By Brant Marlett

By Brant Marlett

Rappahannock News Staff Writer

A little bike shop sits alone and quiet near the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. On any given day, the roar of hundreds if not thousands of high powered, machines, can be heard grumbling by at comfortable speeds. The guttural sounds of engines grunting and tailpipes booming from the bowels of the great machines can be heard and felt 100 yards away as they ascend towards the peak of the mountain. They are ready for the steep climb ahead, and eager for the swift decent down.

Mark’s Motorcycle Leather Works is that little shop on the comer of Lee Highway in Sperryville. It is where Mark Esola, 49, owner and craftsman spends his time in quiet solitude handcrafting the finest leather while the drone of traffic passes him by.

The small, white, two-story, makeshift leather shop and humble abode, with a giant bull-head skull festooned over the entrance, is where Esola works and lives, alone in the upstairs of the shop.

Originally from Akron, Ohio, Esola has lived on and off in Rappahannock County for two years. That’s to say, he fives here when i he is not in Baghdad, which he just returned 1 from about six months ago. But he will not I be gracing those sandy streets or breathing I that dusty air anymore; now he’s home. I

Esola is enjoying his retired life from the B U.S. Military in Sperryville and is looking K forward to his life and his new business ven- ■ ture. ■

His experiences, fervor and support for 1 the military is apparent and visible all 1 around him. From his prisoners of war/ missing in action flag that sways with the wind next to his American flag, to his Coast Guard coffee mug that he sips out of, to even his arm where he wears a tattoo in memory of his fallen military brethren.

He rides his bike with other veterans and bikers alike in memory for those that have fallen in the line , of duly in a motorcycle group called “The Veterans Motorcycle Club.”

Afar

Esola served in the 82nd Air Borne Division in the 1990s during the Desert Storm conflict, then spent the next 13 years working with Special Forces and with the U.S. Coast Guard, and then spent time in Baghdad as a civilian contracted to do security work.

But that was then.

Now Esola is focused on his shop and his craft, which is creating custom tool bags, belts, buckles, tool rolls and tool bags; and he is doing very well. “There is a huge biker market out here,” he said, “cm a regular weekend during the summer, say, like in July when the summer is good and the forecast is going to be a good one for the weekend, there is no surprise to see two to three thousand motorcycles go down this road,” remarked Esola. “And that’s why I opened up here. “

So with no prior experience in hand-crafting leather and only some experience in dealing with motorcycle maintenance, albeit he realized he sat upon prime motorcycle real estate, Esola called his landlord last fall and asked if he could turn the desolate basement under him into a motorcycle leather shop. And so, the shop opened