My name is Zach Balakas, I'm from New Jersey. I've always been into bikes since I was a kid. Had my Knight Rider Big Wheel when I was super young and I wore the wheels off that thing, literally. Then came a Huffy with training wheels and I remember it had a cobra on the seat, I was so pumped on it and I was constantly riding that thing around my neighborhood. Training wheels came off, scraped up both knees and elbows in the same fall, got back on it until I figured out how to ride it.
As I got older, I went from one bike to the next, just destroying them because I was always on them, jumping them, riding around my town until it was dark and my mom would call me home for dinner. There was never a time that I wasn't on my bike. As I was growing out of my current bikes, I got into BMX and started to figure out how everything works and took my own bike apart, painted it, put it back together, learned the ins and outs.
A few years later, I became a certified mechanic at a shop where I worked on the weekends through my college days, and till this day I am still a bike mechanic simply because I love bikes. I love how they come together to serve a purpose, but more importantly to provide a feeling. A feeling that I had when I was a kid, and even now at age 30, I still have the same feeling when I ride. It's fun. For those of you that ride, you know exactly what I'm talking about. When you're on that saddle, pedaling, whether it be down a wide open road going full speed, mashing through traffic in the city, or even just a quick run to the store, you forget about all the troubles of the day, all the bills that are due, or homework piling up, and your life is fun and simple. That's why I ride, for the simplistic fact that my life is fun and my bike frees me from the everyday BS and let's me be happy.
That is why I'm Never Not Riding. It's my therapy.
- Zach
more photos from Zach and his Kagero very soon!!
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