The day began a little late when I arrived in Leadville sometime around 3PM. My original intention was to meet up with Matt at one o'clock, but the 200 mile drive from where I was staying at Red Feather Lakes to Leadville took much longer than expected. Part of the reason was that the scenery along the way to Leadville was spectacular and I drove at a Sunday tourist's pace to take it all in. The word my fiancee and I concluded which would best describe the surroundings was majestic. Yes, majestic is what it was.

Rolling into Leadville's downtown area and closing in on Matt's "home", I began to feel a wee bit of excitement. How cool is this - I thought to myself. It's not everyday that a person gets a chance to "moto" (as Matt puts it) with the guy that designed and built the frame on their bike ...and not just moto mind you, but moto at altitude! Yes, Leadville is situated at over 10,000 feet so I'd be riding on some of the highest trails in the states. Yeah baby!

The GPS in the rental Volvo wagon calls out "You have arrived" as I catch view of the Leadville Hostel and Inn. With plenty of parking up front, I pull into a space and pause for a moment to reflect on what a great roadtrip it had been so far. I just watched one of my best friends from my childhood get married in a beautiful outdoors wedding (complete with bagpipes and horses/stagecoach), and now I'm about to go riding with Matt on his home turf. He had called me earlier in the week to say that he was scouting out trails for us to hit so I was anticipating some great riding... and as we'll see, I was not let down.

Exiting the car, I began to head around to the back side of the hostel where the "shop" is located when a guy comes out towards me. It was Matt... only he looked different than I expected so I was subtly surprised when my brain made the connection. It was one of those "Oh hey, it's you" type of deals. Matt was skinnier and younger looking than I had pictured him to be. As a matter of fact, he looked very much like your average clean-cut twenty-something kid - not the stocky adult male that the images on his website seems to depict. If I had any anxiety about meeting Matt, they were quickly displaced by the friendly demeanor the guy put forth. Matt seemed like an old buddy, and it took no effort to feel at ease with him.

After a quick exchange of greetings it was time to explore Matt Chester's world. Armed with my trusty digital camera, I followed Matt as we began the guided tour of his factory. Heheh... yeah right. The only thing which might qualify his operation as a factory is that he's paying himself third-world wages to slave away at his craft. Anyways, first stop on the tour is the hostel's primary garage space. This is a common area shared by the fleeting inhabitants of the hostel. (In the picture, you can see a little door to the left side of the garage. Behind that door is where Matt lives and works.) There were no vehicles inside at the time so the most readily visible attraction was the bike rack... THE bike rack - inconspicously sitting within were UtiliTiman #1 and Indie Rock #1. With an hidden sense of urgency, I glided to the back wall of the garage to begin with the photo-journalism process. Shoot first, ask questions later was my moto. My intent was to snap as many pictures as I could, then worry about what I was photographing afterwards.

My enthusiasm led me first to Indie Rock #1 for close examination. Although the frame was somewhat splattered with a covering of mud, there was a very apparent couth about it. This is one nice bike with some unique qualities, no doubt. Matt says that he built this Indie Rock as his personal dream bike, and his spidery bodily proportions were manifested in the tall size of the frame. This was a bummer because the bike would be too big for me to do a full-on proper test ride.

In this picture, check out the neat, unassuming canti cable guide. You can also see that there is quite a bit of reflective tape on the bike's seatstays. Matt's 40-mile commute to work begins in the wee hours of the morning so any additional visibility to traffic would make life a bit safer. Something that might be of interest to you ultra-endurance riders is the availability of three water-bottle mounts.

One of the features I found to be really cool was Matt's innovative use of derailleur quick-adjusters for fine-tuning the rear canti brakes. There's one of these on each end of the top-tube, adding functionality that previously was not available to typical canti setups. I think this feature is optional, although I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to take advantage of this design.

After sufficiently whetting my appetite over the Indie Rock, it was time to enter Matt's work/living space, which is a small but well-lit area on the left side of the garage. The first thing I noticed was that Matt seems to be one very organized dude - but then I guess you'd have to be in order to successfully survive in such a tiny area. On one wall section, number plates from the many events he has entered are neatly hung. On another, technical-looking paperwork adorn the wall as well as drawing area it faces. Spread throughout are various tools of the trade, including the frame jig that Matt got from Gary Helfrich.

This is the frame Matt was working on at the time of my visit. The titanium tubes were oh-so-pretty and the welds that Matt are laying look fantastic. The following few shots show the various areas/items of interest in the workspace. With all these pictures you might be fooled into thinking that there's a lot of room, but in reality it's just a compact rectangular space with a whole lotta stuff well-arranged.

Here's something that we had a bit of a laugh about. Apparently Gary H. sent Matt this fat titanium tube in thinking that Matt might have some use for it. Uh, yeah... If anybody wants the "extra-beefy" downtube option on their next Ute please let Matt know in advance as tubing quantity is limited. :-)

Before leaving the work area to prepare for our ride, I took this photo of all the sweet titanium tubes in Matt's "inventory". All I could think about was man, I'd build myself so many bikes!.

While I'm at it, I figured I might as well take some pics of Matt's lavish vehicle. Check out the amenities; who needs four-wheel-drive when you have a 400+ pound iron structure in the pickup's bed to keep the rear wheels planted. Heheh... I Like It.

Ok, we've pretty much established that Matt's a swell guy and all - but get this. I had mentioned to him that perhaps my fiancee will catch a movie or something while we're out riding so... Matt calls up the local theaters and writes down all the movie times for various movies while waiting for us to arrive! Here you see Carmela (my fiancee) examining the selection. It was all for naught though, as Carmela's navigation skills weren't quite good enough to get her to the theater, even with the in-car GPS and all. Don't get me wrong. She's probably the most technically inclined female I know, but there's just something about maps and women for which there's no symbiotic relationship. By the way, the building directly behind Matt is the Leadville hostel. It's run by a nice guy called Wild Bill and is one heck of a cool setup for a hostel. I'd happily stay there the next time I'm in the area.

Matt's checking out my personal UtiliTiman in this shot. My guess is that he's looking at the frame and thinking What the hell did you do with my hoopty stickers?. Heheh. I had meant to get new ones made and put on before the trip, but have just plain been too tied up to do so. Anyways, Matt hopped on for a ride and you could tell right away that even my "large" Ute was setup way too small for him.

For those of you eagerly awaiting some good pictures of the Indie Rock, these are it. Since Matt hadn't washed the bike prior to my arrival the frame's tubes look a little dull from the mud. The photos should give you a good idea of what the Indie Rock is all about, though. Matt's 6'2" tall, and the side profile of the bike obviously reflects that. Also, if you can't tell from the picture - that seat on the bike is plastic!

It was then time to go riding. We both changed into riding attire, loaded up with waters, and proceeded to roll out of town. I had told Matt that the altitude hasn't been kind to me so we opted to approach our initial climb from a more leisurely route. The ride started on a nicely paved bikepath, meandering through some pines before finally intersecting with a Jeep-trail that we would continue on to take us to the top.

We rode at a modest pace, but even so I could feel the altitude affecting me. Every little climb proved to be enormous work and I was really bummed to not be able to ride at my best. While we rode Matt gave me a tour of the surrounding scenery. There were many points of interest related to the old mining facilities.

In this particular shot the trail known as Mosquito Pass is clearly visible. Apparently it's one hellacious challenge to crest cleanly. Even with the switchbacks, there are some sections that are just plain too steep and rocky to navigate for the average rider. Add to that the elevation, and you can pretty much proclaim yourself a biking god if you're able to make it all the way to the top successfully. It's doable, says Matt. One of these days I'd like to train for Leadville 100 and come out to conquer this baby.

A couple of views from along the way, near the top of our climb for the day.

Here we are at the "peak" with the town of Leadville somewhat in the background. I was relieved to know that we would now be descending a while before having to do any more climbing. Whilst my lungs had seem to struggle for air with every pedal stroke taken, Matt seemed to have cruised along the without much effort. During the whole ride he repeatedly dropped me like a rock at every incline, and this rest at the top was very much welcomed (by me). We took in the scenery, and I snapped off a series of pictures to assemble as a panoramic view of the area but unfortunately those shots didn't turn out too well.

As usual, I did get the customary shot of my Ute.

The following pictures are of Matt descending various portions of the trail. I was quite amazed at how fast he could go using those skinny cyclocross tires. The last time I went down a hill at such speed on a cyclocross bike left me with a mild concussion and a slightly dislocated shoulder!

The fun was temporarily suspended when Matt managed to sustain a large gash on the side of his brand new rear Tufo tire. Again I was surprised. Man, you should see how fast Matt can run with a flat tire.

While Matt was busy stretching the spare Tufo to prepare for changing out the flat, I eyed a fun-looking hill just to the side of us. The angle looked pretty doable so I hiked up it to attempt a quick ride back down.

Matt snapped off these photos of me pulling it off... it was much scarier to ride than these pictures depict. The surface was loose and speed picked up extremely fast. I did it twice and that was enough for me.

And we're off! Luckily, the Tufo mounted on first try and Matt didn't have to suffer too much grief trying to stretch that thing over the rim. I took this picture as he crossed the cool little bridge over a man-made channel that probably served the mining operations in some way.

Here we have a couple of more shots of Matt as we head to a nice little singletrack which would cap the day's riding activities. Once on the aforementioned singletrack, I was treated to some really phenomenal Colorado trail riding. Weaving amongst groves of pine at first then aspen in the later sections, we followed the singletrack into serene forest unlike any that I've seen in Southern California. At some sections, the trees were so dense that handlebar clearance became a real issue. Actually, it was an issue only for me as Matt came through the ride unscathed.

In some of the following shots Matt was moving too fast which in turn caused the pictures of him to be blurry. In those cases, I added some effect so as to still be able to use the pic and have it be interesting.

Right before I took this picture of Matt rounding the switchback he warned me to be careful on the upcoming portion of the trail as tree clearance was going to be very tight. Well - not heeding his words I blasted around the turn then down the subsequent hill. I was carrying a lot of speed when I noticed a few trees approaching that were obviously much narrower than my handlebars. Attempts at braking were nearly useless as the combination of loose dirt and decline didn't allow for enough time to slow down and do the normal zig-zag thing that one does to maneuver through. What a mistake... the right side of my handlebar clipped a tree and promptly sent my left knee into the steerer of the fork for a painful wack. I paused there for a moment to suffer through the initial scorn my kneecap was channeling to my sensory nerves then eventually caught up to Matt waiting a little ways down the trail.

We continued on for a while then came to this rustic stream crossing. The water was rushing by at a frantic pace and looked really clear. Ahhhh... Colorado mountain spring water.

Riding further, we eventually came to the end of the trail just as the sun was beginning to set. In this picture Matt exits the thick forest just outside of town.

Leadville city limits. Here we're waiting on traffic as we head back to the hostel. After a quick jaunt through "downtown" (where the Leadville 100 starts) we arrive back to find Carmela hanging out and watching the hostel's huge TV. I showered, then changed into some warm clothes as the temperature got to be chilly. Once cleaned up, Matt suggested that we walk to the nearby brew-pub for some dinner. That sounded like a dang fine idea to me.

This is the view from the hostel towards downtown Leadville. As you can see, the area is still very quaint and not a sprawling metropolis like so many of today's cities. As Matt prefers to be away from crowds, this suits him just dandy.

Great food and even better company. What more could there be to life? I had an enormously fun time visiting with Matt Chester and hope to do so again in the future. In this day and age of big corporate entities, mergers, and buyouts - it's reassuring to know that there are still some selfless small-op guys out there doing what they do because they are passionate about what they do. Keep it crankin', Matt!