Yesterday was the Bike to Work Week party over at my neighbor down the street,
Patagonia. (yes we all know it is a month later than the rest of the party here n the states, long story)
I was able to make some new connections and show off the Ramblers in a slightly more formal way than locking them up when we are over there for work, meetings or picking up the munchikin. A huge thank you to my wife, who works there, for keeping me connected with all of the other incredible volunteers who make the BTWW happen over there. They throw a ton of events together throughout the week, and I am honored to be included in it all as an outside company.
Thank you everybody who made this happen, all the folks that stopped by to see the bikes, and I am looking forward to next year
This past weekend I was able to coax a couple of buddies out for a quick s24o camping trip up in the mountains behind Ojai. Not an easy feat for most of us to pull off as life gets too busy, but a few emails, a month of lead time and I had two out of 6 invites along for the ride, thanks Mike and Mike. We headed out Saturday afternoon towards the Murietta Camp near the end of Matilija Creek Rd.
Weather down on the coast was foggy all day, and I was looking forward to getting some time in the sun. About 6 miles in we could see the end of the clouds, and then it was clear all the way to camp.
Up around Lake Casitas and through Miner's Oaks we stopped in at the Farmer and the Cook to pick up some last-minute energy snacks (peanut butter cookies) and then it was out of town an up HWY 33 into the Santa Ynez mountains
The turn off for Matilija Canyon Rd comes up quickly. Mostly uphill to get past
the most useless damn in the region, and then down into the canyon. This is some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever been through.
Just over 5 miles of empty rolling hills heading back to some dirt and creek crossings. The sun would be giving us light until 7:30 or 8, so we were taking our time getting to the trail head
I theory we were almost there. The campground should be less than a mile up and easy to spot. Twenty minutes of single track, and a creek crossing and it was becoming painfully evident that Plan A was not going to be as easy as we thought
The trail was well marked, and a heck of a lot of fun, but the campsite was a bit elusive. Plan B was to head back towards Matilija camp, and or the first workable flat spot before it got too dark. Two miles back the other direction, one dry riverbed, 3 creek crossings and a whole lot of hike a bike and we found our home for the night
Tired, hungry and needing a rinse in the creek the camera went away until morning. While the Matilija camp sees a fair amount of traffic, it was fairly quiet this summer Saturday, there were a couple of other camps to the south, but by no means crowded. The night was clear with bright stars and no moon. Sleep came easy. Fog had rolled into the valleys by morning, bringing some chill with it.
Dinner Had made it evident that I had left my spoon at home. There is a good bit of humor to be found in that in consideration of all the camera gear and other stuff I had dragged along. It was not that big of a deal, by morning I had thought of a work around for my oatmeal. Have I mentioned how much I like my
Soma tire levers?
The sun was starting to break through, it was time to break camp and enjoy the ride out. A mix of single track, and hike a bike, with creek crossings, plenty of poison oak, and did I mention poison oak?
The time in the sun was short lived and we were flirting with the edge of the fog the rest of the way back towards home and the ocean.
After a look back we crested out of the valley and back out on the HWY 33, tempting us to head north for a bit.
At least it was tempting me. The rest of the afternoon committed for all three of us though, it was back to town. Trips further North will have to wait for another time.
The trip was a success, even had a little adventure thrown in. Total time away was under 19 hours with about 60 miles of riding. All of this is just to the North of the comforts of home. Everybody wants to do it again. Time to start planning the next round.
I have been talking with the great folks at Merry Sales about bringing a new 700x38mm tire to market fora while now. IMO the best platform is to use the existing Soma New Express mold and casing from the 700x37 tire they currently sell and have a batch made up without the hypertex casing. This has worked with great reception on the 650b version of the tire. Having put many miles on both versions of the 650b tire as well as the relatively new 700x37 New Express I am convinced that a "C Line" would be my Goldilocks tire.
At this point I need your help in picking a color for the first run
[polldaddy poll="7161169"]
As with all projects of this nature there will be one color for the first batch, once consumer reception is felt out we can move to have batches made up in more than one color.
It almost sounds like an oxymoron, but today's post office / hardware store ride had a few distractions wrapped in. that is aside from being a perfect day for a quick escape
This afternoon
Jay Nelson is going to be showing off some of his stuff behind the Patagonia store. I was stoked to get an early look. I have been watching Jay's work for a long time, ever since photos of his Honda civic camper made the rounds on the web I have had a dream of chopping up my Golf for a similar project.
I am looking forward to dropping in later and seeing what else he has for the showing.
It is easy to fall in and out of routines. Far to often we end up on the path of least resistance even when we know it may not be the best for us. When I started the Ocean Air Cycles blog, it was about documenting my getting outside by bike every day. Things have grown and changed a bit since then. While I still get out pretty often a pattern started to set in back around Daylight Saving time this year. The schedule took an abrupt nocturnal shift and morning rides went by the wayside. The coffee outside kept me going at least one day a week, but even that took a vacation with out little girl's birthday last week. Shopping for new pair of shorts was the clincher. Time to get back on the bike, every day, for more than a trip up the street to the PO. This morning was the first of what will be many out and back trips on the coast.
June Gloom has set in, and that makes it even harder to motivate. Once out there though it is all worth it. Foggy is way better than wet or cold.
Saturday morning everything came together for a photo shoot I have had in my mind for a while. The flower moon would be setting over the ocean just before sunrise. The tide was a minus 1.2 ft low, and the weather was holding clear with no fog. I headed out to the remains of our towns WWII gun turrets that have been crumbling into the ocean for over 70 years now to brew up my morning coffee.
The turrets are a relic from a time that there was a real need to maintain the security of our beaches. The world has changed since then in many ways. Crumbling monuments like these serve as a reminder of those who have come before and gave their lives to preserve our freedoms. Take time this weekend to remember why we call it Memorial Day, many have given everything they could give so that we would have the freedom to do things like brew up coffee on the foundations of their old guard posts, enjoy the outdoors and play outside.
Thank You.
After the trip through the Seattle Public Library it was a quick haul back south to invade Portland with the Ramblers. It was a Wednesday, and naturally we started the morning with some coffee brewed outside under the St Johns bridge.
There was a bit of blue sky here and there, and at least it was dry. I know I will be visiting and passing through the northwest often in the coming years, but will admit I am a sun lover and will be hard pressed to give up California as home.
We were there for 2 or 3 non stop days and nights, and honestly it is all blending together at this point. I was able to get a feel for the bike culture there in town, meet a bunch of great people, drink way too much coffee and enjoy a ton of great food.
We spent a lot of time at
Velo Cult. It is taking a bit of time, but Sky has built what I believe will become the hub of bicycle culture in the town. It is more than a shop or a bar, it is a community space, enveloped on all sides by bikes.
The main event for us was getting the back end of the shop for one night to show off a row of complete Ramblers. We had some friends come by, met some friends of friends, some of the guys on the floor at Zen that will be making the Ramblers and a ton of new folks as well.
It started slow, and I was able to grab a shot. We were sharing the space that night with a beer event as well as an irish punk band. Things get busy for us, the camera went away and it was all show time for the next 5 hours. In theory I was going to be moved into the basement as the night went on. We were pulling enough people from last minute promotional efforts and the band was cool with us being there, so Sky worked out an alternate plan.
Rambler promotion by candle light and flashlight was on. I am pretty sure it went well. I know Sky was stoked with how well the bikes were received and how many people came out to see them. I will be bringing Ramblers into Portland through Velo Cult. If you have been thinking about building one up this summer Sky and the rest of the guys over there will be the ones to talk to. Be sure to drop by soon and let them know, and yes you can sit and have a pint while you are at it.
The days were filled with meetings and other business stuff. One whole afternoon was at Zen working out the details for the next run of Ramblers. What started as a quick meeting turned into a 3 hour tour. After that was all settled we headed out to explore the town a bit. With full bellies we headed over to check out the new Snow Peak flagship store.
SnowPeak makes and import some really nice camping gear. Some of it dovetails pretty well into what we are doing here at OAC, and we are hoping to bring in their product and possibly partner on a few things in the future. If you are in town it is definitely worth a stop.
The last major stop for business in town was closing one of the major gaps in our ability to deliver built up Ramblers to customers. I can build wheels, but much like my sewing, I am so slow that the family would starve waiting to get a profitable amount done. Enter
Sugar Wheel Works.
Jude and Jason are awesome. Jude has set up an efficient wheel building shop, with very high quality hand built wheels. The real beauty of what she has going on is her ability to show others how to build wheels as well, from community
classes to training employees with a model that is scalable.
Over the summer we will be adding some stock wheels to our offerings as well as the ability to facilitate custom builds at competitive pricing. If you are in Portland and looking for wheels you should drop by. If you are here in the Ventura area and looking for a custom set of wheels drop us a line. I know exactly how hard it can be to find a good set of hand built touring or commuting wheels and this will be the first step in filling that gap.
The last-minute breakfast on the way out of town was one that I will never forget. We met up with another early adopter and generally great guy for breakfast at the Grain and Gristle. It was my one and only wet ride in Portland on this trip. The food was great, and the company even better. While I have more than one favorite part about the whole OAC venture, meeting the people who love bikes and really live a life that the Rambler style of bike helps to fill out is just fantastic and rewarding.
Thank you Portland, I will be back soon!
The first small batch of
Ramblers headed out into the wild earlier this year. Most were headed to places that had a slightly long winter this year and reports were taking a bit to come in. I am stoked to be able to share RyanW's Rambler build, first impressions and stoke. His was a really special Rambler with a few custom touches to work through our ability to deliver some non-production details such as; bottle openers, custom brake mounting, rack boss location and color. The pictures tell the story:
This bike Rambler was coated with a sweet shade of Candle Orange, the fork bosses were located to accommodate a front rack he already had, Bottle opener on the top tube does what it should, and the vintage Mafac Raids are an older version of the same concept the Paul Racer brakes deliver on. Here is RyanW's initial impressions:
"I finally got it together last night and had a grand time alternating between laps around the neighborhood and bottle opener testing ;-)
Today I went up and down the 14 mile 4000' Sandia Crest Road. I'm happy to say that I think you pretty much nailed it! Proper review to come after I attempt the Valles Caldera Double Cross 200K this weekend.
I'll give you some more specific feedback later, but so far the bike hits the sweet spots everywhere it counts. It planes for me and handles perfectly.
It rides great unloaded and with the smallish bag on today's ride. It feels very stable, so I'm optimistic about larger loads.
Building it up, everything came together nicely and I only had to stop once today to toe-in one brake pad slightly."
I am pretty sure the bike will not be the limitation on his 200K this weekend, and knowing the bikes he could choose for the ride I am flattered that he would pick the freshly built Rambler. A close look revels that he had a pretty nice stash of new and vintage parts to build it up. Likewise, he is lucky to travel to Japan and was able to get some pretty cool lights, I am just a little bit jealous.
In case the flood gates open up with questions about further custom options on Rambler orders, I am not sure I will be able to do this on the next round coming in a month. It was fun, but a lot of work, and I will add options like this back in to the mix eventually, but not for a while.
As for Owner Reports, there are a couple more coming, stay tuned.
It is pretty hard to do better than a family bike ride in the morning
I was able to make some new connections and show off the Ramblers in a slightly more formal way than locking them up when we are over there for work, meetings or picking up the munchikin. A huge thank you to my wife, who works there, for keeping me connected with all of the other incredible volunteers who make the BTWW happen over there. They throw a ton of events together throughout the week, and I am honored to be included in it all as an outside company.
Thank you everybody who made this happen, all the folks that stopped by to see the bikes, and I am looking forward to next year
