Pat Schoolen

Bike Flat (BF): Pat you are one of the best known people in the flatland community, yet almost no one has seen you ride! For the few people who don't know you, please describe your current  profession and what your typical day is like. Pat Schoolen (PS): I am the owner of flatlandfuel.com and a flatland rider. Flatland involves my whole life and I have little life or interest outside of flatland. (BF): How did flatland become such a large part of you life? When did you start riding and how old were you when you knew it would take over your life? (PS): Flatland has always drawn me to it because of the individuality, creativity and sheer challenge of it.

I started riding flat seriously when I was 15 years old so it has been a big part of my life for over 12 years now.

(BF): Running flatlandfuel.com must take up the majority of your time, how often do you find your self riding with such a busy schedule.
(PS): That is the single most stressful part of my life. While I have the best job in the world and I deal with people I love everyday, the demands of my job prevent me from riding as much as I would like. It varies. For example during the holiday season I don't ride at all. From mid November to mid January I work 14 hours a day so riding is out of the question. Then this winter I don't have an indoor spot so I am not riding even now. But in the spring, summer and early fall I ride as much as possible. At least 3-4 days a week.  I have some good people working for me now that will allow me to ride even more this year. I want to get back to the time before I started flatlandfuel when I was in the parking lot on average 3-4 hours per day. Nothing else makes me happier.

 

(BF): I am sure a lot of people are wondering this, having almost every flatland part at your finger tips, what set up are you riding now? (PS): I just built a new bike. Its a custom 19" FBM Equilibrium with an FBM mid bottom bracket. Other parts on there are Macneil Lighter bars, Brickhouse stem, Odyssey fork, Profile Mini cranks, Odyssey Midway rims, Odyssey Reloader Freecoaster, Primopro front hub, Thomson post, etc. I purposely built my bike to not be super light yet it is very durable. Now if the snow will just melt and the temp warm up so I can go ride. (BF): Running a flatland only mail order must have been very hard at times, what was your lowest point in your carreer and how did you manage to keep going. (PS): The only low point is the vast amount of time it takes to run your own business. I do make less money than I would be making at a normal job but I love what I do and I love the flatland community. That makes up for any lack of time or money. (BF): Flatland is only about 20 years old, where do you see this sport heading in the next 20 years? (PS): Creativity has no boundaries and nor does flatland. It will continue to grow and evolve.

(BF): Will there always be a flatland fuel as long as flatland is around?
(PS): I sure hope so. I don't plan on going anywhere. Aaron Frost just got back from riding with Kevin Jones for a week. Aaron was telling me how amazing Kevin still is and Kevin is over 38 years old. That is very inspirational. So I don't see anything stopping me from riding for the next 20 years. So as long as I am still riding there will still be flatlandfuel.

(BF): Pat, you have contributed so much of your life into helping out other riders and publicizing the sport, thank you for your contributions.
(PS): Thank you. Keeping doing good things with bikeflat.com!