racks and access

(38:34):
and, um, you know, supportingcauses, but it involves being on
a roadway that's safe forcyclists to access your business
and that kind of thing.
So we did get lucky in terms oflocation.
Um, but then you know, whenthey they awarded us bronze, I'm
like bronze man, we should begold but like, but it's hard to
be bronze.

It is.

it is very hard to get that distinction,
and so I'm very, I'm super proudof that.

Dane (38:59):
Yeah, that is awesome.
You know, and that tellseverybody, anybody who's looking
from the outside of, what kindof character you have.
Yeah, as far as, like, it helpsthem understand what you're
doing.
And it's not just a bar, it'snot just a place that people
come and drink.
It's like, like you said, acommunity and a meet space which
is awesome.

Josh (39:17):
For sure, yep.
Do you guys have any like funnyor unusual stories that you can
share with?
Our listeners about the bar andbonus points.
If they include bikes, I havethe best one.
Go for it.
I'm sorry.

And actually it's perfect because we just
passed our ninth anniversary,but on night one it was friends
and family night, so we weren'teven open to the public.

Josh (39:40):
Sarita, you were working right this is like day one nine
years ago.
Day one yes, it was just thepublic, sarita you were working
right.

This is like day one nine years ago, day one,
Okay, yes, it was just familywho barely believed in the
concept anyway.
But they're like here tosupport and you know, and out of
nowhere, we're having a greatnight and all of a sudden
someone starts kind of a crazylooking dude pushes his bike
through the bar.
We think he's trying to go inand you know, but it's friends

(40:04):
and family.
No one knows this guy and he's.
He goes all the way through thebar and out to the beer garden
and then he looks stuck becauseour beer garden is fenced and he
looked like he was just liketrapped and he didn't.
He realized like he had justcome into the wrong place.
He didn't know where he was.

(40:26):
And you know my dad being aprotective guy and like really
like this is my daughter'sbusiness.
And you know he's like what areyou doing here?
Are you supposed to be here?
And you know, and because theguy was, I I think hi, I don't
know, he didn't seem a littleout of it, yeah, a little out of
it, yeah um, and the guy kept.
you know, he almost ran oversome kids on the way in, you
know, and that kind of thing.
And my dad said you can eitherleave now or I will help you

(40:52):
over this fence and the guyhanded him his bike.
The guy handed the bike to mydad.

Josh (41:00):
And so my dad tossed the bike over the fence and then,
you know, kind of boosted him up.
I thought you meant help himover the fence, like I'm going
to throw you over the fence.
Pretty much that's what yourdad meant.
But the guy was like just helpme.
He's like I'm down.

The guy was like I will go over this fence.
So my dad and some other peoplethat were here boosted him over
the fence and I'm sitting heregoing.
Is this what business is goingto be like?

Josh (41:19):
Maybe we shouldn't have done this in support of bicycles
.

Is this what it is Like?
It's crazy your first cyclingpatron Totally.

Dane (41:25):
That guy is literally traveling by the crows, the way
the crows fly Totally.

That was it.

Dane (41:31):
He's like I'm just going to go straight through this
building.

He's like I used to ride in this direction I
don't know, and so it was justso.
On the first year anniversary,we decided to do a bike toss for
luck, and so we got like likean old beater bike.
It didn't have a chain, youknow just, and it was probably a
thousand pounds.
I mean, it was just like areally old bike yeah and you
could um toss it just for funtoss it the farthest and that

(41:55):
was like kind of a fun tradition.
We'll probably have to bringthat back for the 10-year
anniversary I think youdefinitely should bring the bike
awesome.
Who doesn't want to throw abike and cause some damage?
Maybe?

Josh (42:05):
we should come and do a live podcast.
When they're doing the biketires, I'm down.
Yeah, that'd be fun.
I know of a yellow specializedthat we can follow.
Oh my gosh, there you go.
Leave Big Bird alone.
She's a good girl.

I feel like that.
One would be like the mostdifficult one.
The one that could cheat fly.

Josh (42:25):
Oh, oh, oh, she can fly.
Oh, okay, that's right, she ismy lightest bike.
Well, the tide bike's mylighter, but yeah, okay, that's
so funny.
Oh, my goodness okay.

I think it's always so funny it's happened
like multiple times now thatwe'll be like closing and
there's a bike in the back likeand you don't know whose it is
exactly, and we're like yo, wegotta close and no one's around,
and it's just been that peoplehave, like maybe overdone it or
maybe have decided to dosomething else and they leave
their bike here.

(42:49):
And so we like wheel it inside,because you never know if
someone's going to jump thefence.
But, yeah, then they'll comeback.
It's like the walk of shame inthe morning and they're like,
they're just like dude.
What are you guys?

Dane (42:59):
doing.
But you know what, though?
That's actually a great service.
I mean, you guys areinadvertently providing.

Josh (43:07):
I mean hold on, Listen, I'm also eyeing it, I'm like hey
is there something cute on thatbike that I can put on my bike?
Is that a medium bike?

Exactly.

This is really light.

Dane (43:18):
Is that bell shaped like a hamburger?

Josh (43:22):
Yeah, I'll take that you should totally get a polaroid
camera and take a picture ofevery bike and then put them up
on a wall oh yeah, here's allthe bikes we rescued, oh my god
okay, yeah bike rescue, I mean,I think that idea yeah

the next, especially with the weather
change.

Dane (43:34):
Like I actually, I, I love that.
So at one point, you know, incollege days, I was always a
designated driver because Idon't drink and my buddies would
get mad if I didn't go becausethey had to figure out how to
get home, and so I envisionedthis one uh job of like maybe
showing up, uh on a bike yeahand then putting it in the

(43:56):
person's car and driving themhome and then riding home right
and that's, I think, actuallybeen.
People have tried this jobwhere they have like little
e-bikes that fold.
Yeah, and they'll put them inthe trunk and then drive the
person home in their own car.
So it's home, yeah.
And then they just go back, andit's a service they provide and
so they just leave on theircute little e-bike?

Yeah, but no, they take it out of the trunk
and they ride it home.

Dane (44:18):
Well, that's and so you guys have figured out a way to
keep people, and this is agenuine thing keep people from
driving or riding drunk which isnice, and you didn't even mean
to Right, there you go.

Josh (44:30):
This is how we can lose weight, buddy.
We can get some little e-bikesand just come hang out.

Dane (44:34):
Oh, yeah, yeah, We'll eat a bunch of pizza, drink a bunch
of oh, then we'll need to ride.
Then we can just shuttle peopleback and forth from their house
.

Yeah, that is also a signal of how much people
trust you guys.
So there you go yeah, there's,there's.

Dane (44:51):
Uh, there's a lot to be said, because I don't know well
if you, if you had a bike andwould leave it somewhere like
that, I, I wouldn't I wouldnever.

No, you wouldn't leave daddy there, would you?

Josh (44:59):
yeah, not the old dad yeah no, absolutely, and then yeah,
just also.

I don't know what to call her, so I'm just I know
, I know I got to think ofsomething good, but yeah, it's
also just like anywhere.
Whenever I go anywhere on mybike, like I won't go if I can't
bring my bike in, you know.
Like I don't want to lock herup out front.
No, that doesn't work.
I feel like she's.

Dane (45:20):
Oh, so I just looked up the cast.
You know, I forgot this inDeadwood it was Calamity Jane.

Oh.

Dane (45:27):
Oh my God, that's a good name.
That's a good name I got towrite this down.

I got to write this down Calamity Jane.

Dane (45:34):
Yeah, there was.
Yeah, there's like a.
Oh, there was Garrett.
Yeah, none of the names standout like that, but Calamityane
has a bike name.

Josh (45:42):
That's a great name yeah, that is really nice I forgot to
ask you guys one of the firstquestions I want to ask you.
So like beers and bikes gotogether, like peanut butter and
jelly, yeah, like what are yourthoughts on why that is like,
why does it go together so well?

I mean, I think, when I'm riding, I just I want
some like something to quench mythirst.

Josh (46:03):
There you go yeah, yeah and, but honestly, you'll just
like hydration at this point butyou can catch me with like a
can of Rose.

Usually if it's not Oktoberfest season, yeah, um
, but then, yeah, it's likewhenever I ride with friends,
like I just want to like watchthe sunset and like maybe cheers
at sunset.
And maybe that's why it goestogether so well.

Josh (46:23):
Hydration is one good thing.
Just the right vibe If I'mgoing to give the most boring
answer.

I'm going to say expendable income.
That's what draws them together?

Josh (46:32):
If you can afford bikes you can afford beer, right.

Dane (46:36):
I know a lot of people that don't have much expendable
income, but they still drinkcraft beer like crazy.

Josh (46:42):
I tell you what man like.
I have not always had money,but I have always drank beer.
Yeah, it's very true.

Dane (46:49):
So yeah, and and.
In the bike industry none of ushave money, but we have nice
bikes.

Josh (46:53):
So but that's true.
So what's the future look likefor the hop shop?

Oh goodness, I think more of the same.
I mean, we're always trying tofigure out the next thing of
what can keep people coming.
You know we don't want to gostagnant and be like we got this
, but because you know, thingscan turn on a dime.
So we're always coming up withnew, different events and trying
to just keep being thecommunity gathering place that
we are.

Josh (47:17):
Candles and coasters.

There you go, exactly.
I know October 15th, I'm hopingmore of the same, we don't hope
to expand anytime soon.
We like what we've got here.
Yeah, we want to keepperfecting this along the way.

Josh (47:31):
And you've kept it going for nine years, yep, so that's a
big deal.

You're past the first couple hurdles right,
exactly, exactly.

Dane (47:37):
Yeah.

I like the.
You know I bet you have likekind of a college crowd that
comes through and actually no,no, we have some.
I mean, what's interesting iswe're in the part of town where
we're kind of away from thecampus so it actually took us a
long time for college people tofind us yes um, we're more of a
working professional atmosphere.
People who have to get up for ajob tomorrow come here okay,
and we close early.
We close at 9 pm on weeknights.
We close at 11 on weekends.
We're here for the people whowant to have a couple beers and

(48:05):
then go sleep in their beds.

Josh (48:10):
Just the fact that you close early.
Probably you don't have as manylike end of the night.

Oh, yes, yeah , the couple times we've stayed
open to like new year's eve orsomething that's when it's been
a shit show yes, that's whenthings go wrong people are
smoking where they shouldn't andyou know, vomiting and whatever
.
It's been a shit show.
Yes, that's when things gowrong.
People are smoking where theyshouldn't and you know, vomiting
and whatever.
It's like we're not, we don'tneed any more of that.
So, yeah, we're, but we but, sopeople will come here.
We did get one funny Googlereview.

(48:35):
Um, that was obviously acollege kid that was just saying
it's fun you like to hang outwith old people.

Josh (48:45):
Is that why we like it so much?

He probably meant like 40 year olds, Like
it's like you know so old tothem.

Dane (48:53):
So, old.

Josh (48:54):
I've actually seen a pretty good mix in the few times
.

I've been here.

Josh (48:58):
I'm watching a 19 year old girl walk in right now.

They better be carding her.
Hopefully they're carding her.
I can't tell anymore.
I'm almost 50 50.

Josh (49:06):
So like girls look all the same age they're under 30.

I can't tell, okay, perfect, I will say we do
have a good like college crowdthough like, and especially when
they discovered us yeah, whenthey come in, like just I don't
know when you know school's insession, like it gets super busy
here so I do love how differentand like diverse it is like,
yeah, you have the workingprofessional, but you have
everyone from all over, andthat's just, like, I think, why

(49:30):
people keep coming back yeah,you don't see the same like age,
or same whatever no, it'spretty eclectic.

Dane (49:36):
Yeah, uh, we do um our social rides yeah so we go to
various places on these ridesthis is one of the places
they've come right.

Josh (49:43):
Yes, yeah, it's one of the most popular.
Aren't Ben and Carlos likeregulars?
Here?
Yes, yeah, you guys know Benand Carlos.

Well, yeah, the guy with the big thick glasses.

Dane (49:52):
I really like him and I remember talking to you.

I swear to God that's going to be his new name.
Well, because I was just.
There are some cyclists whoaren't cool and it's just been
really nice to like have justlike polite and funny and yeah,
so yeah, that's, I mean Carlos,my bad Kind of.

Dane (50:09):
I don't call him Charles Charles, sorry, charles Charlie.
Quintero yeah, but he's, uh, weare one of our last episodes
where it was with him.

Cool, I can.
I'm a bad person.

Josh (50:22):
You're not a bad person.
We need 63 listeners.
I love podcast, you can be 63.

Dane (50:27):
You too, you could be 64.

Exactly.

Dane (50:31):
I'm in.

Yeah, and especially when you guys like
like we pay attention to alsolike social media and like when
people are nice and like tag usand things and you just like
display yourself in, like acertain way, like that's also
really noticeable and yeah, youguys have always been like
really professional too.

Dane (50:47):
Those guys get most of the credit for Instagram.

Okay, good.

Dane (50:50):
Most of the time, the stuff that I post is like videos
and things like that.

Josh (50:55):
I'm just glad that you figured out what account you're
posting from.

I think that I've noticed you because there's
like some funny like videos of,like just your face, which is
like makes it good, like makesme want to go there.

Dane (51:07):
The Christmas one eating the Christmas cookie.

Everybody loved that and it was just goofy.
Is it still up?
We got to go watch it.
The most likes, most shares.

Dane (51:17):
No, but I got to tell you something.
This is funny because I'm older, so I'm learning social media
at a different rate, you know.

Josh (51:26):
He just got off.

Dane (51:26):
MySpace.
Yeah pretty much no, but I, youknow, I've never done stories on
social media and Josh was likeoh, that's all Lacey looks at is
stories, and I'm like why theygo away?
And, as a business, I can'tfigure that out, and so my
theory here's my theory, I'mgoing to put it out here Is
business, I can't figure thatout, and so my theory here's my

(51:47):
theory, I'm going to put it outhere is that that's facebook
tricking you into not storingyour info because you can still
access all your stories.
Just the users can't, you can't.
Oh, is that what it is?
Well then, why?

I do like that, like why?
But then just when you post it,it's like so permanent on your
page, what if?
What if you're not vibing withthat?
Oh, I'm okay with that.

Josh (52:05):
I put it all out like today I posted a picture of my
cute picture of my little dog onon my story.
I don't want to post thatforever yeah, exactly today.

It meant something.

Dane (52:14):
Exactly yeah, if you look at the next 24 hours, you get to
see my little puppy oh yeah,otherwise see, I want it all out
there forever forever I wanteveryone to see well, because
then you you know, because thenit's a game, you can go from the
very old ones and see thetransition of of somebody into
somebody else, you know orsomething.

Josh (52:29):
But important milestone stuff we'll put in like the like
I'm pretty sure.

Dane (52:34):
Yeah, yeah.
But if you look at the the our,our posts of me, like, you'll
see how I used to be skinny.

And then we all used to be skinny yeah exactly
At one point even Mark wasskinny.

Josh (52:48):
I'm pretty sure my hairline is now like changing,
and so I've never seen youwithout a hat on, so I don't
know.

Dane (52:53):
Well, yeah, I'm you know, I'm getting to that age where I
think some hairs are just scaredand taken off.

Packing their bags?
Yeah, a little bit Not as badas Justin.

Dane (53:03):
So one of my buddies.

Josh (53:04):
He pulls his hat off and you're like whoa Whoa, Because
he never takes his hat off, soyou guys are both ladies and you
guys both ride bikes and wehave part of our mission
statement is to help get morewomen onto bikes.

Just people in general.
People in general, butspecifically women.

Josh (53:18):
Yeah, part of that that rides and she's amazing and she
kicks my ass and she's likesuper motivating and I've seen
like what, like the group ofwomen that she's riding with,
and how they like support andhelp each other and it's amazing
like that, that, that groupkind of mentality.
It's way different than what Iexperience in the men, where if
you crash it's like get up youpoint and laugh right it's not

(53:40):
the same vibe, um, but I'd loveto hear your perspectives on
like what can we do?
And, interestingly, I don't knowif you guys know Jodi Bartz,
you know Jodi Bartz.

Yeah, she does all the AZ, the Grow Girls.

Josh (53:52):
We've had Jodi on a couple times.
We like Jodi a lot, she's gotthat mission.
But when we asked her what weshould do, she said get out of
my way.
Actually, she didn't just giveyou an idea.

No, that's what I want.

Josh (54:08):
But what can we do to help ?
What do you think we could doto help inspire more ladies to
ride?

I know it's so tough because I feel like I ride
so well with my dude brofriends yeah.

But I guess I can say whatever I want to them
too right so right, I don'tknow.

I just I think that it's all about just like,
yeah, I I feel like what shesaid is perfect get out of the
way.

Josh (54:35):
Get out of the fucking way .

That's exactly what she said I don't know, I
yeah, I mean, I feel like guysare like you, seem so cool and
like inviting I would, but yeah,like when it comes to like some
of these other dudes, that shecalls them trail chads.
Oh man, yeah, like I just Idon't, I don't even want to
waste the time with that,because I feel like we've all

(54:57):
been there, like they're alljust like trying to like say
something You're like this, justthis doesn't matter that
nothing good will come of thisLike like I know that sucks, but
not trying to.

Dane (55:07):
So no-transcript.
What's the worst thing somebodycan say?

Josh (55:15):
to you.
She's got a well, she's got aphrase she hates well, yeah,
she's got certain things.

Dane (55:20):
You know, everybody, I think, does I do.

Josh (55:21):
You know, I have things, josh, catch up, I hate that.

Or you can ride that, josh, I promise I think
that yeah like, especiallybecause, like my husband, can
like randomly, just like pick upand go and like he'll, he rides
like blacks, double blacks,fine, and barely rides ever um.
But for, yeah, when it's whenhe randomly is just like you can
do this, I know you can do this, it's like babe, no, I can't.
So yeah, maybe it's just likestuff like that where it's like

(55:46):
really beautiful and cute, thatlike you think, that like I have
the skill set and you're justtrying to be cutesy or something
.

Josh (55:52):
But like shut up.
Well, if you ever meet lacy,could you tell her and just I'm
the person she's trying to sayyou can ride this too.

I simply cannot wait to meet her but she sounds
wild, Like I would never be ableto ride with her oh you would
be.

Dane (56:04):
Yeah, she's very welcome.

Josh (56:05):
I'm doing it now.
You can ride with her.

Dane (56:07):
No, I know she's probably welcome.
You could do it.

I'm girl.

Dane (56:19):
Um no, like I'm serious though she like rides with my
hardcore friend, and my hardcorefriend makes me ill.
Yeah, you know, though, butjust like you were talking about
the pros, yeah uh, yourhardcore friend and lacy.

They're just normal people they just go a
little faster.
I know, I know and that's so.

Josh (56:31):
It's whatever.

Yeah you say get out of the way you do?

Josh (56:33):
what do you think?

oh my goodness, I don't, I don't even
know, I I mean, I've been alwaysriding.

Josh (56:39):
What got you to write into ?

with women.
You know, I don't.
I think it was just meetingpeople around here, meeting
friends, saying well, it's kindof cool.
I mean, I've ridden my bikerecreationally for my whole life
and I always thought that wasfine.
Um, but just meeting people.
And then what I think got mehooked was not just the
camaraderie but, um, gettinginto that flow state.
Maybe just advertise that flowstate, it is so good yeah, when,

(57:03):
when you are riding, somethingabout the periphery moving by
you.
You can solve any problem inyour head you can be stressed
out about something and you canwork it out when you're on your
bike, or you can not think aboutit and be free from it while
you're on your bike.
I mean, it's just like I don'tknow.
It's that unencumbered,peaceful mind.

(57:26):
Peace of mind where you're innature, got fresh air, you feel
strong because your body'sworking, yeah, um and, and your
mind is clear and I feel likethere's nothing better than that
.

Josh (57:36):
You know, I think I want to use that.
I want to use that like anadvertisement.
I want to use that clip.
Can I get your permission touse that?

There you go and honestly actually women need
more of that.
We are multitaskers, we try todo too much, we juggle a lot and
if you can get into a state ofmind where you're just doing
this in this thing, that is justso freeing and so healthy it's
interesting, so I think of it asmeditation.

Dane (57:59):
Yeah.

Josh (58:03):
When I'm I've got a job that has me thinking all the
time and stress out all the time, and when I go ride a mountain
bike I can't think of anythingbut don't hit that rock or fall
off that cliff.
So I come out of that ride mybody's tired and I my mind is
clear.

It's amazing, it's the best feeling it really
is.

Dane (58:16):
We call it therapy.
If I don't get to ride, I getedgy and I get agitated.
If I go out on a rideimmediately, I'm just calmer,
more patient, easier to dealwith.

Josh (58:28):
With all the badass women we've had and we've asked this
question and we've had wholeepisodes, multiple episodes,
dedicated just to that subject.
I've come to one conclusion, orI've drawn one conclusion
Specialized sucks, Specializedsucks, SRAM sucks.

Shimano's great and specialized is good.

Dane (58:45):
Okay.

Josh (58:47):
Do you know SRAM and Shimano?
We have a SRAM and Shimanodebate, yeah.

Dane (58:50):
That's because he likes to argue.
There you go.
He just likes it.
I love it.

Josh (58:55):
He just likes to argue, but the conclusion I've come to
is don't try to get your wife oryour girlfriend to my bro
friends.
Don't try to get your wife andgirlfriend to ride by bringing
them with you.
Find ladies for them to ridewith and it's going to work
better.
What do you think about that?

I think both honestly though.
Because I get along so wellwith my bro.
Friends too, though, but yeah,just getting getting into it.

Josh (59:23):
Yeah, right like that that community like yeah like maybe,
maybe it's not so much brofriends, but like I think
probably 80 of the men that Iknow that have tried to get
their wives and girlfriends toget into the sport because they
love it so much have not beensuccessful.
And I've been out on some ofthose rides and it's like you
bring that like marital strifeout onto the trail.

(59:44):
It's not the right vibe whenyou're doing something new and
you're uncomfortable and you'retrying to figure it out.

Yeah, that's a good point.

Dane (59:51):
So.
So when I got Jilly, mydaughter, into riding and it was
always tough because I made ita point not to push her, oh,
totally.

I don't want to force her, I don't want to
force my kids.

Dane (01:00:02):
I don't want to push them into it.
I want them to naturally enjoyit and want to be curious and go
out and ride and stuff.
And then they would go with meand we would ride.
And I'm trying to help her,maybe chatting her up a little
bit, telling, telling her trythis, do this, you can do this.
And I'm just trying to mentorher and get her to do it.
But it was when she gottogether with jody for grow girl
that she just blew up as acyclist she just yeah she's with

(01:00:26):
her peers she was with in acertain comfort zone.

Josh (01:00:29):
That I couldn't give her which I think is because you're
just you're because you don'thave a 30 second dance party
it's true um but it's it's alsobecause I'm the parent and I'm
always trying

Jessie Jean Mance (01:00:38):
to tell her what to do.

Dane (01:00:41):
And Jodi's more of a friend and the other peer group
she's in like Safe and time yeah.

And.

Dane (01:00:48):
I think that's important to get people started in both
genders, not just women, but inboth genders.
I think it's really good to bein a peer group.
So my son likes to go out withthe, the boys his age, yeah, and
then later, like like you weresaying, sarita, that uh, you
know you don't always have tostay in that peer group, you can

(01:01:09):
start graduating into adifferent peer group because
that little bit of help thatthat gave you kind of boosts
your confidence, gets you intothat group and, you know of,
boosts your confidence gets youinto that group and you know, if
they make really crappy, youknow statements, it can roll off
easier.
Whereas when you're starting, itcan wreck you.
It can take that little.

Josh (01:01:28):
Well, I had battered husband syndrome for five years
after riding with Lucy.
Oh yeah, I'm just now healingfrom it.

Dane (01:01:35):
Well, and you know, I look at, my wife is the same way
Like I.

Sarita Mendez (01:01:39):
You know, when we were dating, she tried to ride,
she tried to participate, andas soon as we got married, she's
like I'm not doing this, yeah,I think, yeah, I think back to
like when we were riding withBelle for like the first time,
like how just I don't know, wemade those friendships and like
everyone.

(01:01:59):
I think it's also like the jugeof tucson, though, like, yeah,
I do think that we have likereally special amazing people
here too, but I know that'severywhere.
But um, yeah, I don't know, Ijust I think our people are
better.

Josh (01:02:11):
Yeah, totally no offense to the rest of the world.

Yeah, exactly, all you listeners out there, all
those people and, I think,countries I think of like one
time that I like totally likeslashed my tire and we all just
stopped and like had a partyaround me and like, yeah, it's
just like little things likethat, that like I don't know, it
just makes you feel like not soshitty, like when everyone else
is like cool about it.

Dane (01:02:33):
But yeah, yeah it it does.
It sucks when you're in a groupand everyone's like, come on,
let's go, and they're the lastperson.
You're waiting for the lastperson yeah, that's me and
people get impatient you know,and they're they're upset about
waiting for somebody.
Yeah, and I kind of stoppedriding with those groups yeah,
yeah, those aren't my yeah Iride with the groups where

(01:02:53):
everybody's like all right cool,you know you still a break?
Just let me know when you'reready.
We're going to quilt.
We call it quilting.

Josh (01:02:59):
What?
That's what we call it when youquilt you like talk?
Yeah, so when you stop, you'relike talking.

Yeah, we're just all talking.
That's adorable Because you'reall stopping.

Dane (01:03:11):
She just called you adorable.

I'm going to and some of the people that
coined that are used to use itas derogatory and we take it
with pride.
Like you guys are quilting,let's go.

Dane (01:03:23):
You know, and I'm like hey , I got some quilting to do yeah
yeah, I'm gonna get this out.
We're gonna hang out becauseit's for me riding social
totally yeah, you know I don'tride by myself very much, and
when I do, uh like it is fast,it's like fast.

I get it over with and then I get home.

Dane (01:03:40):
But when I'm quilting, if I go out with the buddies, I've
got to add two hours to everyride.

Josh (01:03:46):
Seriously, because we're just hanging out having fun.
We're sitting at the hop shopdrinking a beer.

Dane (01:03:51):
Seriously, if you ride urban and you don't come here
and get some pizza and a beer.

Josh (01:03:59):
There's no reason to ride urban if you're not coming here.
Yeah.

Dane (01:04:02):
You should slow down enough to do those things.
Yeah, for sure?

Yeah, I feel like we have to go on their next
group ride, that's around here.
Oh my goodness, I know.

Dane (01:04:09):
When is that?
We're going to Sunday.
We're going to Patagonia,Patahoochee.
Oh my God, I saw that post.

Josh (01:04:14):
You're doing the gravel ride With the lumber company
down there, that's fun.

Dane (01:04:19):
Ben and Carlos are setting it up.

Josh (01:04:21):
When you guys get down there, talk to them.
I want to get them on thepodcast.
They got new owners now and Ihaven't talked to them yet.

Heidi and Xander are still fully around doing
cyclist menu stuff.

I would definitely talk to them too.

The new owners are.
The one is she.
She was like the manager, soshe's been there like for a
while too, but um, that's socool.
Do you ride the gravel outthere often?
Yes, oh, like often is reallyiffy I don't get much time to
ride, so it's always on mountain, unless I have extra time or we
do something like this yeah,it's cool to hear that you like
enjoy gravel as much as you domountain.

Dane (01:04:53):
Then gravel is is crazy, because there's a lot of people
that argue about gravel becauseit's just road biking, or why
don't you ride a 90s mountainbike?

yeah, and all kinds of stuff, yeah, and um,
going to patagonia in particular.

Dane (01:05:07):
You're out on these roads, you go into all these eco
systems oh yeah, you know, superbeautiful vistas out there.
Yep along the creek and thesebig oaks and cottonwoods and
then you climb a hill and thenpretty soon you're in these
shorter pinyon type uh woods andthen that just fades away into
these huge grasslands we shouldprobably clarify that we're

(01:05:27):
talking about patagonia, whichis a small town in arizona not
patagonia, where it's like what,venezuela or whatever, like the
famous patagonia?

Josh (01:05:35):
yeah, that's not what we're talking about.
No, I don't even know if it'sin Venezuela, but did you, you
know?

Dane (01:05:39):
Patagonia, arizona, is becoming super famous.
Yes For its gravel like superfamous and and I can see why
cause you go out there and it'spretty beautiful.

It's a tiny little town, yeah.

Dane (01:05:51):
It's a and gravel bikes are a lot of fun.
You're getting away from themajority of the cars.
You still have some risk.

Yeah.

Josh (01:06:03):
Because coming down those dirt roads, with your hands on
these gravel bars, oh my God.
Yeah.
And tires that are 42s, yeah,yikes.

Dane (01:06:08):
And just kind of just shaking and like you hit a
pothole and you can lose yourgrip.

Totally, yeah, I like prefer to bring my like my
dad, my calamity Jane, calamityJane because I have ridden
gravel like on my husband'sgravel bike out there and I
thought I was going to just diecoming down those hills, yeah,
but yeah, it's so epic out there, like those like the San Rafael
Valley, oh my God.
And like just being able tolike get a taste of like the
borderlands and like what thatmeans to like Tucson and

(01:06:35):
everything.

Dane (01:06:36):
It's just, it's super epic what that means to like tucson
and everything it's just it'ssuper epic yeah yeah, and it's
cool.
It's in our backyard and it'sbecoming super popular and you
wouldn't think that because thattown is tiny and there's not
bad mountain biking around theretoo.

Josh (01:06:45):
Oh yeah, yeah, the new arizona trail section down there
and all that, yeah, great stuffhave you ridden?

that's like the temporal gulch the newest.
No, I haven't.

Josh (01:06:53):
We had matt nelson from the arizona trail on and he was
telling me all about it.
Lacey went out and wrote it andshe's like it's kind of hard.

That's pretty figure.
I feel like all AZT is hard.
Yeah, okay, well, hearing thatfrom her then, yeah, hell, yeah,
well she was putting it throughmy lens.

Josh (01:07:08):
It wasn't hard for her, but she was like you might want
to just make sure you got a lotof time.
Oh my God, you're going to bewalking a little bit, yeah, all
right.
So how can our listeners learnabout the hop shop?
Where can we find you online?

Oh, follow our our Instagram.
What is?

Josh (01:07:25):
it.

I mean we'll put it in the show notes Tucson hop
shop.
Tucson hop shop.
It's super sexy, yes.

Sarita basically runs our Instagram.

No, it's both of us.
We have a lot of fun.
We try to be like as just likegoofy as possible and just like
inviting.

Josh (01:07:45):
I saw someone licking a beer today.

Did you like that ?
I did actually Is that whatthat was.
And that's shout out to Brian.
I require my beer to always bedelivered like that.

He licks every beer.
A service.
He is here tonight.
Yeah, at Tucson Hop Shop andthen TucsonHopShopcom right and
follow, yeah, our website forall the events.
We've got live music all thetime and pop-up events and
bakery pop-ups and all kinds offun stuff.

Josh (01:08:11):
That's super cool.
You guys got any final thoughtsfor our listeners?

Anything you want to share with them, anyone,
anything, any, some wisdom youwant to bestow upon our vast
audience like some beer and ifyou're afraid of a podcast?
Don't be there, you go right,yeah I'm a little scared still,
but yeah thank you, ladies, somuch.

Josh (01:08:34):
We appreciate your time.
Thank you so much for the beer.
We really enjoyed this.
Thanks you, ladies, so much.
We appreciate your time.
Thank you so much for the beerwe really enjoyed this.

Thanks you guys so fun.
Oh wow Music.
Oh my goodness, oh my God, thatwas crazy.

You should be on every podcast.

No.
You are so good and your voiceis so good, yours is so good,
your guys' voices are so good.
I feel like, yeah, do peoplesay like

All Episodes

086 – Beer & Bikes: How Tucson Hop Shop Created a Cycling Community Hub (Jessie Jean Mance & Sarita Mendez)

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}086 – Beer & Bikes: How Tucson Hop Shop Created a Cycling Community Hub (Jessie Jean Mance & Sarita Mendez)