Profile: Ocean Air Cycles

“This bike is not a touring bike,” Rob tells us. Designed in the garage workspace of his Ventura apartment and made by framemakers in Portland, OR the Rambler is the brainchild of Rob Perks of Ocean Air Cycles. With an engineering background, Rob has designed a bike that he always wanted for himself. Something utilitarian that would make mundane daily commuting tasks and errands fun as well as having the ability to take on mixed terrain and even go on bike overnights.

The Rambler is a low trail bike whose frame is built around Paul Racer brakes and 650b tires. The Paul Racers are more than just a bit of bike eye-candy for Rob, but are a key component to bicycle (so much so that he sells his frames with the Paul’s included). They have superb stopping power, good modulation and can accommodate wide tires with fenders. The fork has a low trail design so they are optimized to carry front loads without adverse affects.

While we were in Ventura, we got a chance to spend a few days with Rob and throw our legs over some Ramblers. For me, it was the first time I’ve actually ridden a low trail fork bike even though I’ve been reading their advantages on the pages of Bicycle Quarterly for years. I got to ride a Sunflower Yellow Rambler set up as a porteur bike with swept back bars and front rack. Although I couldn’t do a proper apples to apples comparison with my other bikes, since we didn’t really have a chance to dial in the fit, I could get a flavor for the bike.

I noticed immediately the difference in how the front end steered, especially with the weight of my handlebar bag. The wheel didn’t flop around as much even at slow speeds and I could ride no-handed with the bike and a load. The steering was predictable but not a snoozefest. We took the bikes out for about an hour ride up and down the coast and even did a little urban CX carrying bikes over tracks and riding on some railroad ballast. While not exactly a long mixed terrain ride, the bike steered nicely especially during slow speeds over rough stuff. Rob regularly takes his Rambler out on nearby dirt roads and even some mountain bike trails, usually getting strange looks from other riders.

With the bike designed and his first batches coming in, it is a matter of pounding the pavement to sell the Rambler. Its a bit of a chicken and an egg scenario where he feels more people would buy the bike if there were more testimonials of people riding the bike, but for that to happen he needs to sell more bikes, etc., Rob and his wife Allison are starting to do the bike show circuit, trying to get the bike out in the public. To help support the framebuilding and market the bikes, Rob also creates some soft goods; sewing frame bags, making leather wallets and designing shirts and musset bags trying to source materials and labor in the US. It was obvious to us that Rob was passionate about his products From the short time we rode The Rambler, we could see the niche they fill – a USA made, all-rounder, with low trail, and 650b wheels for long rides, light touring and everything in between.

Times are a bit lean as he tries to sell more frames to make more frames, but he believes that if he can get people to ride his bike that they’ll be converted. When we left Ventura he was contemplating which bicycle shows to attend in the coming year to maximize his efforts. He had a few painted frames in his garage awaiting decals and some finishing work. In the next few days they would be shipped out to the first owners of Ramblers in the world. Like the roads the Rambler was designed for, the summit is always barely within sight, but the route is twisty and uncertain at times and all that Rob can do is pedal on one measured stroke at a time.

(Keep our adventures going and the site growing! If you’ve enjoyed our stories, videos and photos over the years, consider buying our ebook Panniers and Peanut Butter, or our new Brompton Touring Book, or some of the fun bike-themed t-shirts we’re designing, or buying your gear through our Amazon store.)

How to Box Your Bike at LA Union Station in 18 EASY Steps

(From the comments, this post needs some clarification. You only have to box the bike from Union Station if you are taking an interstate train. For example, The Coast Starlight. The Surfliner from San Diego to SLO has roll-on services. Also, if you have a folding bike you can take it on as carry-on.)

I admit, the title is a bit of hyperbole, but not by much. We’ve taken our bikes on Amtrak from LA Union Station several times for bike tours and take it for granted that we know how to navigate the Byzantine maze to do it. So as a public service, I took some photos to make it a little easier for other would be bike-train travelers.

After a brisk ride from Sunland to North Hollywood, we took the Redline to Union Station. From the platform we made our way to the elevator (which fits two loaded bikes pretty well).

You enter the grand and historic LA Union Station, where you can now get some coffee from Starbucks, a sandwich at Subway and other sundries at Famima! A Market.

After getting your tickets either from the blue ticket machines or an Amtrak employee behind the glass, it’s time to find the hidden passage way to the luggage area to box your bike.

If you are facing the Amtrak counter, go stage right. You’ll see the Hertz and Budget car rental stations. Walk towards them….

Then make an immediate left. You’ll see a little yellow hallway and there will be elevators to your left which again accommodate two loaded bikes. Go to the second floor.

When the elevators open you’ll be in a funny white room. Take the unmarked door to the left with the glass window. It should be open.

Now, proceed down the narrow hallway until you see a door with the magic brass button.

Push it. A voice should tell you that the door is open. Enter.

You will enter an open warehouse type space. Walk towards the office type room by the bay doors. An Amtrak employee will give you a box to pack your bike. It will cost you $25 for the box and handling, which is a good deal when compared to flying with a full-sized bike. (To disassemble your bike for the bike box, check out our boxing video.)

If you have cash on hand, then you’re done. If you have to pay for the bike box via credit card, the fun is not over yet. The baggage area doesn’t have a credit card machine, so you have to go back down to the Amtrak ticket counter and pay there….THEN, you have to back to the luggage area and show proof of payment.

Congratulations, you’ve now successfully discovered the secrets of boxing your bike at LA Union Station. Now take all your bags back down through the maze and wait for your train. To be fair, the woman in the baggage area was very helpful and even taped our bike boxes together. This is a big improvement over several years ago when some people just stared at us with wonder. She told us that a lot of people were taking their bikes on Amtrak these days. It seems like others have caught on to the joys of multi-modal travel, now if only bike facilities on trains would catch up!

(Keep our adventures going and the site growing! If you’ve enjoyed our stories, videos and photos over the years, consider buying our ebook Panniers and Peanut Butter, or our new Brompton Touring Book, or some of the fun bike-themed t-shirts we’re designing, or buying your gear through our Amazon store.)

California Dreaming: Photo Recap

It seems like just last week when we were boarding the train from Portland to San Luis Obispo, CA to start our escape to some California sunshine! But alas, time flies. We’re on Amtrak again headed north back to Portland. We are working on a few more posts about the places we visited and the people we met, but for now some photo highlights!

We started our trip doing some epicurean wine tasting in the hills of Paso Robles.

 

Exploring some back roads around San Luis Obispo.

 

See Canyon road with Morro Bay in the distance. A beautiful ride!

 

We turned inland and rode through vineyards around Solvang, CA.

 

We met up with our friends and took on Refugio Road.

 

The first time we road Refugio we were wrecked, this time victorious.

 

The payoff (if you’re lucky and get a clear day!) for the big gravel climb are some amazing views of the Channel Islands in the distance.

 

We were almost the only tent campers at Lake Casitas.

 

We met Robert Perks from Ocean Air Cycles and road some Ramblers.

 

Only open a few months and The Mob Shop in Ojai is drawing a lot of attention.

 

Russ discovers some amazing riding literally in his parent’s backyard in Sunland, CA.

 

Lunch on top of the Verdugo Mountains overlooking the Tujunga and San Fernando Valley.

 

Our last riding day in California was a tough one to beat, but we’re looking forward to getting back to Portland.

(Keep our adventures going and the site growing! If you’ve enjoyed our stories, videos and photos over the years, consider buying our ebook Panniers and Peanut Butter, or our new Brompton Touring Book, or some of the fun bike-themed t-shirts we’re designing, or buying your gear through our Amazon store.)

California Dreaming: Revenge on Refugio Road

You know it will be an interesting ride when the guy at the local bike shop tells you that you probably shouldn’t try riding up the road with anything less than a mountain bike. When you tell him that you’re planning to ride it with some touring bikes, he shakes his head as if to say, “it’s your funeral” and goes back to changing the brake cable on the bike in the stand.

Our first encounter with Refugio at 2008. Albatross bars, CETMA rack and no idea what we were in for.

For almost as long as we’ve been touring, Refugio has stood out in our minds as one of the toughest rides we ever did. We first “rode” it almost five years ago early in our touring careers. It was recommended to us by a friend as a scenic way to get from Solvang to the coast. There is of course a little matter of a mountain range in the way.

Refugio before the unpaved climb is actually quite pleasant with rolling hills.

You connect to Refugio a few miles out of Solvang off the 246. When you first encounter it, the road is downright pleasant. You pass a pastoral landscape of vineyards, farmland and undulating green hills. You even cross a small creek at one point at a peaceful and shaded bridge. Its not unlike riding through a Wordsworth poem. But you can never get too comfortable, because you know in the back of your mind the idyllic landscape will transform into a rocky grueling ascent. So, enjoy it while it lasts. The moment of truth is unmistakable. A foreboding concrete barricade and a bent Road Closed sign riddled with bullet holes is the demarcation between a pleasant Sunday road ride to the start of something completely different – dirt, gravel and ruts. 23mm tires need not apply, nor those that are afraid of having to push their bike for stretches.

The bullet riddled Road Closed sign in 2008.

The same Road Closed sign 5 years later. This time we brought some friends with us.

Five years ago, this road owned us. It was the middle of summer, highs were in the 90s, the dirt and rock surface hadn’t seen a drop of rain in weeks. Loose mini boulders the size of a baby’s head were all over the place. I gave it my best effort that first mile but after I kept slipping and bouncing off my line I resorted to pushing, which with the steep grade and uneven surfaces wasn’t any easier. This is the road that made me quit clipless pedals becauuse I couldn’t clip in fast enough on the rough and steep terrain. I remember hiking the bike about 70% of the time and Laura remembers distinctly the buzzards circling overhead and wondering how curious it was to spend her birthday pushing a bike up a mountain in sweltering heat. The only consolation was that the actual climbing was only 3 miles long and it had to end at some point. I can remember the feeling of being absolutely wrecked by the time we reached the top, cursing our friend who had recommended the road and vowing never to take his navigational advice ever again.

Laura pushing her bike on her birthday, wondering how she got talked into this : )

Our friend Cynthia and her fully loaded Big Dummy, wondering the same.

Flash forward a few years and a few thousand miles and we find ourselves once again at the bottom of Refugio. This time, conditions are in our favor. The weather is hovering at about 70 degrees and by the looks of the first half mile, the winter rains have helped to fill in the loose rocks with dirt.

Still a tough climb, but we did more riding this time around and actually enjoyed it.

That’s not to say its a walk in the park. Refugio averages 11%, meaning several pitches are easily 15% or higher. We shift down into our lowest gear, try to find our Zen centers and pedal upwards. And yet something remarkable happens during the ride, it doesn’t feel quite as impossibly hard as we had remembered it. Yes, we are moving slow, but we are moving without having to get off the bike and push. Our optimism is cautious because every turn reveals some other nasty steep gravel challenge, but each time we are able to pedal through. At about 2.5 miles into the climb, we know we are going to make it. The road keeps going upward, but it is just a formality. We’ve become stronger riders not just physically but mentally. We’ve climbed longer and higher roads with heavier bikes and those experiences have given us perspective. When we reach the top we celebrate with some fresh oranges.

Demonstrating the width of this so-called road.

Tough but rideable this time around.

When our friends who we were touring with reach the summit, we descend together. The sun is setting and Refugio, a road that has haunted us for years has never looked more beautiful than it does now. The air is startlingly crisp and we can see far out towards the Channel Islands which are bathed in warm light. That first memory of us dragging our bikes up the dirt hill years ago is overtaken with a new one of us soaring down a golden valley in the cool evening, laughing at the joy of it all and in the knowledge that some things are better the second time around.

All smiles at the summit.

A rare clear day on the coast.

Savoring the hard earned descent to the water.

Although the coastal side is paved it is a screamer of a downhill. We all had to stop a few times to let our disc brakes cool!

Happy we survived the first time.

Just plain happy this time.

(Keep our adventures going and the site growing! If you’ve enjoyed our stories, videos and photos over the years, consider buying our ebook Panniers and Peanut Butter, or our new Brompton Touring Book, or some of the fun bike-themed t-shirts we’re designing, or buying your gear through our Amazon store.)

Paso Robles: The Central Coast’s Bicycling Secret?

The central coast of California is a well-recognized wine destination, with a number of vineyards and fine dining options sprouting up in Paso Robles and surrounding areas. But this post isn’t about wine, this post is about the area’s OTHER great untapped regional asset – amazing roads for bicycling.

Although Paso Robles has played host to the Great Western Bicycle Rally for decades and some curious bicycle tourists diverge from the main coastal route into Paso, it still seems like a relatively undiscovered cycling destination. An internet search of bicycling in the region brings up relatively little in the way of bicycle travel posts. People are riding bicycles in spades in the area, but aren’t talking about it online.

We recently met Steve and Carol Fleury who run BestBikeZone, one of Paso Roble’s bicycle shops. They gave us a lot of insight into the ways that Paso Robles is becoming bicycle friendly, but also the ways it can still improve. At the shop level, Steve is finding many active Boomers who are looking for a recreational activity that is a little easier on their body than running. Many of his customers have leisure time and income and like to taste wine as well as ride bicycles through the amazing country roads. Steve was also the catalyst in encouraging the city to apply for a bicycle-friendly designation for Paso Robles. Carol has been instrumental in reaching out to the women in the area and getting them on bikes. She helps lead a social ride every Sunday out of Dark Nectar in Templeton that attracts cyclists of varying ability. She recently got several of the women at “The 9’s” salon on bicycles, which she counts as a personal victory. When she’s not helping lead group rides, she also rides one-on-one with several women in the area who are just beginning and want to gain more experience before joining group rides.

When we put out our feelers for bicycle-friendly businesses in Paso Robles, we connected with TravelPaso, the local destination marketing organization. TravelPaso started a thread on their Facebook page that was instantly inundated with suggestions of businesses that are bicycling friendly. But what we quickly learned is that being bicycle friendly in Paso/Templeton is very different from the usual conversations about being bicycle friendly in larger cities.

Two businesses that instantly stood out were Cass and Sculpterra wineries. Because they have several employees and customers that enjoy bicycling, they designated the stretch of road between the two wineries as the “Linne Bicycle Trail” and put up signs at the wineries. We stopped at Cass and spoke to Lindsey, the tasting room manager, about what it meant for Cass to be bicycle friendly. Cass offers free water to cyclists, which is especially important during the hot summers, as well as allows day riders to enjoy their outdoor patio. They have also offered up the property as a rest stop during event rides and even had a bicycling costume contest during harvest season (the winner won her weight in wine!). She said that there was no pressure on cyclists to buy wine during a ride because she knew that many would return and bring their friends and family with them. For Cass and Sculpterra (and other businesses in the region), being bicycle friendly was expressed in a very low key and pragmatic way. It was less about using bicycles as a marketing tool and more about acknowledging that their employees, customers and many people in the community enjoyed riding bicycles, and then simply welcoming them. For them, being bicycle friendly was about being a good neighbor and community member and basic customer service.

This sort of pragmatic approach was also seen at Dark Nectar in Templeton. As the official meeting place for the Sunday group ride, Dark Nectar opens early to accommodate the cyclists. Because the ride attracts upwards of 40 people on good weather days, and because there are no bike racks in Templeton, a customer who was an engineer came up with the idea to install hooks on the awning for cyclists to hang their bikes. Across the street, the natural foods store in Templeton is also planning to install similar hooks to attract cyclists.

While in Paso, we also visited with Robert Nadeau of Nadeau Family Vintners, a relatively small winery located at the top of Peachy Canyon, one of the classic road rides in the area. Peachy Canyon is located on the west side of the 101 and is a fantastic road that climbs in a serpentine pattern beneath beautiful oak trees. Robert is an avid cyclist himself who understands how special the area is for riding. Robert has seen the pattern that many road cyclists tend to be foodies and enjoy wine. They stay in local accommodations (La Quinta in Paso Robles is noted for hosting large cycling groups), eat at the local restaurants and, of course, enjoy the local wineries. As we left his winery, we noted that the loop sensors that open the gate are tuned to detect bicycles as well as cars.

Paso Robles does not quickly come to mind as a bicycle friendly destination, but there are many things underway. A frontage road that connects Templeton to Paso Robles has beautifully marked red bike lanes that make it easier for cyclists to get into town.

The city has also submitted an application to the League of American Bicyclists to be recognized as a bicycle friendly community. Slowly, through events like the Great Western Bike Rally and the Tour of California, the area is being recognized – not just for its wine but for its great riding. There is still a long way to go. There are few resources about cycling in the area, other than local knowledge, and there is little mention in the destination marketing materials about welcoming cyclists. Hopefully, with the leadership of Steve and Carol from BestBikeZone and other respected community members that ride bikes, people will not only visit Paso Robles for the wine, they will spend multiple days exploring its marvelous roads on two wheels.

(Keep our adventures going and the site growing! If you’ve enjoyed our stories, videos and photos over the years, consider buying our ebook Panniers and Peanut Butter, or our new Brompton Touring Book, or some of the fun bike-themed t-shirts we’re designing, or buying your gear through our Amazon store.)

5 Ways Bicycle Travel and Touring Are Changing

Bicycle touring and travel is making a comeback. Previously reaching a peak in the late 70s and early 80s, before giving way to bicycle racing, Millennials who have discovered cycling in an urban setting are starting to venture further and further out. But this iteration of bicycle touring is looking different than the last.

#1 Shorter Trips

Bicycle touring was once only seen as the hobby of the wild-eyed and crazy extreme sports adventurer. A “real tour” had to be an epic undertaking across continents, through deserts, and slashing your way through a snake-infested swamp. While there are plenty of pedalers pushing boundaries, there has also been a growth in the popularity of short-form touring. S24Os and Bike Overnights are becoming more common cycling parlance. This is good for several reasons: It makes bike travel more accessible and broadens the touring market. It also allows people to enjoy the fun and sense of adventure of bicycle travel NOW without having to save up for years for that one grand trip.

#2 Multi-modal Adventures

Along with the sea change of what is considered a “real” tour is the idea that you have to pedal every mile, no matter how terribly excruciatingly awful it is, because it’s cheating otherwise. The concept of a “rideshed”, the distance you can cover with your bicycle and transit (trains, regional buses, light rail) is starting to get traction. This makes perfect sense for people who live in large metro areas surrounded with Suburban Donuts of Death. You could ride out of a downtown, risk your life in the suburbs, and then enjoy quiet riding, or you could just cut to the good stuff using transit. We’ve long been proponents of combining Amtrak with bicycle travel because of their reasonable bicycle carry-on rates and the simple fact that the train moves at a more harmonious human speed. There is nothing like looking out the window for hours on a long train ride to wake up your inner traveler.

#3 Family Friendly

In conjunction with shorter trips and the ability to use transit or other means to get out of dodgy riding areas, there also seems to be a growing interest in family bicycle camping. Family camping, once strictly the domain of minivans and Coleman tents, is also becoming more popular because of cargo bikes. Xtracycles, Yubas, Bakfeits and even trailers are making bike travel more accessible to families. In Portland, we recently participated in a family bike camping trip put on by Kidical Mass, which had a total of 22 bikes and 16 kids of varying age! The beauty of a bike-powered family vacation is you don’t have to travel very far or fast to make it feel like an adventure.

#4 Tourism Industry Recognition

With more people touring more often, tourist destinations and businesses are starting to take note. It’s simple math really. A traveling cyclist will eat more and will require more accommodations more often because of their limited travel distance. If your county is 200 miles wide, it will take a cyclist 3-4 days to navigate through it. As a tourist destination, you have a captive audience and it takes very little to attract and entice cyclists to stay. Oregon’s various tourism groups and DMOs are leading the way on this front. We’ve had the opportunity to work with them on their Scenic Bikeways and are amazed at how enthusiastic many small towns are at the idea of cyclists pedaling through.

#5 Off Road and Gravel Touring

On the other end of the bicycle travel continuum is the new trend of off-road/gravel road/mixed-terrain bikepacking. Combining ultralight backpacking principles with frame bags and mountain bikes or fat bikes, touring cyclists are exploring new unpaved territory. In some ways, I think this is a response to the amount of traffic we experience day to day. A lot of the great road touring routes in the 70s aren’t so great anymore, so the current generation is looking elsewhere – namely, off road. This is also augmented by the fact that camping and bicycle technology have never been better! Gear is ultralight, bikes have lower gearing and a wide range of tires and suspension to tackle virtually any kind of terrain.

Bike travel and touring are making a comeback in a big way. 6 or 7 years ago when we got interested in bike touring, it was a virtual wasteland. We’d walk into bike shops and ask about touring and the people behind the counter would just scratch their heads. Times are changing. Surly’s LHT has brought touring to the masses. The veritable explosion of young custom bicycle pannier/frame bag/rando bag makers is making bicycle touring hip and fun again. It’s never been better to travel by bike!

(Keep our adventures going and the site growing! If you’ve enjoyed our stories, videos and photos over the years, consider buying one of our ebooks: Panniers and Peanut Butter or The Unauthorized Brompton Touring Guide, or some of the fun bike-themed t-shirts we’re designing, or buying your gear through our Amazon store.)

California Bound!

Now that the holidays are winding down, we’re looking forward to our first bike trip of the new year and are headed down to California! While not extraordinarily exotic, it does promise some desperately needed sun. Our plan is to take Amtrak Coast Starlight down from Portland to Paso Robles, spend a night or two there, then work our way to San Luis Obispo and explore the town. From SLO, we’ll ride down south as far as Ventura (maybe a side trip into Ojai), then hop Amtrak into Los Angeles to visit family and friends. Then using the Amtrak Surfliner, go down to San Diego where we’ll begin the desert portion of our trip, riding through Julian to Anza Borrego, Salton Sea then turn North towards Palm Springs.

That’s the rough plan anyway. Things always change.

Aside from putting some real loaded miles on our Vayas, one goal is to travel with a lens focused on bicycle tourism to see what works and what doesn’t. So we need your help. If you’ve got any tips on communities, advocacy groups or businesses (restaurants, lodging,etc.,) that are bike friendly and actively reaching out to cyclists let us know. We’d love to interview them and put a few more arrows in the quiver for when we go to DC to speak at the National Bike Summit!

One goal for 2013 is to advocate for bicycle travel in some big ways. We feel that we’ve done a pretty good job at getting individuals excited about hopping on their bikes and exploring. The next step, is to get communities and cities excited about bicycle tourism and travel. We occupy an interesting space, a nexus between adventure and advocacy and we plan to go gangbusters on the advocacy in the coming year.

We need your help with suggestions of people to talk to and some places to stay along the way. Or, if you’d like for us to speak at your community while we travel, let us know! Or if you just want to meet up and grab a beer. You can email us or send us a message via our contact page.

This trip, like our previous trips, is paid for out of our own pockets with funds from our ebook, shirt, headbadge sales and articles and photos we sell along the way. It sounds a lot more glamorous than the reality of the situation, believe me, but we feel strongly about the future of bike travel and are trying our best to help spread the word. So if you can help in any way with a nights stay, let us know.

California, here we come!

An Accidental Documentary

I’ll be honest. After the first exhausting day of riding and filming CycleOregon, I didn’t think I would make it through the week alive. We had brought a week’s supply of 5 Hour Energy and it wasn’t looking like it would be enough.

A week before we even made it to the start line, Laura was making phone calls, setting up interviews with local proponents and juggling our schedule so we could hit all the small communities by rented mini van before the event. I was busy testing out video gear, trying to reduce things to the bare functional minimal I would need since I would be carrying everything by bike. In three days we drove the entire route, stopped at all the communities, shot some B-roll, interviewed the local proponents and then circled back to the beginning.

THEN, the actual ride started. It was our first CycleOregon so we had to get over the initial shock of the sheer enormity of the ride and get to work. It was also proving to be one of the toughest CycleOregon routes in the history of the ride with 35,000 feet of climbing over the week.

Our daily schedule consisted of getting up at 5:30am while it was dark and literally freezing outside. We would quickly take down our tent, shove things in our duffle bags and carry them to the luggage drop. Then it was a mad rush to shove hot breakfast foods down the gullet so we could shoot B-roll of people rolling out of camp. We’d ride hard everyday, trying to stay in the middle of the pack, knowing that by the end of the day we would be coming in near the back because of all our filming stops.

During lunch breaks and rest stops we’d shovel more food, barely taking a break before we were up and walking around trying to find willing cyclists and volunteers to interview. Then, more B-roll. We’d usually end up spending an hour at stops, longer than we usually would but we had to get footage.

Victory at the finish line everyday was sweet but short lived. I’d stop to film the volunteers and riders coming in, while Laura went to luggage drop to find our bags with the tent. We’d quickly set up camp, stand in line at the shower, shoot more B-roll, eat dinner, shoot more B-roll, then go to sleep exhausted only to wake up at 5:30am to repeat the whole process.

During the first few days of the ride, people thought we were nuts. Heck, I thought we were nuts. People would pedal by on their lightweight bikes and ask us about the “Film Crew” sign on our bikes. We’d explain what we were doing and ask if they wanted to join. We could always use more interns and grips to carry some camera gear. Surprisingly, there were no takers. By the end of the week, people had caught on and would cheer “Film Crew!” as they flew by us going up the hill. Though we did have one sweet day of revenge on the last day. It was flat and fast and we were feeling good and we hammered along at 25mph with camera gear and all : )

But as I’m learning, filming in someways is the easy part. It’s been about three months since we rode CycleOregon and nearly everyday I’ve been chipping away at editing the 18 hours of footage. It was a monumental task, our first video project of this length. When Jerry Norquist from CycleOregon first asked us to ride and film the event, we were hesitant. It’s challenging enough to just ride the event, much less film it at the same time. But in retrospect, we are glad we said yes because it has been one of the toughest and most fulfilling projects we’ve taken on.

So now we are done and the finished product is online. We learned a lot on the ride and after. When we first set out, I didn’t think it would be a 28 minute documentary, but that is what is has become. I’m proud of it and feel lucky to have been part of CycleOregon’s 25th anniversary ride and help tell their story. I also feel privileged to have spent time with the proponents from the small communities and to be able to share their voices. So sit back, grab a beer and some popcorn and enjoy.

(Keep our adventures going and the site growing! If you’ve enjoyed our stories, videos and photos over the years, consider buying our ebook Panniers and Peanut Butter, or our new Brompton Touring Book, or some of the fun bike-themed t-shirts we’re designing, or buying your gear through our Amazon store.)

Review: Da’ Brim Rezzo Visor

We like to march to the beat of our own drummer here on PathLessPedaled, so sometimes that leads us to trying things out that may go against conventional wisdom. For example, riding in flat pedals, touring with a 16 inch wheel folding bike, and touring with a paella pan . It keeps things interesting. In the same vein, we’re going to make a bold statement here: Da Brim’s Rezzo visor is the most functional bike helmet visor ever. I’m sure there are lots of roadies cringing at something so Fredtastic. Deal with it : )

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Video Review: Maplets

As some Facebook fans know, I just got an iPad Mini and have been nerding out on it. One of my favorite apps so far is Maplets. It lets you find and download regional paper maps! It’s great for touring or if you’re visiting another city/town and want to see their local transit/walk/bike map.

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