Sending sunny love from Southern California to all y’all. Next week, we’re heading to colder weather in the Northeast for some pre-NAHBS fun.
See more below…
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Sending sunny love from Southern California to all y’all. Next week, we’re heading to colder weather in the Northeast for some pre-NAHBS fun.
See more below…
Not every ride merits a story, nor an explanation of intent, and luckily, some photos are worth 1000 words. All I can say is I was truly humbled by yesterday’s outing into the Angeles National Forest. See more photos below!
… what a way to end the day.
… and the long road ahead.
Trails need work. All the time and across the globe, there are numerous organizations that rally the troops when work needs to be done on their local singletrack. In LA, one of our organizations is the Mount Wilson Bicycling Association. Year after year, MWBA has been working alongside the Forest Service, IMBA and CORBA to re-open various trails that were closed after the Station Fire ravaged the San Gabriel Mountains in 2009. One such project is extending the Gabrielino Trail from Ken Burton to Switzer’s. If you’re an LA local, these names might sound familiar to you.
The Gabrielino follows a canyon down below Highway 2 and out to the Arroyo. This trail hugs the hillsides of the canyon walls, crosses waterfalls and snakes its way through the sandy, rocky and loose wash. Today, 30+ volunteers spent their Sunday morning workin’ dirt with MWBA. With such big crowds, it’s easy to cover a lot of ground in a single afternoon.
The Angeles National Forest is home to many exceptional trails. Once MWBA, and their volunteers, have worked to open these remaining trails back up, we’ll have even more options for big back-country loops, almost entirely made from singletrack. If you’d like to help out, follow MWBA on Instagram and Facebook!
Thank you to everyone who came to help out today!
I tell ya, GSC has a lot of amazing customers, but this whole moment stoked me – and I’d imagine 13-year-old me – out. Now if we can just get Eric Koston out on some rides…
Also, I missed posting a Throwback Thursday post, where I’ve been uploading ‘lost’ entries from 2015 back on the site after our server deleted our 2015 image bucket. So check out the original Stigmata Review in the ‘related’ entries to the left.
… Get out and get up!
Themes are very prevalent in a photographer’s work, whether intentional or not. My personal approach could be summed up in a number of ways, although I try to go into each situation with perspective. Whether or not that perspective is something I’m either re-visiting or looking to hone depends on a number of parameters. The moments in which I’m most comfortable experimenting are the ones that are most familiar to me and where the experimentation occurs usually falls into any number of challenging parameters.
I never go on a bike ride without a camera. Call it what you will, but documenting the rides in the greater Los Angeles area is something I love to do. Add to the list, taking out of towners on rides they’ve never done before. Our good friend Erica is in town for a bit, on a riding holiday/work trip from Nevada City, California and expressed an interest in riding up Mount Lowe in Altadena. Now, for those of you who haven’t done this ride, it’s the hardest road ride in the LA area, ATMO, but you can choose to bite off as much as you wish, establishing the general ride vibes early on, or as the hours go by.
Last weekend, we opted for the full experience and it left me a bit vanquished for a few days, so Erica and I took the party train up to Inspiration Point for some reflection on what it means to be a cyclist in a city with so much car culture. Spoiler alert: bikes will always win… and yes, I got sunburnt. In winter.
Check out a few more below and see our route from the Cub House at my Strava.
Jim C, one of the founders of Orange 20 and later, Cranky’s in Santa Barbara, held a swap meet sale at Golden Saddle Cyclery today, before moving out east. Jim brought along with him a unique Land Shark Time Shark frame. This frame was allegedly raced by Amanda Henry in the 1986 UCI track worlds in the Flying 250mm. While I can’t find any information on the bike, or Amanda Henry’s career online, Jim’s memory of this frame’s history will have to do.
The asymmetric seat stays were a common detail on these Time Sharks, as were custom stems, wild paint jobs, and beautifully-curved forks. A few more details of note include the Magic Motorcycle cranks, which were later purchased by Cannondale to become part of their Coda line. Check out that outboard bottom bracket! The home-made disc wheels are made from common plastic, mostly used in model airplane fuselage construction.
All in all, these “funny bike” designs are always a pleasure to document and admire. Jim passed this bike down to the team at the Cub House, so if you’re ever in their neighborhood, make sure you check it out. See more photos below.
… on Monday we’ve got a bit of epicness to share.
We’re all packing up and heading to the high desert tonight for an escape from the Los Angeles heat. I never thought I’d be saying that, but that’s the world we live in now. Does anyone have some favorite desert rides we should check out in the Southern California area?
Nomenclature is often an intuitive byproduct of one’s, most notably the one who does the naming’s, experiences. A local example, here in Los Angeles, is Sunset Ridge trail. Yes, it’s a ridge trail and yes, it really, really comes alive at sunset, especially in that low, soft winter light.
Last night, the Wednesday Slacker’s ride, aka Wednesday Warriors, aka freelancers union shredders, aka whoever wants to ride on Wednesday, took 11 souls up into the San Gabriel mountains for a New Years party ride. We brought food including but not limited to: fried chicken, sandwiches, chocolate almonds, gummy bears, beer and trail mix. Our troop sat atop the old Echo Mountain ruins and watched the sun fall behind cloud cover before moving on through the myriad of trails before descending Sunset Ridge.
It was one of those evenings where the mountains really began to sing. Not with sounds however, but with light. Stopping to soak it in was a requisite before shredding the dusty and rutted trails, so parched for water that our fee for usage were dusty eyes and dried chains. We rode just about 12 miles and climbed 3,000′. If you’ve yet to do this loop, I highly recomend it!
Check out more photos below and Happy New Year!
This is a few days late, due to a scheduling error on my part, but I just wanted to extend a warm thank you to everyone who is a part of this website, and I would like to wish everyone Happy Holidays. We’ll see you back in 2018 with our year-end recaps and more kick-ass content.
Thank you!
Projects like this are an amazing by-product of the cycling industry’s outstanding women. Check out the WTF Bikexplorers!
“WTF Bikexplorers are pleased to announce the first-ever WTF Bikexplorers Summit and Ride Series to be held in 2018, with events scheduled in Arizona, Oregon, California, Vermont, and Montana.
The Summit and Ride Series aims to support, celebrate and connect women, transgender, femme and non-binary people who also identify as gravel grinders, mountain bikers, bikepackers, day-rider explorers, long distance road riders, bicycle tourers, backpackers converting to bikepacking and individuals looking to incorporate camping with biking.
“
One of my favorite zines and podcasts, the Desert Oracle, recently dropped this gem of a quote and I couldn’t help but share, especially in light of the current political climate. It really makes you think…
“The human argument for setting aside vast stretches of the American desert as parks and preserves and wilderness and plain open space always includes the importance of unspoiled vistas. As the only real difference between Las Vegas and Death Valley is that we made a strategic decision to fill one with casino hotels and insurance company headquarters and neighborhoods while leaving the other more or less intact for the mutual benefit of humanity and the plants and creatures and ecosystems in such a mostly wild place.” Ken Layne, Desert Oracle, #016.
Follow @desertoracle 🙌🏻
As it happens during the holidays, you sometimes end up playing tour guide to family members. My parents came to Los Angeles this weekend, with one thing on their mind: a road trip to the Sequoia National Forest. Turns out, Nat Geo has a special running on this magical place and my parents caught the bug. The only problem is, lodging since neither of my parents liked the idea of camping in the wilds of the Sequoia backcountry. After some phone calls, I found one place to be open: the Durrwood Creekside Lodge.
While there, we got to do a lot of chatting with Eddie and Dave, the two caretakers of the lodge. Once Dave found out I’m into bikes, he had to show his two choppers he made in the lodge’s old blacksmith shop – which coincidentally is a recognized landmark. This whole experience caught me off-guard since I had barely had my coffee yet, but my mind was blown by Dave’s thought process and end-product.
I love seeing projects like this, and yes, I took it for a spin!
Hopefully, you’re shreddin’ with your friends!