The Radavist

When Erik and I met at Eurobike last year, we talked about doing a ride to celebrate the Specialized AWOL release. Originally, we talked about Oregon, then LA, but after some research, we realized there were plenty of roads, tracks and trails literally in SF’s backyard.

With the help of Jared from Riv Bike, Erik began to think about a three day route from SF to the Diablo Range, Morgan Territory, Henry Coe and finally, into Morgan Hill where we’d share our story and watch the premier of the Transcontinental film. It seemed like an achievable goal. We’d pack for camping, which included cold nights and mornings and most importantly, we’d take our time.

Rather than actually planning our route, we decided to take trail maps and meander a bit off the beaten path. Digital maps don’t have all the trails marked and some of the current maps of the Diablo range revealed a path none of us had taken. We were set.

Unfortunately, as it tends to go, unexpected elements came into the equation and our plans changed. At first, I was pretty upset about it, seeing as how I was planning on pulling a few stories out of our ride, but after reviewing my photos, I decided it made for a good story…

Part of what the Specialized AWOL project represents is an escape, a desire to get out of your normal ride routine and try something new. Taking a chance if you will. While we didn’t complete our ride, we had fun and saw some incredible displays of color as Mother Nature impressed us all.

Seriously, the sunrise the second day rivals all in my past experiences…

Read on in the Gallery!

There’s more to come, including my review of the AWOL Transcontinental Limited Edition and a Beautiful Bicycle post on Erik’s own bike.

Since the first time riding in the ‘wood here in Australia, I’ve always wanted to shred some MTBs. Problem is, it’s usually a pain in the ass digging up a bike, or there’s just not enough time to spend fucking around on the tracks and trails.

This go ’round, I’ve been taking it easy, so when a Sunday afternoon opened up, we were able to find the time for plenty of fucking around. But what about a bike? Luckily for me, Andy set me up with Tim at My Mountain, a shop in Melbourne specializing in bicycles designed for dirt riding: i.e. a MTB shop.

So, I had a bike (which I’ll be doing a bit of a write-up on at a later date), I had a guide (or three) and plenty of time. Andy knew of some mates who loved to ride Smith’s Gully, a “local’s only” trail system. He wouldn’t tell me where it was, or let me use my Garmin, he just tossed me into his van and about 30 minutes later, I was in a parking lot putting on my kit and nursing a hangover from getting “trollied” the night before.

The four of us all gave each other’s bikes the once over (only to know what to look for in case one of us crashed into the bush) and took off for the trails. Now, let me apologize in advanced, these photos didn’t quite fit into the product reviews I’m in the process of writing, they’re merely left-overs that were too rad to just pitch. Especially this one of Barnie getting rad…

See a few more in the Gallery!

Locals Only isn’t about exclusivity when used in this context, because truth be told, each time I’ve been on this ride, there are usually more out of towners than locals. It’s more of a way that Kyle and Ty like to throw visitors into the proverbial fire. The first time I did this ride, it was at night, in the rain, during goat head season and with no lights. It sucked. This time, it was rad. I won’t post the route (locals only, breh), but we did about 25 miles and 3,000′.

Check out more in the Gallery!

For the past seven years, Scott and Dickon from Santa Cruz have spent their post-Eurobike recovery in the hills and mountains of the Black Forest, just outside of Freiburg, Germany. Coincidentally, when Lyle from Mission Workshop and myself had a few extra days laying around before our Alps tour began, they invited us to join them.

That meant traveling from Glarus to Freiburg, before heading back to Zurich on Wednesday. That meant a lot of driving but surely it would be worth it. All the details and accommodations were made. Scott and Dickon knew were to stay, where to eat and were mostly familiar with the trails… What other reasons did we need? Back to Germany we go!

Yesterday morning, we engorged ourselves with one of the best hotel breakfasts I’ve had before beginning our journey. I suited up in the new Acre gear, tuned my bike and hopped off through town before we all found ourselves in a tower of switchbacks up and out of the valley.

The Black Forest is a sacred place, filled with lore and mythology. While we saw no Slender Man, or nymphs, I could feel the presence of something the whole day and it wasn’t the eggs from breakfast… Nature still owns the forest. The trees hummed and resonated with the wind. If you break yourself off here, there’s no telling what would happen to you once the sun settled in for the evening.

After a mild case of “lostness” and bordering on bonking, the whim to “take the other trail” turned our planned 3-hour jaunt into an 8-hour expedition through the absolutely stunning trail system. Some were extremely technical and steep, while others were fast and smooth. Then we hit the backside of Kandel with its fast, steep and rocky descents. We all wished we had pads…

We got a taste of everything and for me, the technical, rocky terrain was just a teaser for what awaits in the Alps. The total for the day was about 35 miles and 4,900′ and today, my legs are thanking me.

Check out some narrated photos in the Gallery!

Since I was one of the first people to try out the new Mission Workshop / Acre gear in China, the guys felt that it might make sense to give it a go in the Alps, where Lyle and James have spent the summer shredding. Part of this is also to familiarize myself with the new Acre Hauser pack.

Once Eurobike was over, we left Germany to spend a day in Switzerland. So, after a week of travel and tradeshows, we decided to take to a local trail system here in Glarus. Man, it felt amazing to get the heart pumping and the legs warmed up.

Even though it was only a 10 mile ride with 2,400′ or so of climbing, it was some of the steepest trails I’ve ridden and to think, the best has yet to come. Tomorrow, we head to Freiburg, Germany to ride with the Santa Cruz crew.

Check out more from the first day of the Mission Workshop Acre Alps Trip in the Gallery!

Look, I love the ‘wood and I love dirt. I’d rather spend six hours in the woods than three on sealed road. Why? It’s more fun. Especially when you find yourself on a 29+ MTB like a Surly Krampus (don’t worry, there’s a review coming). On one of my last days in Minneapolis, Jeff, Kyle and I rode the “River Bottoms” with Baroo, Jeff’s dog.

We took it at a chill pace, messed around on obstacles and stopped for the photo opps… Then, Kyle sprained his ankle and Baroo got overheated (90 degrees in Minneapolis is HOT).

I have to admit, in the 25 miles we rode, I had so much fun riding in the ‘wood with my mates. See for yourself in the narrated Gallery!

Sometimes, good coffee is more than enough motivation to do a quick ride through Golden Gate Park in SF. If you don’t have time for the San Bruno loop, there’s a quicker way. The first time I made it out to Trouble Coffee was with Chas, back in May when I was in town for the ATOC. This time, the sandwich board spoke its words of wisdom with one simple phrase: Live to Shred. We rolled back through the park, bumped into Marc and swung by the De Young museum, one of my all-time favorite HdM projects.

I can’t say I shredded much riding home, filled with toast and coffee but it did make for some excellent photos of the #lightbro through GGP… See more in the gallery!

If you enjoy riding up and down ranges in the ‘wood, or tearing down fire roads, then Santa Cruz is heaven. There’s even great road riding but this trip, we stuck to the trails. USCSC has a ton of trails on its campus, all of which cross, zig zag, ascend and descend around neighboring systems. When I initially headed down from SF with Brian Vernor, my cross bike was in the car, which would have been a fine vehicle for the day but I made a few phone calls and ended up demo’ing an Ibis Ripley instead. Let’s just say the day was probably a lot more enjoyable (hopefully I’ll be able to review that bike extensively in the future).

Garrett from Strawfoot, Vernor and I did a series of loops, ranging from relatively technical, loose and sandy descents to wide-open, no fucks given blast-fests down through Wilder. None of us had a Garmin on our bikes, so I have no idea how long we were out there, or how far we traveled, but my legs told me around 30 ish miles and in trails, that’s a long afternoon, especially when Santa Cruz was spiking into the 90’s and no, that’s not a reference to the vernacular style of the town.

Santa Cruz was heaven for those few hours and people often ask why I don’t shoot photos of the more technical, beautiful singletrack when I ride MTB. It’s because we’re going too fast and no one wants to stop! Except when someone wrecks…