The Radavist

My feet are still frozen but we had a blast on Lake Superior today exploring the ice caves along the coast. More to come!

Lyle from Mission Workshop and I have successfully escaped Eurobike and fled to the Mountains of Madness in Glarus, Switzerland. Today we’re going to get in a quick ride before heading out to Freiburg, Germany where we’ll be riding with the guys from Santa Cruz.

Expect some real epicness from PiNP over the next few days as I take on some of the most epic riding in the world.

xo

After a long day of traveling and two whole hours of sleep, I’m alive and well at Eurobike. This show has eluded me for four years now. Year after year, plans have fallen through last minute but this year, I’m here thanks to Mission Workshop (thanks guys!).

Expect lots of randomness, rad bikes, beer, brats, bros, babes and bourbon. Since the WiFi sucks here at the show, I’ll most likely be updating the site only a few times a day… If you’re at the show, track me down and I’ll shoot your portrait.

Follow me on Instagram as well!

If anyone can tell you about traveling on an airplane with a bike, it’s me. I spend just about every other week flying with my bike, all over the country and the world. In doing so, I’ve established a routine that works without issue but it takes a little bit of planning before you even begin to pack.

Check out more below.

The past few days, I’ve been down in North Carolina, visiting my family. This morning, we left to head up to Vermont for that JDRF ride. My brother is heading in from Maryland and will accompany my mom and me on the ride… It’s an 18 hour drive, so expect updates tonight or tomorrow afternoon.

Thanks for being understanding! It’s the summer and that means road trips and family time.

It’s been real fun. There will be much more coverage on the way, but I’d like to say thanks to some of the people who made this trip such a unique experience:

–Mission Workshop (you guys rule!)
–Bike Mag
–Bontrager
-Geoff at Box Dog Bikes
–MASH
-Victor from Archive Bags
-Chas and Lindsey from TCB Courier
–Benny Gold
-John from Rapha
-Kyle and Adria from Golden Saddle Cyclery
–Brian Vernor
–Ibis Cycles
-Garrett from Strawfoot
-Steve from Godspeed
–Tailor Stitch
–Extra Bigger / DNO
–Four Barrel
–Trouble Coffee

It’s been a long couple of days on the road for the ATOC this year. Mostly filled with the riding to blogging ratio tipped towards saddle time. The trip has been very productive, while veering a little to the left of the norm. I didn’t find myself in a neutral support car, or scouring the crowds at the start of the race. Instead, we soaked up the riding that the various host cities had to offer.

Tomorrow morning (read: in 7 hours), I’ll be at the start of the 2013 ATOC in SF and then at the Rapha Cycle Club for my photo show all day. Swing by both to catch up!

Over the next few months, I’ll be spending more time on the road than I will in Austin and it all begins today with Los Angeles for the Amgen Tour of California. Last year, I was in LA and SF almost as much as I was in ATX. This summer, it’ll be even more.

Expect nothing but the best on-the-road coverage for the next week or so…

Tomorrow morning (in a few hours here), I leave Australia for Austin. A solid 24 hours of travel awaits but I’ve got a few things scheduled for Monday, so stay tuned!

These past few weeks have been absolutely incredible. Our bike tour was easily one of the most exhilarating rides I’ve ever been on. To be concise, it was an eye-opening experience. I really thought that I knew what China was all about but almost immediately, I realized my preconceptions vastly polarized. My anxieties about some situations subsided, as the harsh reality of globalization’s effect on a ancient land settled in.

There’s nothing that can prepare you for the realities that hide on the outskirts of the city. As my film gets processed and scanned, I’ll begin think about how I’ll present my experience on paper. Right now, I feel like I’ve been nursing a two week long hangover. My body aches, my head is pounding and my lungs need some recovery time. So would I do it again? Of course.

When it’s all said and done, I’ve met some truly amazing people and had the opportunity to share all these experiences on bikes with them. I’ll say in confidence that we all will walk away from this trip with some great memories and for that, I’ll always be thankful to the communities that we rode with, the towns we stayed in and the guys at Factory 5.

Until next time, Shanghai, zài jiàn.

Photo by Hou Jue

Photos by Jeff Liu

In recent months, I’ve started to find myself in front of a lens almost as much as behind it, especially on this recent tour. Riding through China was overwhelming  from a photography standpoint. Everything was rich in texture and as a foreigner, the everyday was visually engaging. When I could, I’d stop and shoot, or ask one of the riders to pause for a portrait.

Just about everything was natural and that’s something James from Adventure Refugee tried to capture in his video pieces for Mission Workshop. We’d leave with no plans, or script and would point out shots, or spaces when we came across them. In a land like China, nothing is predictable, you’ve just got to go with your instincts.  That applies to the subject and the subjected.

Last night, we arrived in Shanghai, where we’ll stay until Monday night. Saturday night is the Mission Workshop party at Factory 5 where I’ll be displaying some of my favorite digital photos from the trip. There will be mountains of free beer, good music and great people. If you’re in Shanghai, roll through!

Unfortunately, Vimeo, Youtube, Facebook and even Gmail (sometimes I can load it up) is blocked in China, so regular blog posting won’t commence until I’m in Australia on Tuesday (your Monday). Thanks for understanding and if you sent an email, there’s no need to forward it again and again, I received it…

Expect some more Shanghai-related posts to go up periodically over the next few days, including bike portraits, so stay tuned.

We all woke up this morning knowing that we only had 70k to go on our trip and most of it was downhill from the bamboo forest. I really wanted to mob some trails on the Geekhouse Mudville, so James and I headed into the bamboo forest to shoot some video. When we got back to the lodge, we ate lunch, packed and headed out.

The ride today was hellish. Even though it was downhill for the first 15 miles, the wind was blowing hard. Then, when we got on the main road, it was filled with potholes and giant trucks spitting exhaust into our faces. Hangzhou was our final destination so we just put our heads down and pushed forward.

Finally, we were in the outskirts, but had to go through four tunnels to make it to the hostel where we were staying. Four tunnels that were so disgusting that the sissy Americans nearly puked after passing through them (myself included). To give you an estimate, the AQI in the tunnels were over 1000 and I forgot my mask.

Tomorrow, we have a day off before heading back to Shanghai, via a bullet train. We’re all nice and tipsy from post-ride beer and are about to head out into town… May the Necronomicog have mercy on our souls.

Keep an eye on Mission Workshop’s (@MissionWorkshop), Factory 5 (@Factory5) and my Instagram (@JohnProlly) during the day for updates.

On this trip, I packed as lightly as I could, but I made sure I had my absolute essentials with me. Hypebeast has a profile up on their site, profiling these items, stating why I brought what and how each will be used as I travel through China. Head over and check it out!

Rolling out of Suzhou was a lot easier than rolling out of Shanhai. Still, the AQI was much higher than the day before but even then, within 10 miles, we were in relatively rural areas. Surprisingly, industry still had a grip on the outer-lying cities. Before too long, we hit lake Taihu. The locals will tell you that it’s one of the more beautiful areas but visibility was very poor when we arrived. With not much to actually see, we had lunch and came out to find the sun shining and a wind had blown the smog out from the hills.

Wanting to mix it up a bit, we headed to the highest point on the “big island”, Piaosha Road. At a whopping 300m, it’s not much of a climb, but when you’ve been hammering on perfectly flat roads for a week, any elevation is welcome. This road is very scenic and parts spiked up over 20%, so I knew the guys on track bikes would have a problem. After making it past the pitches on 48×15 gearing, they were fine and I got some great photos of the dudes, smiling ear to ear down the switchbacks. It was also surprising to be told that no one rides bikes up into the hills here.

That one climb provided most of our elevation for the day, save for a few of the bridges and after regrouping at the base of the hill range, we rode inland into a horrendous headwind. I’m not used to riding flat terrain, so after blasting 25 mph all day, hitting a wind like this really tore my legs apart. Everyone was beat and it’s almost laughable to be tired after a 60 mile, 1400′ ride, but we’re all cooked. We made it to the base of the Qizi Mountain, where we treated ourselves to some hot tub time and herbal recovery potion.

Like the last riding day, I shot all film, but I managed to get this shot with my iPhone. For more frequent updates, keep an eye on Mission Workshop’s (@MissionWorkshop), Factory 5 (@Factory5) and my Instagram (@JohnProlly) during the day.