I don’t like posting video submissions to contests (mostly because I don’t like being flooded with other submissions) but Erinn from Frontage Roads is a rad dude and I’d like to see him win this Salsa competition. Errin, you should be doing the Mt. Wilson fire road, not Griffith!
#dirt
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Shots from the Road: 08.26.2012
I consider Los Angeles my vacation city. When I come here, I rarely take photos and mostly just kick around GSC, waiting for either an after work or a pre-work ride. Yesterday Kyle and I took off to Griffith Park for some off-road, trail poaching. I’ve never taken this particular route and as the sun set over the hills, it proved to be quite the day-ender. It ended up being about 17 miles and 1,700′ of climbing with about 50% on dirt. Not bad. Oh and thanks to Ty for letting me ride his Hufnagel!
Don’t forget to follow @KyleBKelley on Instagram!
Reportage
The 2012 North West Rapha Gentlemen’s Race #RGR
Last year, the NW Rapha Gentlemen’s Race was one of my favorite events to document. There’s something classic about staring down a 200k, grueling, day’s-length ride and greeting it with acceptance, not anxiety. Each of the 26 teams this year were rolling fast and the course was even more epic’er than last year’s, totaling 122 miles and over 11,000′ of climbing.
The stage was Government Camp, Mt. Hood and included two loops through the countryside before ending with a gnarly 10 mile gravel climb. Reports came in of it being akin to a Civil War battlefield, with wheels and riders lining the road in shambles.
My day wasn’t nearly as painful, as I hopped in a support car and hung out of the window, taking what I could.
Click on the above photo to launch the gallery, or here to open in a new tab, also see the complete results below.
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Hatcher Pass Road Race Photos
Dave Trimble’s Hatcher Pass Road / Offroad Race was last weekend. What sounded like a fun race turned into a grueling, muddy mess as rain settled in. There are a ton of photos up on Dave’s Flickr. Head over to check them out.
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2012 Rapha NE Gentlemen’s Race
The 2012 Rapha NE Gentlemen’s Race was no joke. Over 120 miles and racking in over 13,000′ of elevation through the countryside of New Hampshire and Vermont. I don’t care, that shit looked fun.
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Victor from Archive Bags and His Raphael Cross
As a small business owner, it’s not easy to get out and ride every day. Victor owns and operates Archive Bags and as a gift to himself this year, he ordered a Raphael Cycles cross bike, strictly for off-road action in GGP. A couple weeks back, he spent the afternoon with Six, who posted up a bunch of photos on his Flickr. Checkem out! That’s a great looking bike Victor.
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FBM Dirt and Tires
Check it out as FBM Riders Eric Hennessey, Adam Guilliams and Garrett Guilliams hit up some Northeast trails with John “Supes” Skvarla, Pauly Cvikevich, Dave King and “Ekim” King for Tioga BMX. And here I’ve been, sitting indoors all day working on stuff…
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Trimble Racing Presents the Hatcher Pass Road Race
And the award for the best race poster goes to…
Trimble Racing is proud to announce the Hatcher Pass Road Race to be held on August 4th, 2012. This unsanctioned 70 mile dirt road race will be contested through the beautiful wilderness of Alaska. The race will begin at the Trimble family cabin near the Independence Mine in the Talkeetna Mountains. After a neutral descent the race will start with a grueling two mile dirt climb up and over the famous Hatcher Pass. At the top of the pass riders will cross from the Palmer side to the Willow side plummeting down the Willow Fishhook Road, a long and technical gravel descent with endless switchback corners. After the nearly thirty mile descent the road levels for a few recovery miles. A checkpoint at the intersection of the Parks Highway marks the halfway point where the riders will turn around and start the long journey back to the Trimble cabin.
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Shots from the Road: 06:15:2012
In a rush to get out the door to meet up for a ride this morning, I left my T4. So in lieue of 35mm, I took a lot more Instagram photos than I normally would. When I showed up at the coffee shop, I thought we’d maybe be doing like 20 miles. Shortly after, I realized we’d be in it for a haul today and with 50% of the course being dirt and gravel, it was gonna be fun.
We took off, climbed some, descended some, got a few flats and managed to avoid any wrecks. After a stop at the Reel Inn in Topanga, we headed home. Nothing like riding 20 miles through shit LA traffic and roads after hitting the dirt all morning. We totalled 60 miles and around 4,000′ and everyone had a blast, er, fun.
Check out more below.
Reportage
My Walkabout in the Australian Bush
When Andy from Fyxomatosis and I both decided to carry our cameras on a ride in the Australian bush, we thought we’d mix it up a bit with a “dueling banjos” photoset exchange. In other words, he’d post my photos and I’d post his, while we each told our side of the story (in two posts, here and here). It worked quite well but to showcase all of my photos, I’ve decided to re-up them, just in time for the weekend. This was the most intense ride I’ve ever been on. Two days, over 220 miles and over 20,000′ of climbing on both sealed and rocky terrain. All self-supported and on cross bikes. Bugga!
Look, I don’t care where you live, going on rides like this can happen (almost) anywhere. Granted, you might not find a Lace Monitor lizard dead in the road, 200 miles outside of your town…
Click on the above photo to launch the gallery, or here to open in a new tab.
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Newcastle Fixed Gear: Daniel Fee
Newcastle Fixed Gear brings the ‘Wizard and some FGFS off-road action with Daniel Fee.
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Fyxomatosis: The Dirty One
Photos by Andy White
Gah. I miss Melbourne. Luckily, Andy’s ability to do brutal rides and still carry a camera make me feel like I was there. He’s also becoming quite the linguist.
“From a frosty start through the fog, to a glorious finish in golden light, The Dirty Gran Fondo served up a boggy delight.”
Check out more from the Dirty Gran Fondo at Fyxo.
Reportage
Andrew Franciosa at Tour of the Battenkill
This weekend, the last thing I was thinking about was Tour of the Battenkill. Referred to as “America’s Queen of the Classics”, Battenkill is a grueling course, filled with dirt, gravel and any other excuse for a road covering found around Cambridge, New York. For those data-seekers, here’s the Pro Cat 1 / Cat 2 course and here’s the UCI course, where these photos were taken. Bottom line is: this is a grueling race and while I’ve yet to attend, Andrew Franciosa did a great job photographing the event. See for yourself below.
Check out more by clicking the photo above or here to open in a new tab.
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Firefly Bicycles: Off Road Bike?
Man oh man. Now that’s a bike fit for some off-road action. But it does bring up a rather hot topic as of late: disk brakes on road bikes? Personally, when it’s on a bike like this, I love them but a racing road bike? Not so much. Firefly Bicycles, once again, building sexy and sometimes controversial bikes!
