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Two Tucson Mixed Terrain Rides I Highly Recommend

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Two Tucson Mixed Terrain Rides I Highly Recommend

At the end of most trips, I end up with left-over photos or photos that don’t have a home in any one specific gallery. Yet, while in Tucson, I found myself carrying a camera and shooting photos on just about every ride, resulting in some pretty stout photographic documentation of a handful of rides. Without diving deep into the history or the meaning, I decided to simply present these routes with ample photographic documentation.

The Sandal Boiyz do Mallorca: Toros De Gravel – Ultra Romance and Kyle Kelley

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The Sandal Boiyz do Mallorca: Toros De Gravel – Ultra Romance and Kyle Kelley

The Sandal Boiyz do Mallorca: Toros De Gravel

Words by Benedict Wheeler, photos by Kyle Kelley

Note: this article contains NSFW imagery. Blame Benedict!

Mallorca was a place that every true fan of pro road racing knows about.  Especially if you are into the DEEPly nuanced euro trash aspects of the sport…

Mallorca is where the professional teams come to train and party in the winter months. Scores of doping scandals, both performance and party enhancing, have clumsily unfolded with the spanning mountains and electric blue waters of Mallorca as a scenicback drop.  Would simply going to Mallorca allow me to be immersed in cycling scandal like all of my heroes of the golden doping age?  Would Michelle Ferrari notice my talents on the beach and pump me full of ox blood in his secret lab/discotheque??

Explore Trinidad-Las Animas County’s Dirt Roads

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Explore Trinidad-Las Animas County’s Dirt Roads

“The Explore Las Animas campaign will be curated around the Native American, Spanish/Mexican, and Anglo influences that make the Canyons & Plains region a distinct Colorado bicycle destination. Lightly traveled roads connect riders to a sublime landscape dotted with old mines, ghost towns, diverse wildlife, and public access to the San Isabel National Forest, Comanche National Grasslands, and Trinidad Lake State Park. Also, signature quality events emerging, like the SW Chief Bicycle+Comedy Fest, Pony Xpress 160, and Branson Hi Lo Gravel Country can help draw cycling tourists. All of these experiences will show why southeastern Colorado is a great place for a two to three day bicycle vacation”

Head over to SNEWS to check out what Backshop Bikes has been working on in Trinidad, Colorado at Explore Las Animas.

Riding in Southern Arizona’s Sky Islands for Super Stoke Weekend!

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Riding in Southern Arizona’s Sky Islands for Super Stoke Weekend!

What started as a weekend getaway on Super Bowl weekend with friends has evolved into something much more than that. Originally, our “Super Bro” weekend – please take that tongue in cheek – was just a bunch of friends camping and riding. The next year, it grew, more ladies attended, the weather kinda sucked but what can you do? It’s Texas in February. Once I left Austin, the event spread to our friends in Seattle at Swift Industries and the name was changed to the more inclusive, less inside jokey, Super Stoke weekend. What’s the point in joking with a name if you have to explain it each time?

The event continued, mostly in Texas, with a field trip to Seattle one April, before landing in Tucson this year. Now, it was a hard sell to get me to drive to Austin to ride in the rain, but I’d gladly drive to Tucson to ride in the majestic Sky Islands and the San Rafael Valley.

We Spent Black Friday in the Mountains of Los Angeles!

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We Spent Black Friday in the Mountains of Los Angeles!

While Black Friday follows a holiday meant to celebrate the togetherness of friends and family, we oftentimes get swept up in consumerism. Hey, it happens. Deals here, deals there. Lines, lines, lines! The whole ordeal can really taint an otherwise pleasant weekend. Don’t even get me started on Thanksgiving in itself. (You should read the history behind what this holiday was founded on, written by the Manataka American Indian Council.) Now, I’m not writing this piece to get into the complicated history of Indigenous Lands and religious zealots’ squandering of natural resources. I actually like what this time of year embodies but I approach the subject with great care. No matter how you look at it, we are all on Native Lands.

Driftless in the Blue Mounds – Kevin Sparrow

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Driftless in the Blue Mounds – Kevin Sparrow

The Driftless
Photos and words by Kevin Sparrow

When people hear of the Midwest, they typically think of farmland and prairie. Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa have a rich history of glaciation that smoothed out a lot of the land we typically think of and gouged out lakes and terrain. Southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa and western Wisconsin and Northern Illinois, known as The Driftless Region, is a unique area virtually untouched by glacial sculpting. As a result, this landscape greatly contrasts what one would typically think of the Midwest. Its narrow valleys, high bluffs, forested hillsides and beautifully sculpted topography is a real treat for cyclists in the region.

Scenes from the Sim Works Convenie Pop-Up at the Cub House

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Scenes from the Sim Works Convenie Pop-Up at the Cub House

Over the past few months, the Cub House has been host to a number of pop-up shops inside its San Marino space. There’s a 10’x10′ room which happens to make for a perfect space for brands to display their product. This round, Sean, Danny, and Carla reached out to Japan’s Sim Works to open a “convenie” – Japanese slang, shortened from convenience store – filled with Sim Works, their outdoor brand, RAL, as well as Japanese snacks and trinkets. In the Cub House fashion, the team decided to make a big deal about it, throwing a group ride, and pinging Mick from 100 Tacos to cater the event.

If you’re in the Los Angeles area, be sure to swing through the Cub House to see the Sim Works Convenie Store!

The Cub House
2510 Mission St
San Marino, CA 91108

Recreation as a Resource: The Sierra Buttes Lost and Found

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Recreation as a Resource: The Sierra Buttes Lost and Found

“The Forest Service deals with resources and we need to convince them that recreation is another resource.” This quote, from Lost and Found founder Chris McGovern really resonated with me the entirety of my stay in the Lost Sierra. Is recreation a resource? Can it be? Should it be? Over the years, the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship has been fighting the good fight, working alongside the US Forest Service, a subsidiary of the Department of Agriculture, who deals with our nation’s resources, from wood to minerals and even water. The federal government monitors how each state manages its resources.

LA Dirt Rides: the Verdugo Mountains Traverse

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LA Dirt Rides: the Verdugo Mountains Traverse

The Verdugos are a staple of my weekly riding routine. With access points from every cardinal direction, your route up is often times determined by how much spunk you’ve got in your legs. There’s something for everyone including mountain bikers, dirt jumpers, roadies, dirt road riders, and a ragtag group of ex and current skaters, as evident in today’s story.

Every Friday morning, the guys at Golden Saddle organize a TGSCIF ride, leaving from Intelligentsia on Sunset Avenue and pedaling from Silver Lake to any number of road, dirt, and singletrack rides. Oftentimes, these 2-3 hour group rides venture into the surrounding hills, never really leaving the neighborhood, yet sometimes I rally to do a ride in the Verdugo Mountains. It just so happens that this week, we got to bring a lot of people up to this magical place for the first time.

Enjoy the Weekend!

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Enjoy the Weekend!

We had a rippin’ TGSCIF ride today, which we’ll tell you all about tomorrow. For now, I hope this gets you amped up for the weekend!

A Weekend in Stillwater, Oklahoma at the Land Run 100

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A Weekend in Stillwater, Oklahoma at the Land Run 100

Mud. It’s hell. A catalyst for catastrophe and the end game for any bike event. Honestly, it’s been the one thing grating at my conscious since first accepting the invitation to the Land Run 100 late last year. For six years now, Land Run 100 has been put together by Bobby Wintle and the team at District Bicycles in Stillwater, Oklahoma. It’s a challenging race on a challenging course, yet the entrants must adjust their own psyche to determine what mental state they will choose to enter these dirt roads. Be it personal grit, the desire to complete the course in its entirety, glory, or to be the fastest group of racers in one of many categories. Racers register for the event to conquer their own goals.

The story of competition is as old as the ages, yet the history of the Land Run was one formed long before the existence of dirt roads as we know them today.

Land Run 100 Rides: Rob’s Rodeo Labs Flaanimal 4.0

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Land Run 100 Rides: Rob’s Rodeo Labs Flaanimal 4.0

The Rodeo Labs Flaanimal 4.0 is what the people want in an all-road bike. The people who want provisions and braze-ons for racks, even on their carbon fork. Ample tire clearance, belt-drive compatibility, and sliders, with a geometry tuned for the long haul, without riding like a tourer. It’s easy to see why these bikes are so appealing to dirt road racing contingency, with all those aforementioned details, and it’s why Rob chose one to race at this year’s Land Run 100.

Last year, Rob finished Dirty Kanza as DFL, with literal seconds left on the clock and this year, he looked towards Land Run as prep for the DK. From Fort Worth, Texas, driving to Stillwater, Oklahoma for the event was the perfect weekend escape and a worthy shakedown ride for his Flaanimal 4.0.

I like his use of the Redshift stem, Sinewave Beacon, Wolf Tooth B-Rad double bottle cage system and the Panaracer Gravel King tires. Yep. That’s one capable rig, ready to roll Rob over the finish line, with plenty of time to spare.

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Land Run 100 Rides: Austin from Austin’s Chumba Terlingua

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Land Run 100 Rides: Austin from Austin’s Chumba Terlingua

The Land Run 100 draws people from all over the world, including Texas. Austin drove in from Austin, with his brand new Chumba Terlingua, ready to roll 100+ miles single speed. With no rain in the forecast – #RIPmud – he packed in a big tire and got ready to ride the rolling hills, through the red dirt countryside.

While there were many exceptional builds at the event, I have to say, this was one of the most original I saw. With Onyx Racing Hubs, an Absolute Black ring, Paul Klampers, Hope Rotors, WTB Riddler tires, matching spoke nipples and a mean, race fit, this bike looked as good in motion as it does sitting here.

Austin, great to meet you, pardna’, tell the grackles I said I miss them!

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Land Run 100 Rides: Mary’s Humble Frameworks Resurrected SSCX

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Land Run 100 Rides: Mary’s Humble Frameworks Resurrected SSCX

Good steel frames never die, they just get repaired. Mary got this Humble Frameworks years ago. She raced it and eventually, the frame developed a few stress risers and cracks. It took a while, but she eventually took the frameset back to Michael at Humble and he repaired the bike. Liking the way the repair marks looked, Mary clear coated the reparis and turned this ‘cross bike into a single speed dirt road bike. She now rides it at races, including the Land Run 100, where I was able to document this unique race machine.

UPDATE: Mary got third in the single speed category this year!

Best of luck to all the racers taking on the 100 mile course this year. It’s a dry and dusty one out there!

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Salsa’s Land Run 100 Video

We ride a lot of dirt roads in California and usually end up staring down some beastly climbs on even the chillest of rides. I can climb all day, but nothing drives me nuts like mud and cold. Combining those two ride elements can have disastrous results. Watching this video on Land Run 100 has me re-thinking my tire choice for this year’s event…

LA Dirt Rides: the TGSCIF Ride in Cherry Canyon is Not to Be Missed

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LA Dirt Rides: the TGSCIF Ride in Cherry Canyon is Not to Be Missed

I know Friday morning group rides are tough for a lot of people to make, but for a group of freelancers and non-9 to 5’rs, the weekend’s riding schedule begins early with the TGSCIF rides. For those interesting in coming along, the group meets up at 7am at Intelligentsia coffee on Sunset Ave and leaves at 7:30am. For those who can’t make it, I do my best to document them, both photographically and on Strava, allowing you to take them on at your leisure.