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Bikes or Death: Episode 52 with Cinthia Pedraza

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Bikes or Death: Episode 52 with Cinthia Pedraza

Putting yourself out there and writing about polarizing topics is not easy. We’ve hosted a lot of great writing over the years, many of which inspired some great commentary and yes, change within the industry. Cinthia‘s piece on white privilege and bike racing during a pandemic really ruffled some feathers in her local racing community. For their latest episode, Bikes or Death interviews Cinthia about these effects and it’s highly worth the listen! Check it out at Bikes or Death.

2019 WTF Bikexplorers Summit: Bike as Healer for All

Reportage By: Jay Melena

2019 WTF Bikexplorers Summit: Bike as Healer for All

The outdoors can mean many different things to people. For those into bikes, especially mountain biking, the woods are a place to send and shred. We trade leads and follows, lines and trails. We might not admit it, but for a lot of us riding is a form of therapy. Instead of therapists invoices we sink our cash into new bikes and wheels for the same mental result, and a lot more sweat. Those of us who enjoy unrestricted access to outdoors might be unaware that not everyone experiences that same ease of access. As a result, the benefits one gets from riding through through the woods or in the mountains with friends are not evenly felt by all.

The WTF Bikexplorers Summit – part skill share, part retreat – is a forum for WTF folks that aims to change that imbalance. This year, the second annual summit (the first one was in Montana) featured a pre-summit camp out and ride from the Chris King Farm outside of Portland, OR to the summit in Vernonia.

Ogichidaakwe: Alexandera Houchin’s Reflections on Her Tour Divide Race

Radar By: Alexandera Houchin

Ogichidaakwe: Alexandera Houchin’s Reflections on Her Tour Divide Race

Ogichidaakwe

I was always insecure about the fact that I was “uneducated” before I entered academia. Growing up in a trailer park and as the first person in my family to have ever attended a university, I was certain that I was something less than my entire life. The apple never falls far from the tree. And in attending University, I’ve learned that everything I was taught whilst growing up was lessons in obedience. I, an Anishinaabe woman, celebrated the Pilgrims at Thanksgiving time and Columbus on Columbus day. I always thought that I wasn’t Indian enough because I didn’t grow up on my reservation, I didn’t know my tribal language, and I didn’t look Indian. Tell me, what does an Indian look like? How could I trust a system that denied the lived history of my ancestors?

Resistance Racing’s Oakland Tracklocross National Championship

Reportage By: Angel Perez

Resistance Racing’s Oakland Tracklocross National Championship

The Bay Area in Northern California is well known to be the reservoir for good times and burly riders. Back in June, the Oakland Tracklocross National Championship took place – where racers would battle out for the first Tracklocross World Championship Title. Racers and spectators came from all over California, as well as participants from Chicago and Florida. The atmosphere took shape once everyone converged at the bottom of a hill. Everyone had to ride up a mile or so to commence the hike a bike. Poison oak surrounded the area, deep rutted and broken up dirt roads gave participants a sneak peek in what the course would entail.

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Send Poppie from Eroica South Africa to Eroica Italy!

My time in South Africa was a real treat – tendonitis inflammation aside – I met a lot of amazing people there, including Poppie, the local who cooked us such delicious food, her roosterbrood. When the organizers of Eroica Italy came to Eroica South Africa, they fell in love with Poppie’s cooking, so they bought her a plane ticket to visit the original Eroica. Stan from Tour of Ara and the Karoobaix has set up a fundraiser to get Poppie some cash to use on her trip! Head on over to donate if you have the means.

“Is this your property?” Lessons Learned from Bikepacking the Wild West Route

Reportage By: Molly Sugar

“Is this your property?” Lessons Learned from Bikepacking the Wild West Route

Today is a hot one in southern Idaho, 90 degrees and rising.  My partner, Skyler, and I are stopped for snacks under the few shaded bushes along a lonely dirt road.

We hear the tell-tale signs of a lonely car and a white-haired woman drive towards us.  She slows down to approach us cautiously. Her window rolls down as the car stops and from inside we hear “There isn’t a road that goes through there.”

LA River Jump with Caché

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LA River Jump with Caché

The thing about Instagram is while sometimes you end up with these great one-off shots, that have very little story behind them, they end up living on this low-res platform which most people interact with solely on a cell phone screen. Last Saturday, Kyle, Caché, and I headed down to the LA River to take a photo Caché had previously shot with his cell phone. I wanted to get a nice, high res, professional photo because Caché’s eye for urban lines have resulted in many awe-inspiring takes on what it means to ride a MTB within the Los Angeles city limits. The resulting photos made quite the splash on our Instagram but I wanted to share them here as well.

For Caché, he looks at the MTB as a tool for exploration within and on the outskirts of this sprawling mega-metropolis. In the newest print-edition of Bike Mag, Caché gets a full spread of his riding and art as a mural painter with graffiti roots in LA’s scene.

Give him a follow on Instagram and check out some more randoms from our morning in the LA River drainage network. The last shot is my favorite. Which is yours?

The Big Marsh Bike Convergence

Reportage By: carmen aiken & jennifer aguilar

The Big Marsh Bike Convergence

At the top of the hill where the jump lines begin at Big Marsh, I slung back over my pink Nova, joining the crowd of jump regulars ready to hit the medium and small lines and the first arrivals of the Convergence. The only sport I give my all to is spectating, and I’m great with a,“There he goes!” 

Shimano
Tern
Wolftooth
Argonaut
Brooks
State Bicycles
Paul
RiG'd Supply
Mission Workshop
Rivendell
SimWorks
Maxxis