An unlikely place for a mountain bike story, I found myself in Grand Rapids, Michigan this week on assignment for Bike magazine profiling members of the extinct mountain bike company Nuke Proof (circa 1990s). One of the most interesting parts of the trip was wandering around the old train yards and steel transferring buildings that facilitated manufacturing in Grand Rapids. Nowadays, the manufacturing economy is all but dried up and one lonely employee we met wondered “why I still have a job after 25yrs”. Though, he’s probably fortunate to have one at all.