Anastasia Samarina: SYRE carbon frames, their bike bags and the first races

Guest

Useful from the issue

1. Don't be afraid to join the company

   Nastya's main advice to herself, a beginner, is not to be afraid to join a cycling party. Communities like Cycle Girls are specially built so that the beginner is comfortable and safe.

2. The first race is safe

   For her debut, Nastya chose the race that seemed to her the safest, and a short distance. Such a start allows you to understand the format without unnecessary stress.

3. Aerodynamics are important even at the start

   At the first race, she was slowed down by a windbreaker, inflated by a sail, and a wide steering wheel. Tight-fitting clothes make a noticeable difference even before any training.

4. Do not burn your strength before the start

   An extra warm-up lap before the gravel race added about 20 km to Nastya and noticeable fatigue. Warm-up before a long race should be short.

5. Love of business opens doors

   Nastya was taken to SYRE by a simple letter stating that she loves bicycles and knows how to work with her hands. It is worth writing to brands directly when you see a vacancy.

How to get into the production of frames

Ilya was sure that Nastya was a web designer, but it turned out that her main job now is to make bicycles in SYRE. She got there almost by accident: friends threw off an ad in social networks, she wrote that she loves bicycles very much and knows how to work with her hands — and they took her.

Nastya conducts a full cycle of frame production, except painting: pattern cutting, molding, baking carbon, assembly, processing and shipping to the customer. According to her, this season unexpectedly a lot of orders came from Russia — from St. Petersburg and Moscow.

From rolling bikes to gravel

As a child, the bike was like everyone else's — they rode without realizing that a flat tire was not the end of the world. While studying in Barnaul, Nastya rented bicycles and rode for days, but did not realize yet that it was hers. The realization came in 2020: I looked out the window at the girls on beautiful city bikes, collected money and gave myself a bike for my birthday.

The first was a simple MTB Forward, on which she left for the forest, sometimes until night. For two years she got to know the St. Petersburg riders, realized that she couldn't take them out riding on this bike, and switched to a gravel road. The highway, Nastya admits, is a bit boring for her: she loves gravel and shaking.

Bag Workshop and Community

Nastya's second hobby is sewing, and the dream of sewing bicycle bags has turned into a small workshop. There is already a seat bag for tools, musette and frame bags, and there are plans for caps and another, more complex bag.

The Cycle Girls women's community helped her to join cycling culture: the races there are thought out to the smallest detail so that everyone is safe and comfortable. Gravel parties in St. Petersburg are more difficult — according to Nastya's feelings, there are mostly small closed groups where you can't get to without acquaintances, and it's easier to find a highway company.

The first races

Nastya's first race was Strada: she was chosen as a safe start. At a distance of about 40 km, on a non-aerodynamic bike and in a sail jacket, she became about the eighth in her age group and was very pleased with it. Group road races have long frightened her with chaos in the peloton.

Then there was Ilya's race, where she unexpectedly won her category and caught rain, hail and rain again, and then the first gravel race — third place, although due to confusion she was awarded not at the ceremony, but later. She was preparing there in earnest and for some reason drove an extra test lap before the start.

Two hundred kilometers alone and plans

Nastya's longest trip is about 200 km. There were no fellow travelers: everyone found the idea meaningless, and she went alone, leaving late, at 11 a.m., with a headwind on the first ~ 130 km. I didn't understand why I was driving, so I'm going to repeat it, and maybe even drive more.

This season Nastya wants to assemble a SYRE frame herself, with her own hands at the factory. She has no plans to chase victories: last year she proved to herself that she can, and now she will be able to go. The machine did not come to her, the track seemed expensive, but she is looking at cyclocross and, perhaps, the Tsar Grader.

Timestamps

1. 00:00Acquaintance
2. 00:49Work in SYRE and production of frames
3. 04:13How Nastya started skating
4. 08:22Bicycle Bag Workshop
5. 10:48Cycle Girls and St. Petersburg gravel
6. 12:29The first races
7. 17:33Plans: own SYRE frame
8. 21:36Two hundred kilometers alone
9. 23:13Advice for beginners
10. 24:50About Ilya's race and work balance

Mentioned in this episode

SYRE · Cycle Girls · Strada · Tsar Grader · Forward