Finished up a weekday workshop this week. @josephcoelhoauthor completed a gravel bike. As a childre

Joseph Coelho completed a weekday workshop and left with this gravel bike. As a children's author, he understands the value of making things by hand.

Those yellow and black patterned lugs are bold. The design suggests something between tiger stripes and lightning bolts — the kind of visual energy that children's book illustrations carry. Joseph clearly brought his creative sensibility to the build.

The workshop background is unmistakably ours. Bamboo tubes on shelves waiting for future builders. Ducting overhead. Tools arranged for the next session. Joseph stands in the space where his frame came together, holding the finished result.

Weekday workshops suit certain schedules. Writers, freelancers, anyone whose time doesn't follow the Monday-to-Friday pattern of office work. Joseph took days that could have been writing time and invested them in craft.

The smile says what needs saying. Holding a finished bike you built yourself — the weight of it, the reality of it — creates a particular satisfaction that photographs capture but words struggle to convey.

Joseph tells stories for a living. Now he has a new one: the bike he built himself. 📖