This month marks the 1st anniversary of the passing of my close friend and business partner, Omar Avendaño- cofounder of Top5ebikes, loving husband, father of two beautiful and spirited daughters, and a trusted friend to more people than I can count. To honor the tremendous impact Omar had on this world I want to share some personal reflections on his life. Many of our readers came to know Omar through his adventures on our YouTube channel and formed a connection with the warm, funny person they saw on screen.
The Omar I like to remember the most is the one that’s easy going; always flashing a warm smile and always finding ways to lighten the mood by cracking a well timed joke. It’s easy to conjure up this version of Omar because it wasn’t really a version of him at all. It was simply who he was. Even, in darker times, when he was in the grips of cancer treatment, you could still count on his unwavering sense of humor to lighten the mood.
Omar could talk for hours on end about anything and everything. Between his encyclopedic knowledge and wealth of life experience he could find common ground with almost anybody and strike a meaningful chord with them. He effortlessly made friends and made it a point to forge new friendships with people from all walks of life. He seemed to have a group chat for every chapter of his life—friends, family, old coworkers, new coworkers—and somehow kept up with all of them. I really don’t know how he did it but I feel like it was one of his super powers.
Omar shared many stories with me over the years but here are a few facts about him that stick out.
His favorite place in the world was the city of Guanajuato, Mexico, a beautiful and charming colonial town in Central Mexico, near Leon, where his family originated from. He and his wife achieved a lifelong dream by purchasing a dream vacation home in the picturesque hills of the centro historico around the same time we started Top5ebikes. It was his sanctuary and he and his family spent many joyous summers and holidays there.
Despite not growing up in an affluent family, Omar was extremely well traveled. He’d backpacked through Europe as a younger man and told me on several occasions that Poland left a strong impression on him. I’ve never been to Poland but my understanding is the Poles are known for their warmth and generosity. Those are traits that also defined Omar so it’s not surprising that he made fast friends there.
He told me his first job was at the fast food chain, Carls Jr, home of the western bacon cheeseburger. I don’t know how long he worked there but I do know that he won a car while flipping burgers there! It was a 1999 red Geo Metro that they gave away in a company raffle. Always the opportunist, Omar promptly sold that car and bought a badass truck with the proceeds- a more suitable ride for a young kid from Riverside starting to come into his own.
Early in our friendship, before Omar became father, he and his wife organized a group vacation to Mexico City to watch an international soccer friendly between Mexico and the United States. A group of about 10 of us joined them on this endeavor and I’m not even slightly exaggerating when I say that collectively we all had the trip of a lifetime. I don’t remember the score of that game, but I remember just about everything else about that trip. Many of us were experiencing Mexico City for the first time, and we were blown away by its scale, beauty, and energy. So many core memories came out of that trip, and Omar and I would reminisce about it constantly.
Omar was a huge sports fan and his favorite teams were the Mexican men’s national soccer team and Club Leon of the Mexican soccer league. He absolutely despised the Dodgers and even though they were my favorite team he never missed an opportunity to throw little jabs at me about how they were ruining baseball. Before they ended their World Series drought in 2020 he was quick to point out that they hadn’t won it all in over 30 years haha.
One of the things I admired most about Omar is that he never let money or ambition get in the way of our friendship. From day one our decision to make videos on Youtube and start a blog was rooted purely in having fun and hoping for the best. We would get such a charge when one of our videos would hit even 1000 views and we would almost always mark the occasion with a couple beers. Also some buffalo wings if we were feeling especially festive. There were stresses and pressures about delivering content to the brands we worked with but at the end of the day we never let it compromise our friendship or detract from the pure joy of hanging out and riding bikes together. We both wanted Top5ebikes to be successful but we were also very much on the same page about what success looked like and we constantly checked in with each other to ask – “are we still having fun doing this?” The answer was always yes.
They say you should never start a business with one of your best friends, but with Omar, I never doubted it would work. I trusted his character, and our friendship was already built on solid ground. Deep into Omar’s battle with cancer, near the end of his life, we still found spare moments to ride and film like we used to. We needed the distraction from the heaviness of what he was going through and in those last months it became crystal clear to me how much we cherished those bike rides.
Before the diagnosis, and during the final year of his life, I never saw Omar more at ease and more full of joy than when he was riding one of his many cargo bikes, with either one or both of his daughters strapped in behind him. These were no doubt some of the happiest moments of his life. It was a privilege to witness so many of those moments firsthand, and today it feels like an incredible gift to have so much footage of Omar doing something he genuinely loved.
Top5ebikes would never have found an audience without Omar’s infectious personality, warmth, and unmistakable spirit. Filming videos naturally took a backseat during his fight with cancer, but we always talked about a hopeful future where he would make a full recovery and we’d pick up where we left off. Tragically, we never got that chance.
Now that I’ve had some time to reflect, I know the best way I can honor Omar’s legacy is to keep doing what we started together: making fun, informative content with heart—the kind of work he would have been proud to share.
Thank you to everyone who has followed us on this journey. I hope you’ll continue to find something worthwhile in the stories and knowledge we share, and some joy in the many memories we were fortunate enough to capture along the way. None of those memories—or Top5ebikes as you know it—would exist without my friend Omar.
If you are interested in learning more about Omar’s incredible life or donating to one of his favorite local non-profits please visit his memorial page on Everloved.
