Some stories don’t announce themselves as special; they just slowly prove it.
Several years ago, a husband and father here in Concord, New Hampshire lost his wife to cancer. A few years later, life dealt him another blow when he lost one of his sons to an unexpected illness.
His son was a mountain biker. He rode almost every day, spending countless days/weekends at Kingdom Trails in Vermont. In the final days of his life, mountain biking wasn’t just a hobby; it was where he found peace, freedom, and a sense of normalcy.
After his son passed, the bike came back to the father. He couldn’t let it go, but he couldn’t bring himself to do anything with it either. So it sat in the garage, untouched, collecting a layer of dust for roughly six years.
Then, during a routine roof wash at his home, a conversation sparked with one of the owner-employees from SprayForce. Somewhere between small talk and real talk, mountain biking came up. The father shared his son’s story; then showed the bike.
Rather than seeing an old, forgotten bike, potential showed itself. He mentioned knowing one of the co-owners of S&W Sports, one of Concord’s longest-standing bike shops, and offered to bring it in just to see what shape it was in.
The father was clear about one thing; he didn’t want it sold.
He wanted his son’s bike to be repurposed; specifically for a young person who loved mountain biking the way his son did.
Six weeks later, the bike came back transformed. Cleaned, tuned, and fully ride-ready. The SprayForce owner-employee and the S&W Sports co-owner brought it back so the father could see it one last time; not as a memory, but as something alive again.
That’s when the idea came up to donate the bike to Mutt Society.
The goal felt obvious; get this bike back on the trails, under someone who would ride it hard and love it fully.
And that’s where July quietly turned into December.
Earlier this month, Mutt Society heard from an aunt advocating for her nephew. She had bought him a lower-end bike about a year earlier, not knowing what to expect. What she discovered was a 12-year-old kid who was all in; riding constantly, asking questions, watching videos, and wanting more time on the trails.
She reached out to see if we had anything.
Obviously, we did.
The bike was gifted to him just in time for Christmas; along with a Troy Lee helmet and lift tickets to Thunder Mountain Bike Park. No names. No spotlight. Just a kid, a real bike, and a whole new level of possibility.
That bike didn’t just change hands; it carried a legacy forward.
This story isn’t about companies or credit. It’s about a father choosing to let something painful move forward instead of staying frozen in a garage. It’s about a few people crossing paths at the right moment. And it’s about a kid who now gets to fall in love with mountain biking the same way most of us on this crew have.
Sometimes Christmas doesn’t start in December.
How You Can Help
If this story hit you, there’s a simple reason; it’s not rare. There are kids out there who want to ride, who need an outlet like this, but don’t have access to the right gear or opportunities.
You can help by:
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Add Mutt Society to your annual charitable donations
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Donating bikes or gear you’re no longer using
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Supporting organizations like MUTT Society that focus on access, not accolades
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Connecting us with families or kids who could benefit
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Or just spreading the word so the next “garage bike” finds its way back to the trails
Legacies don’t live in garages.