We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cris Adame a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Cris, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What was your school or training experience like? Share an anecdote or two that you feel illustrate important aspects or the overall nature of your schooling/training experience.

I attended SouthWestern College for junior college there I join the cross country team and met amazing coach and other athletes I loved the enviroment, I never run before and joined xc team so I can become a better cyclist. During the time I was racing nationals for Mountain Bike and needed to do some extra training. After two seasons at SWC I got offers from different universities to run cross country and track. Long story short decided to attend Mississippi Valley State University for couple reasons first is a NCAA Division I University, this means I had to work hard to make the team each semester. Second MVSU was in the middle of the woods, this means no distractions, so school and training was the only plan. So it happend spend every morining running for the first run of the day, right away start clases 8:00am and finish classes around 2:00pm the second part of practice was 3:30pm so that small gap was for small snack, homework and or express naps. After practice dinner and homework was the only plan to make it.on time to bed. This happened all season’s during the summer was the only break. Fall we run Cross Country, during the winter we run Indoor track and for the spring semester we ran outdoor track. Our vacations were during the summer but this doesn’t mean we can take break we used summer to come back home and get the miles. I loved this era of my life when you are concentrated on your goals and you are so busy trying to become better athlete or person. I relate this in work I have so many plans; however, we have to strike one by one make it good so you don’t skip any step. We are doing the same with the bike shop the plan is the same just expand in different areas of cycling.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I attended SouthWestern College for junior college there I join the cross country team and met amazing coach and other athletes I loved the enviroment, I never run before and joined xc team so I can become a better cyclist. During the time I was racing nationals for Mountain Bike and needed to do some extra training. After two seasons at SWC I got offers from different universities to run cross country and track. Long story short decided to attend Mississippi Valley State University for couple reasons first is a NCAA Division I University, this means I had to work hard to make the team each semester. Second MVSU was in the middle of the woods, this means no distractions, so school and training was the only plan. So it happend spend every morinings running for the first run of the day, right away start clases 8:00am and finish classes around 2:00pm the second part of practice was 3:30pm so that small gap was for small snack, homework and or express naps. After practice dinner and homework was the only plan to make it. On time to bed. This happened all season’s during the summer was the only break. Fall we run Cross Country, during the winter we run Indoor track and for the spring semester we ran outdoor track. Our vacations were during the summer but this doesn’t mean we can take break we used summer to come back home and get the miles. I loved this era of my life when you are concentrated on your goals and you are so busy trying to become better athlete or person. I relate this in work I have so many plans; however, we have to strike one by one make it good so you don’t skip any step.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

The most successful strategy to grow the business has been our customers, Customer refer us to other riders or here in the community people used to drive to other cities to get their bike repairs. We had never spend money on advertising since you need to be paying every month, then if you stop paying they moved you to the second page anyways. Thanks to our customer we had being pretty busy wrenching on their bikes. Our honesty has brought our clientele.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

One of the core reasons why Peninsula Bikes exists, is because first of all we are cyclist in almost every aspect I had been riding since I was young during the early 90’s when being outside was still cool, every kid in the neighborhood had a BMX we used them for transportation since I grew up in small community. Eventually HUFFY’s came into the market it was the first Mountain Bike brand in mass production, My brother and I were the first ones on the streets that got one for christmas in the community eventually everyone moved from ’20 bmx wheel to mtb ’26. During high school started racing mountain bike cross country, years after I raced Road and some criterium racing which is huge here in California. since then I took couple of breaks from racing however I never recall stop riding other than injuries. Cycling has become part of my life in every aspect. recently I jumped into the GRAVEL wagon I like it, is ideal for roadies who had never been off-road, Before working on certain bikes you have to ride on them to understand them. I even did a Triathlon during 2009 I tough it was going to be easy with the running background, well this is something for sure I will never do again I trained so much for this event did well, however is hard to keep up with 3 disciplines at the same time. so every time a TT bike walks into the shop I relate this customer with a person who is busy keeping up with 3 disciplines. I relate this with me I am a father, husband and hard worker.

Contact Info:

• Website: peninsulabikes.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ciclipeninsula/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mtb.tijuana/

Image Credits
Kevin Cabrera