
bikes, gear, rides, and routes.

Let’s Get Low (gearing)
I want it all. I want the ability to ride miles of pavement at road speed, and then climb an 18% forest road while carrying all of the necessary supplies for an overnight trip. And I want to do all of this on the same bike.

Project Party Bike
Get rad! 90’s rigid mountain bikes tend to make the best party bikes. They typically have massive tire clearance, they can be built with basically any components you want, and they’re pretty much indestructible. Plus, they’re cheap, easy to find, and usually come in some fun color schemes. 26 isn’t dead.

The 1000 Acre Wood
The 1000 Acre Wood is a large swath of privately owned timberland perched atop the eastern edge of Crescent Valley, just north of Gig Harbor. It contains a surprisingly large network of gravel forest roads, wide dirt trails, single track, and tight hiking trails

The Dark and Slow of Winter
As the beautiful colors of fall give way to the dark and cold days of winter, it’s difficult to stay motivated and want to go outside; The daylight hours are short, the temperatures drop, and the weather can become a larger obstacle than any hill you may encounter. Winter riding requires a mental shift, asContinue reading “The Dark and Slow of Winter”

(Don’t) Feel the Vibrations
Riding on gravel can take a serious toll on your body. You have to work harder to pedal through it, and your bike is probably heavier than a dedicated go-fast road bike. Even on flat-ish rail trails, you can’t really stop pedaling because you will almost immediately come to a stop.

1987 Miyata 912 Rebuild
There just aren’t that many nice vintage bikes left out there. Thousands of them were turned into single speeds and fixies between 2005 and 2010. Braze-ons were ground off, frames were spray-painted, and many were crashed and destroyed. Finding a nice one nowadays is rare, and the odds of finding one that’s barely been ridden is even more rare.

Learning to Love the Path Less Paved
When I was a kid, you could ride on pavement to the outskirts of town and then go ride up into the forest, hit a few trails, and bomb a fire road back into town… and you could do all of this on the same bike… and that’s all that gravel bikes are. Riding gravel isn’t new, and technically, neither are gravel bikes.

Intro to Capitol Forest
Capitol State Forest is an absolute wonderland of gravel. The nearly one hundred thousand acres of land is managed by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, and contains almost six hundred miles of gravel roads. It is a destination for hikers, horseback riders, campers, and dirt bike enthusiasts. It is also home to some amazing single track for mountain bikers.

The Palouse to Cascades Trail: Cedar Falls to the Columbia River
The entire Westside on the Palouse To Cascades Trail- Rattlesnake Lake to The Columbia. How to plan and what to expect when you ride the Palouse to Cascades Trail.

The Love of the Ride. or: Cycling is for Everyone
“Look fast, ride slow.” me. circa 2017 Cycling is a journey, both literally and figuratively. The more we ride, the more we learn about ourselves, our bikes, and what works for our needs. As the miles rack up, we learn how our bodies and minds react to highs, lows, inclement weather, failure, and exhaustion. WhileContinue reading “The Love of the Ride. or: Cycling is for Everyone”

The Elbe Multi Strada
Back in May of 2015, a friend invited me to a self-supported gravel ride in the hills around Elbe and Eatonville put on by a local frame builder. The ride was in its second year, and looked like it would be a fun chance to explore some places that I had never been on a bike. I figured that forty-ish miles with 4k of vertical would be hard, but well within my limits.
I was wrong of course..

How it All Began
What began as a seemingly ridiculous plan over beers at a dining room table in 2014, has grown into an annual ride across the cascades filled with gravel, good beer, and great friends.
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- October 2020
- August 2020
- June 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
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