Because it's there

I remember reading that over 100 years ago, a journalist from the American newspaper "The New York Times" asked George Mallory, a famous mountaineer, in regard to his preparation for a third British expedition to conquer the summit of Mount Everest: "Why do it?" The answer was short and definitive, the three most famous words in mountaineering: "Because it's there."

I give the same answer when people ask me why did I choose a Scarab: "Because it's there." If I wanted to climb a mountain pass and get a PR to brag about on Strava, I'd probably be better off choosing a sleek Italian road bike with a light carbon frame. If I wanted to descend technical trails at high speed, I should probably buy an American bike with dual suspension. If I wanted to dazzle fellow cyclists at a coffee stop, perhaps I should acquire the brand and model that Pogacar or Vingegaard use to win Grand Tours.

Owning a Scarab is a choice made by conviction, because it's the bike you want to ride, an acquired taste that probably comes after having owned more than one bike in your life.

Choosing a Scarab is like preferring a Swiss mechanical watch to an Apple Watch. I feel excitement knowing that the frame of my Páramo was handmade by a human being I can greet by name if I visit the factory in El Retiro, and not in an automated megafactory.

I take pleasure in appreciating its unique paint job, developed with an artist to express my personality, and executed by a flesh-and-blood craftsman.

I value Santiago's courage to materialize his dream, to build a bicycle brand from scratch in his own way, to generate employment locally and sell hundreds of unique machines to amateur cyclists globally.

An Apple Watch is exceptional, as are dozens of phenomenal brands that can be bought in stores around the world. I don't dispute their beauty or their outstanding engineering, but it's not a unique creation that only I can enjoy, that was made with care and attention so I can ride with excitement.

I don't ride my Scarab chasing a PR. I do it for the passion of doing it on an artisanal piece, to forget for a moment the daily anxieties and feel special on a machine that someone I can talk to designed, built, and delivered to me.

In a world where we don't know where the light comes from when we flip a switch or how the fish on our plate got there, it's comforting to use something when I know its provenance: who made it and how it was built. It's a reminder of our humanity, that we are "homo faber" and that we can create beautiful things with our hands.

Written by Ugo Posada, owner of this beautiful Scarab Páramo. 

you can contact Ugo here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/uposada/