rons bikes blog dot com

hi folks, wow its been a while since I’ve been a bike camper. pre pandemic … actually a few years before that, it defined our lives … if someone were to ask me what my job was between 2011 and 2018 I would have said “I’m a professional bike camper and part time merchant of rotund bags”. in 2018 we got a van, and lived in that full time until 2020 brought us home for mostly good. now there are all sorts of factors clipping the ol’ wings. no complaints, I am also truly enjoying this phase of my life as a full time merchant whilst tending to my garden. well, not yet this spring … but maybe some weekend soon ….

to get to the story here, Tenzin and I stacked a few “charm offensives” together and booked an open ended 2 week trip, with the first stop being San Jose airport to assemble our near fully disassembled bikes on the curb with all our camping gear so that we can just ride away like we brought our own uber along. we used to do this at least once every other month, and while we were a little rusty, it went well and was as liberating as I’d remembered. I even fit my big ol’ Atlantis in a soft bag. I don’t know why I never take photos of that, probably because I am too focussed on lugging it around on my shoulder when the “vogue” time is nye.

here is a lil’ video of my bike before I stuffed it all in one of these cheep soft cases that cost about as much as a cardboard box these days. they are lighter so you can pack about 6lbs more stuff in there without penalty at the check in desk. that comes in handy when traveling with a big ol’ riv! they also fold down pretty small so you could theoretically take it with you — can’t do that with a bike box. this method, of course only works with a metal bike … and you can’t care about your paint job much. this 8 year olde Atlantis has plenty of scratch and dingy stories. embrace it!

so just like that we were in sunny California and we were off on a 106 mile ride to Sea Otter for a few meetings and greetings. we were first to meet my UD biz partner Patz there who was driving down from Portland. our route was to take us inland through the mountains into the redwoods and onto the green pastures of the central coast. we were going to camp 15 miles outside of San Jose once we got to some trails on the outskirts — but we got a late start and had to hotel it in Los Gatos with plans of doing 90 miles the next day. up early and off we went into the redwoods.

to say the least there was a lot of climbing. I don’t think we hit a patch of flat road until we hit the outskirts of Salinas at dusk, but I am getting ahead of myself.

we had a perfect day for bike touring — 70s and sunny — glorious California spring lushness. CA has it so good when the getting is good. when you can glide through and not have to pay the exorbitant prices of residency — when you can camp off the road/trail in these beautiful places for free and have access to all of the outdoor amenities and fresh foods indicative of the California lifestyle without the weight of it all … thats my Yankee take here. we have steady habits without the flash, thats fine most of the time, but like I said …. California is something else entirely, and it is so fun/easy to bike tour here without worrying about your cute house in the woods going up in flames.

case in point, I am sure someone lived here for a while. good views, you will have to take my word for it. nothing in the fridge though.

Tenzin has not ridden their bike much since their last tour divide attempt 2 summers ago. all that fitness stayed in the legs apparently — she ate this ride up! until we were sick of the spoonfuls…. so many spoonfuls

shadows were getting longer — so were the climbs. at this point in the day we were 60 miles in and 9000 ft of elevation. on heavy ass bikes! so it goes. if you want to see the stuff, you always have to go up up up!

my wahoo died as we dropped down to the Salinas valley — I realized Patz was only 30 min away from us in his truck, and we still had 25 miles to camp on the gravel course above the expo. we had meetings the next morning, and I was TIRED. so I called 1-800 RANDO REJECTS for a pickup. we enjoyed a California burrito in a strip mall whilst our chariot arrived to bring us to a comfy hotel near the venue. soft times.

the next day we did a dangerous (Laurel Grade) and hilly ride to the expo. someone actually stopped and wanted us to put our bikes in their not-enough-space van — thoughtful of them, but we were already at the top! —- these are the only photos I took. Sea Otter is huge, and it’s not really anything the alt cyclist is interested in, but for us it is all about the meetings. touching base with our suppliers and distributors, as well as seeing some industry friends. the charm offensive pt 1. fun to catch up with everyone in such a weird time. the poor bike industry — mostly big bike. going to be an interesting summer for obvious reasons that you can read about elsewhere.

well, I didn’t take any tech expo photos, but we had some successful meetings!

next post will be our bike times in San Francisco.

hope everyone is having a cozy weekend.

XXRR