The Radavist

Taipei was not at all what I expected but in a good way. From walking the market streets, to climbing and descending the surrounding mountain ranges, we had a rad time in Taiwan. Check out this video Adventure Refugee made for Mission Workshop during our stay. Vimeo is blocked here in China so I haven’t seen the final edit but the rough cut looked pretty damn good.

Once you’ve settled into a new town, it’s always nice to go for a quick spin to loosen the legs up. Sometimes a short ride along the river, turns into exploring roads that shoot off into the mountain’s foothills. Taipei has some incredible riding in these neighboring mountains, just 8 miles from the central banking district.

My hope is that we get to spend an afternoon scaling some switchbacks but even tonight’s little jaunt was exactly what we needed. Well, minus the Chinese Tree Viper that I almost ran over. Yikes!

Photo by Kyle Kelley

I hope to go “disappear” in the woods myself in an hour. GREAT photo Kyle! Miss you dudes.

See larger here

When this project was first proposed to me, all I thought was “this is too good to be true” and after what seems to be a maddening process of pulling everything together, we’re good to go! Here’s the official blurb from Mission Workshop:

“Follow John Watson of Prollyisnotprobably.com and the Mission Workshop crew as they ride through China’s Yangtze river delta on a photo exploration of bike culture with the help of the guys at Factory Five. Visit the Mission Workshop Blog as they travel through the world’s largest urban population in Shanghai and also explore the ancient architecture of the Chinese countryside.”

To start off the trip, I’ll be in Taiwan in time for the Taipei International Cycle Show before we fly out to Shanghai. This is one part of the world I’ve always wanted to see and I cannot wait to share my photos with you all.

Expect daily updates both here and on the Mission Workshop blog, as well as on Instagram @JohnProlly @MissionWorkshop.

Photo by Kim Heikkinen

I’m sure most of you are over winter, waiting for the snow to melt, the trails to dry and the temperatures to break the winter layers. At least some people are having fun in the snow. Check out more of Kim’s photos here.

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few days, I’ve been in bed with a stomach bug. Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll be craving BBQ for a while.

ANYWAY, check out this video from Pelago!

“In the end of February 2013, we took our bikes, rode them into a boat and headed from Helsinki to Berlin to set up our temporary shop in Brunnenstrasse 156 and to participate in the Berliner Fahrrad Schau. The boat took us to Rostock and from there we cycled through Sietow and Neuruppin to reach Berlin.”

See more here.

Today is International Women’s Day and Rapha is throwing their #WOMENS100 on July 7th.  Here are the details:

The Rapha Women’s 100 – JULY 7th, 2013 
We invite you to ride at least 100k with us this July 7th, 2013. This is the same day that the Etape du Tour is happening in France. Each year this event kicks off with some crazy participation number 0f 25,000 people riding the same route as the Tour de France. Unfortunately, the number of women who do this event is quite paltry. So, in an effort to get that number up, we have declared “l’attaque” (that’s French for “attack!”) on this day. Let us see how many women we can get riding on the day!

QUESTION?: Never ridden 100k before? Not a problem.
Over the next 16 weeks – roughly the time before July 7th – we will be providing tips, tricks and general guidelines to get you up and over your first 100k. We have lined up a good amount of bi-weekly (I can tell you this already that it is going to spill over to more than bi-weekly) content focused on getting you there. All brought to you by the fantastic women that we ride and interact with on a daily basis both here in Portland as well as some great celebrities in our little world of cycling (people like Gem Atkinson from Bianchista – who is the great rider and smiley woman in our Spring Summer catalog. You may notice that she likes to wear pearls. Which is awesome.)

There will be more about this in the coming weeks than you could ever imagine. As well, the San Francisco based Women’s Prestige on April 13th (which is full with 24 teams of women) will be a sounding board for what the Rapha Women’s 100 as we hope to inspire all of these ladies to join us in July.

How many women can we get to ride 100k on that day? 100? 1,000? 10,000? 100,000? 

How to Follow Along? 
How do you know if you’re doing it right? Well, you can’t do it wrong, that is for sure. The #WOMENS100 hashtag is going to be a great place to look to find some of the inspirational women who are helping us get there. Instagram and Twitter, go for it. Strava will also have a page completed by tomorrow to help show how many women have signed up on the day. Also, we have set up an Events tab on the Rapha Facebook Page to help you follow along.

Also, don’t miss out on the very impressive Rapha Women’s collection and the Festa Della Donna sale this season!

One of the reasons why I’m so pumped on Yonder Journal is that it will and has inspired people to #GoYonder. Errin from Frontage Roads did some planning and took on the Brovet 01 Old Ridge Road Permanent route with his buddy Joshua. So, how’d they do? Head over to Frontage Roads to find out.

Oh and be sure to stay on top of Yonder Journal. Their Field Briefs are short and sweet. Follow the guys on Instagram, too.

I’m still on kind of a Denver high and no, I’m not talking about the altitude. I really fell in love with that city and believe me, that’s a big deal considering it was under snow most of the time I was there. In Roads is the aforementioned documentary on handmade bikes in Denver and Boulder. Featuring Salvagetti Bicycle Workshop and Mosiac, with music by Trout Steak Revival. Great work Tyler!

Now I need to make it back when it’s warm!

This is the third layout of the 2013 PiNP Calendar, entitled “The Lost Highway”. The camera, film used and location are located on the bottom left of the document.

On the first of each month, I’ll be posting a PDF file here on the site, allowing you to print this letter-sized document as you wish. Print as many copies as you’d like. Hand them out to friends or your local shop. It’s intended to be a free offering from the site, as a thank you to all the readers out there.

Spring is just around the corner and that means it’s time for rides that will kick your ass. The place where I go in the US for ass-kicking is Los Angeles. This stretch of the 2 is closed and for good reason. Falling rocks cover the road but man, is it other-worldly.

Enjoy!

(UPDATED LINK – Sorry, I accidentally uploaded the JPG to the Dropbox!)

Right Click and Save Link As – 2013 PiNP Calendar: March

Bunyan Velo Issue 01, an online publication dedicated to bike camping, touring, expeditions and general badassery is now online for free. I don’t have time to read it at the moment but the photos alone are worth the flip through.

Check it out above and you’ll want to go full-screen with this one.

Stoked to finally see some of these photos. Brian’s work is always inspirational. Here’s some information from Argonaut:

“We invited Brian Vernor up to Portland a few months ago to turn his lens on Argonaut. The book captures the essence of the brand and as usual Brian did a fantastic job. We produced a very limited run of books which we will have on hand at NAHBS. We will be releasing the digital version on March 5th so everyone can enjoy the wonderful work that Brian and David from Wilderness put together for us.”

See more teasers below and once the digital book is live, I’ll link to it.

This video from Rock ‘n’ Rollin makes me want to ride in Europe and put on Wish You Were Here right now.

Photos by Ron McClure

I came across these two exceptional photos on Flickr earlier this week and had to share. The top photo was taken at the Hoosier Pass in May 1976 and the bottom, the Blue Ridge Parkway in late July 1976 during the Bikecentennial76 Oregon to Virginia trip 12 friends embarked on. Only 9 completed and you can read more at DDsiple’s Flickr.

Now’s a good time to plan a tour!