Los Angeles

Ivan's trail

Whenever staying in LA, I have to ride Ivan's trail, of all the local loops I've ridden it's maybe the best (surely beating the pants of the Lummen Loop).  A good butt-kicking climb with some steep, technical sections, followed by a ribbon of fast, sometimes technical, ridgeline singletrack.  It's nothing short of completely fantastic.

Too lazy to ride to the trail head (it is a bit of a haul to ride there...), we threw the bikes in the truck and headed up the canyon.

There's a long dirt road climb that keeps getting steeper and steeper.  Until recently the locals had used this area as their garbage dump, but recently that had all been cleaned up.

Halfway up the climb, we met a new friend.  We called him Michael.  Seems Michael had got into a bit of trouble with some drunk, gun-toting locals.  They had left him for dead.

We shared some stories with Michael.  Ivan in particular made a special bond with him.

We offered to let him ride with us, but he didn't feel he was up to it.

We'll always have a little bit of Michael with us.

So off we went.  At the top of the climb (the last 1/3 of which is painful), there are sweeping views of all the mountains north of LA.  LA is a desert and you kind of forget about all this.  Pretty stunning views.

...and then we head down.  Kind of hard to see Ivan here, he's a little speck at the top of the trail.  But it just keeps going on and on and on....

It had just rained that morning so the trails were wonderfully sticky.  Here's me on a steep little downhill section.

And here's the last uber-gnarly descent, more loose and rutted than ever.  You may remember Ivan's crash on the beach-cruiser from here...needless to say today was injury-free.

Always fun, I could ride that every day I think.  Afterwards we did some exploring and bush-whacking and found some small bits of additional trail.  

Ivan's garage

Santa Clarita, CA - just north of LA, staying with Ivan and Jenise on a couple weekends.  It's an opportunity to get some bikes built up, Ivan has a pretty dialed garage.  A little full of wheels (and also my bags) at the moment...

He has a pretty good selection of old bikes, some cruisers from 50+ years ago.
Here's a Golinski-era Spot brand dirt jumper.

Riding Keyesville, CA

Deep in the Mojave desert outside of Bakersfield, California.  Went out with Ivan and Jenise and Ike to the Keyesville Classic, next to Lake Isabella.  Unbelievably good desert mountain singletrack.

We rode the XC loop which was 8 mi/12km of swoopy, buttery singletrack.  Ivan put me on his Norco hardtail with 150mm fork and dh tires.  Yee ha.

Blue skies, fast dusty trails...is there anything better?  This can't possibly be belgium.
Ivan hadn't been riding but he rocked everything pretty good.
Big views, boulders, slick rock sections, ribbons of perfect singletrack......finished off with a burrito it was a killer day.

Proletariat Bicycle Company

Driving south on the I-5 corridor, I stopped by Springfield, OR, to see Todd at Proletariat.  Todd and Mike P started PBC together, both used to work at Burley and had a few things in common - love of Hank Williams III, love of Pabst Blue Ribbon, and love of steel bikes.  Mike's an engineer and Todd's a welder, so...

If you've ever spent time in a bike shop or work shop that is super comfortable and feels like home, you'll understand the beauty of Todd's shop.  Just across I-5 from the hippy enclave of Eugene, Todd's got his record collection and the kegerator on the right as you enter the shop.

Over the past few years they've built a pretty decent little operation, now with a lathe and a CNC machine, the place is pretty dialed.
Here's a road frame they had finished.  Recently they started milling their own head tubes and bb shells.  Pretty neat.
Here's the uber-fancy jig in the center of the work space.  
This is Todd's wife Tiffany's new bike.  You can't see it but think pink components on matte gray look pretty good.
Mike was riding his PBC 29er when we rode Hurricane rim and Moab.  Check 'em out:  www.theproletariatbicycleco.com

GG's garage

Was in Seattle for about 30 hours and went over to GG's house to say hello and drop off Karen's new frame.  Took the opportunity to hijack Greg's tools for a couple hours and get my new fancy road bike rolling.

If you know GG you know he's a bit of a clean and organization freak.  Just like me...  So needless to say his shop is pretty dialed.  

He still has his old original steel bontrager hanging up. 

Here's his new bike, it's actually a Turner 5. spot with the decals removed...

A variety of different cranks hang from the rafters, just in case your bike has a square taper or hollowtech bb.