Bikepacking Roots wants to thank its amazing supporters like you and its fabulous brand sponsors for donating to the BIPIC Bike Adventure Grant. The 501(c)(3) non-profit is getting so close to its goal. But they still need to raise $3,000 more to make its BIPOC BikeAdventure Grant Program a reality this year so they’ve teamed up with Cane Creek to sweeten the deal!
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Alexandera Houchin’s Ultra Racing Hacks
If you follow ultra racing, then you have most likely heard of Alexandera Houchin. Today we’re sharing a few hacks she’s tried over the year, from her beginning roots bike touring all the way through bikepacking races. Read on for a bit of self-deprecating humble pie and innovation, rolled in one!
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Bikepacking Roots Announces the 2024 BIPOC Adventure Grant
Bikepacking Roots (BPR – 501(c)(3) ) is excited to announce the re-envisioning of their BIPOC Bike Adventure Grant. A true non-profit grant in the bike touring and bikepacking space. Set to launch this Spring, the grant program is in its 3rd cycle, and it emphasizes the organization’s core focus on community building…
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BIPOC MTB Mechanic Series with Pedalhomie at High Desert Cycles
Our friend Eric Arce is excited to announce a BIPOC mechanic workshop series with @highdesertbicycles in Albuquerque. Come learn with Erik and the mechanic and shop manager, Davi on Wednesday, January 17th. Together, they will lead a FREE multi-workshop series to teach MTB mechanic skills to BIPOC folks. Erik and Davi wanted to create a space for people to ask questions and learn about how to fix their mountain bikes.
The first workshop will focus on the drivetrain. Email Eric to RSVP.
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A Camp of Our Own: How RAR New Haven Built The Community We Needed at Gravel Camp
I couldn’t stop moving the day before Gravel Camp. I was so excited, so nervous, and full of jitters. For years this camp had been an idea; since last year it was a real goal; and for the past two months, it was practically a part-time job.
Together, my fellow organizers (and friends), and I planned a weekend bike summer camp for femme, trans, women, and non-binary (FTWNB) folks to build the skills, confidence, and community to adventure on their bikes. From all over the East Coast and as far as Colorado, campers were coming to New Haven, CT, to learn about bike mechanics, riding skills, and bikepacking — all while in a community with other Queer, BIPOC, and radically cool riders. After years of dreaming, it was finally here.
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TUNED: A Black and Asian Owned Boutique Bike Service Shop in Brooklyn, NY
It seems like only yesterday, Tijon Randall was wrenching client bikes in the basement of his Brooklyn apartment due to COVID-19 shutting down shops across the country. Prior, Tijon was one of the mechanics at a local bike shop in Manhattan when the coronavirus pandemic was at its peak, including the one he worked at. Thankfully, Tijon’s relationship with clients was strong enough that the demand for repairs, maintenance, and builds kept him afloat as everyone was trying to figure out how and when it was safe to re-open stores and businesses again. This new reality showed that he might be able to fulfill his once-longshot dream of opening his own shop. And just like that, TUNED, a boutique bike shop in Brooklyn, New York, was born.
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Taneika Duhaney Recaps the Inaugural 2022 Girls Gone Gravel Festival
It should not have been a grand revelation to anyone in the cycling world when hosts of the Girls Gone Gravel podcast announced that there would be an eponymously named Girls Gone Graveling Festival in the cycling mecca of Bentonville, Arkansas this past April. Kathryn Taylor and Aimee Ross organized and led the three-day gravel cycling event which was intended for novice and seasoned gravel cycling enthusiasts. The event promoters stressed from the beginning “it’s not a race.”
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Waaseyaa: It is Bright – Alexandera Houchin, Her Life, and Her Chumba Cycles Stella MTB
Waaseyaa: it is bright, is light (as in the day), is radiant; it is sunny
It’s been a hard couple of years. Compounded self-doubt, emotional and physical abuse and income insecurity had me clinging to any bit of life I had within myself. I hadn’t really comprehended how I had gotten in that position in the first place. I remember years ago talking to someone who confided in me that she was in an abusive relationship. I’d been stone-cold in clarity when I told her to leave the fucker. She revealed that it was more complicated than that and, at that moment, I pitied her. Years later, I found myself in the same predicament; I was ashamed both for the lack of strength I had to leave my boyfriend and for my inability to listen to her. I’ve spent the last two years feeling like a swollen shell of myself.
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SR Suntour’s Collaboration with Artist Natalia Pulido Supports Diversity in Cycling
We all want the opportunity to be heard. Unfortunately, not everyone receives that opportunity. SR Suntour’s primary goal is to get more people on bikes regardless of their race, creed, gender, sexual orientation, ability, language, body type, or nationality. One of the ways we hope to do this is by creating affordable products of high value and performance to reduce the cost of entry and to work on making cycling a safe and welcoming place for all those that choose to enjoy their time on two wheels. Simple as that.
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My Name is Windy: The Scene at the 2021 CX Nats
Act One: We Can’t Stop Here, This is Nats Country!
In which our anti-hero-TeamLifeLOL-genderwhatever sets the stage with cold takes on Chicago-lite.
What a December it was for The Cyclocross in Chicago. I’ve seen a few different versions of this: rain and sleet off Lake Michigan for Montrose; 60 degrees (and a hot tub at both!), bitter cold and wind at Afterglow; and for USAC CX Nationals in Wheaton, IL, there was a complete fall-to-winter seasonal transition.
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A Space For All
The outdoor industry has historically lacked diversity. Brooke Goudy is working to change that. A Space For All is a short film about representation, community, and the work that Brooke is doing to get more people of color to experience the joy of bikes.
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Alexandera Houchin Reflects on Her Cover Photo in Freehub Magazine
Our friend Alexandera Houchin sent us over an exciting email yesterday, celebrating her making the cover of Freehub Magazine’s latest issue. Here’s Freehub’s description of this issue:
“An unprecedented number of people are riding mountain bikes as an outlet for exercise and exploration and, as a result, discovering a truth we all eventually come to know: Every ride is an adventure. Freehub’s 12.4 edition is a celebration of this truth and a meditation on how adventure leads to discovery, both of the outside world and within oneself. In our cover story, ultra-endurance racer Alexandera Houchin writes about how her relationship with the bike has instilled a deeper understanding of her identity as a Native woman—and how she’s come to realize the act of racing is a ceremonial expression of her Ojibwe spirit. Transformative adventure pervades this book, with feature stories on a life-changing family bikepacking journey in the Alaskan wilderness and the existential reckonings of a rider attempting to clear a long-neglected trail in central Nevada’s remote Toiyabe Range. Welcome to Issue 12.4—a tribute to self-discovery and embracing the unknown.”
Read on below for Alexandera’s thoughts on this experience…
Radar
Real Bike Girl Shit: A Year+ Into the Pandemic
This article is a follow-up to Cinthia‘s piece she penned for us last year entitled Bike Racing, White Privilege and the Coronavirus. Read on for a somber reflection on the time that’s passed from Cinthia below…
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The Summer of Cheech: Casa Verde, Crust Bikes, and a Limited Run of 24″ Romanceurs
You may not know me but maybe you’ve heard of my company? Well, I’m using this article as the official announcement of my debutante summer, The Summer of Cheech. I’m Cheech, Co-Owner of Crust Bikes and Creator/ Designer of Casa Verde.
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Tour Divide: Why Not? – Arya’s Account of Her TDR Attempt
On June 11th, 2021, I became the first Tibetan person to race the Tour Divide (if that kind of thing matters, really). Though I didn’t reach my goal of finishing this year, I did bite off a good 1,300-mile chunk of it, offering pieces of myself to the land along the way. Here’s what I experienced.
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Ride All the Bikes with Korey Hopkins
Different forms of cycling mean different things to cyclist Korey Hopkins and in the latest video from Pearl Izumi, we get to see Korey’s love of two wheels…
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Tour Divide Bikes: Arya’s Tour Divide 2021 Crust Bikes Romanceür Tourer
This bicycle named Lil Romeo was chosen for my first attempt at the Tour Divide based on trust built over the years of adventuring together. A Reynolds 853 steel Crust Romanceür that I’ve ridden for 4 years in 4 different United Nations recognized countries. The custom frame bag that held food, 3 liters of water, and often a can of nitro coffee has the Tibetan national flag that is not recognized by the United Nations. I love this flag almost as much as I love this bike. Not for the sake of Nationalism, but for the sake of Beauty. Lots of parts on this bike were selected for beauty, practicality, and nostalgia.
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Smiles 4 Miles Tour
Empower People Of Every Race, Nationality, And Socioeconomic Strata To Rehabilitate And Maintain Their Own Bikes.
This 8,000 mile tour includes stops in twenty-five cities including mountain bike trail rides, advocacy talks, community cruises, and community wrench rehab events. The starting line is New York City and we’ll tour a southerly route via Fort Worth, Texas, to the West Coast, returning along a northerly route via Chicago, Illinois, to the finish line in New York. With a repurposed school bus as a mobile basecamp, we will journey from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and back, stopping in communities to ride our mountain bikes on some rad trails, advocate for BIPOC – all people! – to get on bikes to share in our journey, and to empower communities through hands-on wrench events, all while giving away over 1,200 bikes in the process.
Head to GoFundMe to donate if you can and to Smiles 4 Miles Tour to read more!