Why Building the Best Bike Requires a Proper Vibe Check

Boom Boom Bike Room owners Erin and Alex Guereña don’t want to just build you a bike. They want to build you your bike.

The first step of the process? Make a playlist.

“We ask for the playlist to get the vibe you picture for the bike and on the bike, like how you want to ride it,” Alex said. “It’s a very collaborative thing that you can get lost in the weeds on really easily. So, it’s good for us to understand where you’re coming from.”

Someone might not know much about the intimidating technical details of a bike or exactly how they want it to look. But they do typically know how they want to feel on their bike.

And for Erin and Alex, that’s the good stuff. That’s what makes the playlist an essential first step of the journey.

You provide the vibes, they provide the expertise.

“What we’re doing is building [bikes] in a collaborative way,” Alex said. He’s found it’s best when customers aren’t completely set in stone on their idea of how the bike should be built, when they welcome other ideas and expertise.

“If you’re willing to be open and have fun with it,” he said, “it kind of opens up the whole rainbow of bikes and [components] we can offer you, maybe beyond what you’ve thought before.”

Boom Boom services all rigid, steel-frame bikes, but specializes in refurbishing vintage mountain bikes, mostly from the ’80s and ’90s. They retrofit them with modern components and colorful details to have you riding in style, whether on the road or the trail.

I recently commissioned a bike from them and created a playlist of songs I’d been grooving to on the reg: everything from rock en español to Houston, Texas, rap; from funk to punk; from Mariah Carey to Selena Quintanilla.

“From your playlist, it doesn’t seem like it’s gonna be a very boring bike,” Alex told me at our first meeting. “It feels like you’re maybe more open to some funky, cool stuff that’s different.”

I confirmed his suspicion, and he had already pulled a few vintage bike frames for me to check out, each with their own benefits and idiosyncrasies of which Alex, a seasoned bike mechanic and enthusiast, could talk in detail about for hours.

Erin and her intuitive eye for aesthetics helped guide me to the right frame — my right frame: a flamingo-pink Schwinn with a subtle shimmer. It wouldn’t have been my first choice out of the lineup, but the more I looked at it the more it resonated. Erin’s perspective convinced me, too.

“I think a lot of women shy away from pink, like, ‘No, I can’t have pink because it’s too girly,’” Erin said, “but I think there’s an aggressiveness to this pink, too. Like, lemme show you what pink can do.”

I was sold. Next up was letting them know how I planned to ride my new whip. This helps dictate what kind of components and frame geometry will work best. I plan to take leisurely rides around my neighborhood streets, but also want to be ready to take the rugged backcountry with my partner, an avid cyclist.

I mostly wanted to more comfortably join the free Wednesday-night bike rides Boom Boom hosts every week, fun and communal gatherings that take us all over Santa Barbara and into its most unique spaces and trails that are sometimes new to even locals like Erin and Alex.

My first time on the ride was wholesome and exhilarating. It was one of the most pure, challenging, and enjoyable experiences I’d had in years. We glided along city streets as a group, turning onto random dirt trails that’d spit you back out to somewhere familiar again.

The vibes were positive and laid-back, with everyone chatting, laughing, and encouraging each other along the way. And no one gets left behind on these rides, no matter your speed or comfortability on the bike.

“The intention is to have a good time and be welcoming and inviting to people, to anyone,” Alex said.

“It’s not competitive, either,” Erin added. “And I think people who naturally have a more competitive nature, they come on our rides and kind of change their mindset around that a little bit.”

The peak of the journey was catching a gorgeous summer sunset at More Mesa, which was made all the more inspiring knowing we got there together. I returned home feeling like a kid again. I was tired and dirty, with a bloody knee from a fall, but I couldn’t wait to get back out there.

The whole experience felt communal and authentic, not over-produced or with a hidden agenda. You don’t even have to be a Boom Boom customer to join in. That’s not what it’s about.

“Something we’ve always talked about since we started dating is that one day we could change community-building in this town,” Erin said. “If [people are] feeling the community aspect of the rides, then that’s rewarding enough for us.”

Erin and Alex are married and were both born and raised in Santa Barbara. They love their city, and, with roots in the local punk scene, building meaningful community has always motivated them as people and local business owners. They’ve been barbers since 2013 and opened Haven Barber & Shop, right next door to Boom Boom, in 2019.

Both businesses have become neighborhood fixtures on their stretch of De la Vina, and complement each other well, blending nostalgia — think: vintage toys and video game consoles — and original, funky-cool aesthetics. That fearless and inspiring originality seems to coat every experience Erin and Alex create, from the rides to their businesses to their custom-made bikes.

My bike commission was no exception. After our initial meeting to start the build, Alex and his team excitedly pulled an all-nighter to get the first draft out. He texted me a photo of the bike in bright morning light, and we chatted about the first look and potential edits.

I wanted a little more color to balance out the pink frame with another pop, so we settled on adding bright pedals and handlebar grips. We chatted about front racks versus rear racks, both aesthetically and technically (I went with a front rack). And Alex even had an idea to incorporate purple-red cables and housing on the bike, as a nod to my maroon garnet wedding ring.

I came into the shop twice more to make final edits and give the bike a ride. I felt seen when Erin, who has been cutting my hair for nearly two years, aptly advocated against cruiser handlebars for me. She also helped me add the final touch to bring it all together — purpley-silver iridescent handlebar wrapping.

When I saw the final product, I felt like I was meeting myself in bike form. I was pleased to see the colors come together, and deeply identified with the vibe: sweet and vibrant, but with an edge — just like my playlist that started it all.

But that’s usually the case with these builds. Turns out, with the right vibes, technical and aesthetic expertise, and open collaboration, you can build your perfect bike.

“I think what’s happening is you just wanna have fun on bikes,” Alex said, “so, every step of the process of you building a bike, too, is you participating and making it the perfect thing to have fun on, without having to think about it in the most analytical terms.”

See Kevin Tran’s Transmissions Video on the Boom Boom Bike Room here.