THE VERTICAL BIKE.

This is where it all began. An idea that could solve a real problem. A compelling name. And one seemingly impossible challenge: getting a motorcycle up the trunk of a tree. Not just any tree. The aguaje. A remarkable tree, essential to the Amazon ecosystem. Massive in size, unique in texture, and constantly changing with the climate. It took us more than two years to make it happen. Two years of traveling deep into the Peruvian Amazon, where weather forecasts were often little more than a guess. Because, in the Amazon, who can really tell what the sun has in mind? So we learned to make every day count. We traveled to where the aguaje trees grow. We tested. We failed. We started again. We came up with solutions like engineers and worked alongside actual engineers, of course. Step by step, we kept pushing an idea that, somehow, still felt right. But this was never just a story of trial and error. The deeper we went into the process, the more we understood the people who cut these trees down. From the outside, it is easy to see ignorance. But when you get closer, when you listen, when you understand their reality, you see something else. Survival. And that’s when the problem became much bigger than getting a motorcycle up a tree. It became about finding a way for people to make a living without having to cut one down. Here is a small glimpse into my phone’s camera roll, and into the journey behind The Vertical Bike. An idea that took more than two years to get a motorcycle up a tree so that, in the end, that tree could stay right where it belongs.