I enjoyed bikes as most kids do, but the bug bit harder with my first mountain bike in junior high. My buddy across the street and I spent our time in the local creeks and hills hiking around and looking for adventure, but with the mountain bike, it became so much more accessible. We'd ride out after school looking for new trails, trying to clean the hard sections, swimming in a lake tucked in the grassy foothills, and run away from the landowner on our mountain bikes. In college I had housemates that were into cycling as well, and there were lots of good trails around UC Santa Cruz, so I got even more into it, including getting a road bike. This opened up some more doors and I was riding new routes with new people and enjoyed more variety and time on the bike. I rode a bit with the cycling team and did a few races. After college I got a sales job at the Wheelsmith bike shop in Palo Alto, CA. It was a special shop - lots of history, lots of talent was there, I was very pleased to be working at such a special place. I learned a great deal there, especially in the area of fitting. I soon became the guy doing all the fittings of bikes, cleats, and was selling most of the custom bikes as a result. Custom bikes were capturing my imagination and fascination.

I moved back to Santa Cruz in 2000 and worked as a mechanic in some great shops there. I was really happy to be getting my hands dirty and doing the mechanical work, that's where my heart was. As time went on my thinking about custom bikes and builders grew into a notion that I wanted to do that, I wanted to build bikes.

My dad was an engineer, and at home was a constant tinkerer/builder/repairer. I had spent a lot of time with him working on cars, bikes, and other stuff. My favorite was having an excuse to use the lathe, the milling machine, or weld something. I have a creative side, I'm no artist, but had a great time creating things in metal, doing art projects of sorts. At the same time, my job was less stimulating than it used to be. So I had this thing brewing: creativity, love of custom bikes, interest and experience with bike fit, love of metalworking, mechanical aptitude and interest, and a bit of wanting to be my own boss, to be able to continually evolve what I was doing and how I was doing it. So, I got the idea about building bikes.

I contacted California framebuilder Jim Kish, who teaches some of the framebuilding courses at UBI. I was getting too excited to wait for the UBI course, as they were full for a while, so I asked Jim if he would teach me at his place. He agreed and I went to his shop and did some training, building my first frame there with his help and instruction. When I got back to Santa Cruz, I built my next couple frames at Rick Hunter's shop. I rented time on Rick's machines, and he was great with helping me out a bit. I also was fortunate to have Paul Sadoff of Rock Lobster here in town, who I went to from time to time with questions. I gradually got tooled up and built more frames, for myself, my wife, friends, and eventually started selling frame under the "Cloud Nine Design" name in about 2004. I was building part time at first, still working my mechanic job, but gradually phases that out and was building full time. I changed the company name to Caletti Cycles a few years ago.

Of course there have been many challenges, and there still are, but I suppose that's part of what keeps in interesting and engaging. I really love what I do, it suits me well. I ride and build road, mountain, and cyclocross bikes. Sometimes it's hard to wear so many hats, especially the hat of the bookkeeper... But I like that if there is something that isn't working well in the business it's my responsibility, I have the power to change it and make an improvement. I think the list of things I want to improve and change will always be there, there will always be another level to reach for, and only as I get to one step will I have the vantage point to see the next. That can feel a bit daunting sometimes, but it's also exciting. I think that staying engaged and honing my skills is what will keep me excited about my work until I'm too old to do it anymore.