All in Due Time
I'll sleep in November.That's my mantra of late. I've been burning the candle at both ends seemingly ever since getting to California in mid-January. I could argue that I've been doing the same for the past 10 years or my entire life, and there's truth to all three sides. Let's stick with the "since getting to California" for now. Despite The Niño and the dreaded soppy mess he leaves in his wake, I've managed to operate on a 26/7 schedule. Those two bonus hours per day are quite the perk to gettin'er done.I'm fresh back from SXSW. I never know what to call it. "South By" or the full "South By Southwest" or "SXSW" as it's expressed in written form. Taking a step sideways, if you say "San Fran" you're looked at like you have two heads and are immediately pegged as an outsider here in the Bay area. Yet, the very close translation is South By, which is definitely the going term for this mega mixed festival of all things, umm... all. From tech to innovation to outdoor to interactive to media to movie to music to FOOD, SXSW is an all-encompassing festival.Let's cut straight to the chase. How do you know SXSW is legit? Because over the course of three days I became best friends with Rebecca Rusch and even the Turducken made an appearance, although instead of poultry within poultry within poultry, it's those three things all ground up and stuffed in casein. Plus Tim's hand. Tim's hand in the picture, not in the Turducken.
I was there with SRAM's Open The Road tour, which is an ongoing series of rides throughout the country to not just inform people of SRAM's ridiculously cool and mind blowingly simple 1x drivetrain and Hydro disk brakes, but get them out and on the bikes using it. On road, off road, dirt, the ever ubiquitous gravel, these drivetrains do it all. Stay tuned for when/where/how to get involved. The next one is at Sea Otter followed by Tour of California. Let's ride bikes.
Sweet.
Stay. Staaaay. Good cow.
My final meal in Austin was BBQ. Proper BBQ with both brisket and a rib (no, not ribs, just a single, ginormous rib). Plus three pillowy slices of Wonder bread which I didn't know what to do with so I used them as a rag to wipe my face. That weird pink stuff is not pimento cheese nor cat vomit, rather it's Sriracha coleslaw. It's 150x better than it looks.
The week prior I shot an ad for Cycliq. What is Cycliq? It's awesome. What else is it? It's an incredibly useful mashup of a high powered light with not just an on-board security camera, but it's a hi-def camera for catching all your sweet bike antics. Overlay Strava data and bam you've got yourself some very cool technology.
I was there with SRAM's Open The Road tour, which is an ongoing series of rides throughout the country to not just inform people of SRAM's ridiculously cool and mind blowingly simple 1x drivetrain and Hydro disk brakes, but get them out and on the bikes using it. On road, off road, dirt, the ever ubiquitous gravel, these drivetrains do it all. Stay tuned for when/where/how to get involved. The next one is at Sea Otter followed by Tour of California. Let's ride bikes.Sweet.Stay. Staaaay. Good cow.My final meal in Austin was BBQ. Proper BBQ with both brisket and a rib (no, not ribs, just a single, ginormous rib). Plus three pillowy slices of Wonder bread which I didn't know what to do with so I used them as a rag to wipe my face. That weird pink stuff is not pimento cheese nor cat vomit, rather it's Sriracha coleslaw. It's 150x better than it looks.The week prior I shot an ad for Cycliq. What is Cycliq? It's awesome. What else is it? It's an incredibly useful mashup of a high powered light with not just an on-board security camera, but it's a hi-def camera for catching all your sweet bike antics. Overlay Strava data and bam you've got yourself some very cool technology.
Hmm, what else? Oh, I hosted a popup ride with the UC Berkeley Cycling Team. Did you know that Cal was the same thing as UC Berkeley? I sure didn't. Boy, did I sound like an idiot when I asked them why everyone on the UC Berkeley Cycling Team was wearing Cal Cycling kit. Despite my ignorance, we had a blast.In related news, did you know that I am a co-owner of UnTapped? Some people don't. We were celebrating all things collegiate cycling, plus the Cal student center just opened up an Equator Coffees location and Equator was just debuting their affogados at the same time as celebrating bringing UnTapped into the Equator family. Two words, folks: Recovery Affogados.
I met up with my pal Zeke and we rode something fantastic not too long ago all throughout Marin. We can Tarantino it by giving the summary and then working backwards. First things first (or actually last things first), here's my bike at the end of the ride:
And how'd it get so filthy? Why finishing with roads like this, of course. One man's road is another man's goat path.
It was around about here, below, that Zeke and I went full urban assault and it all started to get very real. Notice the rainforest like canopy above us. And the nice lattice work to the sides.
I rode this entire section. In about 3 seconds from whence I took this pic, Zeke opted to walk. Definitely because he wasn't aboard a Cannondale Synapse like I was.
The summary of this day is that When in doubt, always choose maple. This is sage advice, especially with this news bomb shattering headlines worldwide, STOP THE PRESS, THIS IS BIGGER THAN TRUMP.Oh, somewhere in there I also went to Spain for four days. That is newsworthy and a fantastic trip yet entirely too short. Typically going overseas for half a year at a time, it provided a serious shock to my system to go to the other side of the globe for only 96'ish hours. But with some great rides, meeting the likes of Rob and Javier and his wife at Pave -- the sweetest shop I've ever visited in Europe by an epic landslide. For sure give them a visit if you're in Catalonia. As it turns out, once you escape the city, the riding isn't too shabby either. Hi Ben!
And a dozen other things. Always things. Always. I love it. I'm slammed busy -- please believe me, it's not all sugar and spice and riding my bike -- but I'm completely embracing it. I wouldn't have it any other way. Just throw me a bone if you see me nodding off. I'll get some sleep in November.
I met up with my pal Zeke and we rode something fantastic not too long ago all throughout Marin. We can Tarantino it by giving the summary and then working backwards. First things first (or actually last things first), here's my bike at the end of the ride:And how'd it get so filthy? Why finishing with roads like this, of course. One man's road is another man's goat path.It was around about here, below, that Zeke and I went full urban assault and it all started to get very real. Notice the rainforest like canopy above us. And the nice lattice work to the sides.I rode this entire section. In about 3 seconds from whence I took this pic, Zeke opted to walk. Definitely because he wasn't aboard a Cannondale Synapse like I was.The summary of this day is that When in doubt, always choose maple. This is sage advice, especially with this news bomb shattering headlines worldwide, STOP THE PRESS, THIS IS BIGGER THAN TRUMP.Oh, somewhere in there I also went to Spain for four days. That is newsworthy and a fantastic trip yet entirely too short. Typically going overseas for half a year at a time, it provided a serious shock to my system to go to the other side of the globe for only 96'ish hours. But with some great rides, meeting the likes of Rob and Javier and his wife at Pave -- the sweetest shop I've ever visited in Europe by an epic landslide. For sure give them a visit if you're in Catalonia. As it turns out, once you escape the city, the riding isn't too shabby either. Hi Ben!And a dozen other things. Always things. Always. I love it. I'm slammed busy -- please believe me, it's not all sugar and spice and riding my bike -- but I'm completely embracing it. I wouldn't have it any other way. Just throw me a bone if you see me nodding off. I'll get some sleep in November.