Bikes or Death

This is the third episode to come out of a podcasting trip I made two Austin right after the East Texas Showdown . I interviewed five participants of the ETS in less than 20 hours just days after the their ride ended. It was really cool as a first time event director to get all of their feedback shortly after finishing the event. Alicia Danze and Hannah Simmons shared first place this year on the...

From Wikipedia, "The  lanterne rouge  is the competitor in last place in a cycling race, the phrase comes from the French for "Red Lantern" and refers to the red lantern hung on the rear vehicle of a passenger railway train or the brake van of a freight train, which signalmen would look for in order to make sure none of the couplings had become disconnected." I first met Katy at a 6 hour MTB race...

The inaugural East Texas Showdown is over and now comes the podcasts! Hearing everyones stories after their rides as we shared food and beverages was a true pleasure, enjoyed by all. It was really probably the magic sauce that made this event special. I went to Austin shortly after the race and recorded 3 episodes with five guests and I look forward to sharing some of that post race fodder with yo...

In 2018 I took on the biggest challenge in my life, a 500 miles bikepacking race. To prepare mentally I relied heavily on the book "How Bad do You Want it" by Matt Fitzgerald . Matt is an endurance athlete himself and has made a career out of the study of endurance. He's written over 20 books on the subject, coaches endurance athletes, host his own podcast , and is a wealth of knowledge on the top...

On this episode my buddy  Miles Arbour  is back on the podcast for a 3rd time to talk about his newly published route called the  Tree to Sea Loop . This was a great excuse to catch up with Miles and also hear all about this epic new 1,000 km route in British Columbia. Because Miles works at Bikepacking.com he is exposed to a lot of different facets of the industry. I took this opportunity to ask...

This year the Tour Divide produced a new record, but one that wasn't set to be beaten. Quinn Brett just became the first person to complete the Tour Divide on an adaptive handcycle, with a time of 25 days. For her, this was more about showing the world what is possible for disabled people and that adventures like this are not only for the abled bodied. Thanks to advancements in bike technology, th...

Join me in the van as I scout a re-reoute for this years East Texas Showdown and Slowdown. Back in July on a scouting mission we discovered a 25 mile section of road that looked good on the maps, but once we saw it in person it was an obvious "no go" for safety reasons. This left a huge hole in the route and with only 4 months until race day I had to scramble for a solution. On this episode I take...

This episode is all about determination and perseverance. In 2007 Jeff Kerkove took on the Colorado Trail Race (CTR) as his first bikepacking race. He came into the bikepacking world with an accomplished racing career in 12 and 24 hour events. That year he DNF'd due to trench foot, a mistake he never made again. He would go on to attempt the CTR 5 more times, each with the same result, a DNF on th...

Chris and Marni Plesko, aka The Parent Trap, just became the first couple to complete the Colorado Trail Race on a Tandem. And I had a lot of questions. How is there relationship doing? How did they train while working and being parents of two boys? Who's idea was it and how did it go? We talked about the bike and their attention to detail with the build, and about their transition back to the rea...

This week I had an opportunity to catch up with Neil Beltchenko, who raced the 2021 CTR under the pseudonym Ned Bachanko. Neil is no stranger to ultra endurance racing, he's been pushing his limits on the most demanding routes since 2013. In 2014 he and his wife Lindsay started Bikepacker Mag which was an online publication about bikepacking, routes, and gear. In 2017 Bikepacking.com absorbed Bike...

Cameron Sanders is a man of many hats. He's worn a spelunking helmet, a bicycle helmet, a race directors cap, and a work hat as the VP of Product Development and Marketing for Wren Sports . On this episode we focus on the Stetson hat he donned as a Park Ranger shortly after a armed group of far-right extremists seized and occupied the headquarters of the  Malheur National Wildlife Refuge  in  Harn...

Jefe Branham's just completed the Colorado Trail Race for the 9th time, and he's won 4 of them!   He lives in Gunnison, CO which puts the Colorado Trail in his "backyard", his relationship with the trails goes back almost 30 years.   He is also the race director, so you can see why he's earned the title Mr. Colorado Trail. This year he completed the race in 4 days, 16 hours, and 8 minutes on his W...

At the beginning of 2020 Tyler Wacker quit his engineering job to cycle the circumference of USA on his Surly Long Haul Trucker. His plans were derailed when COVID shut down reliable camping and provisions along the way. When he did continue his tour, it wasn't to complete his tour around USA, instead he pointed his bike NE towards Boston. Where he would hop on a plane to Iceland where he is now a...

Sarah Swallow was introduced to bicycles, and the cycling community, at the young age of 12 when she started working for a bike rental company in Ohio. She wasn't a cyclist at the time and had no idea that one day she'd be a sponsored Adventure Cyclist. Today Sarah has carved out a cool career for herself that allows her to pursue the things in life that brings her joy and share them in a way that...

When Brendan Heinig lined up to the start of this years Tour Divide "Classic" he didn't have any idea he'd be at the pointy end of the race with TD veteran Jay Petervary. If you didn't watch the dots as this race unfolded you missed a 1,500 mile "nail-biter"!!! That's because Brendan and Jay were able to put a lot of distance between them and their competitors, but not each other. In fact for the...

I've been familiar with Jessica peripherally as a member of the Austin cycling scene and also from her published work in Bikepacking.com. She's penned two works for them, Discovering Aloneness on the Arkansas High Country can be found online. Her other piece, River Road Rendezvous, is featured the in the 2021 edition of the Bikepacking Journal . So when I received my July '22 issue of TPWD Magazin...

Many of you will know Bobby Wintle as the larger than life figurehead of District Bikes and MidSouth Gravel (formerly Land Run 100). That's how I knew him too until my interview with Dr. Seth Wood, when I learned how he had donated a portion of the proceeds from the very first Land Run to help with Seth's medical bills, and then continued to foster than relationship to this day. Hearing that story...

On this episode I get a private tour of the new Texas Hill Country Overnighter with it's creator Maxwell Johnston . This is one of only four routes listed on Bikepacking.com in Texas and two of those are in Big Bend, which is beautiful, but also very remote, requiring a 10+ hour drive from Central Texas. When I got into bikepacking I quickly learned that the lack of Public Lands in Texas creates a...

On May 22nd Liam Glen lined up at the start of the Highland Trail 550 on his fully rigid single speed Stooge Cycles Scrambler against the likes of James Hayden , Josh Isbett, and others. He would go on to win with a time of 3d, 10h, 55m which was good enough to get the SS Course Record and almost enough to best the Course Record set by Neil Beltchenko in 2017 (3d, 10h, 20m). Liam is no stranger to...

Like many of you I didn't know who Andrew Onermaa was before he signed up for the 2020 Arkansas High Country Race . And if you still don't recognize his name, maybe you'll know him as the guy who was going toe to toe with Ted King before he ultimately went on to set an FKT. Andrew withdrew from the race around mile 700 after pushing himself further than ever before. Literally pushing his mind and...

I met Dr. Seth Wood at a wedding in Oklahoma back in 2019. I was early in my podcasting journey and I was shocked when I learned that he was using the Bikes or Death Podcast as part of his circulam at OSU, where he still teaches today. So shocked, that I completely blanked when he told me about it! I took this opportunity to indulge myself and find out what he could possibly be using my podcast fo...

When we did our Bikepacking Basics episode earlier this year we got a lot of questions, but the most asked questions where about route building. So I reached out to Kevin Prentice with RideWithGPS to see if they would be interested coming to do a episode on route building and (spoiler alert) they said yes! On this episode we get to know Kevin and some history on RWGPS and then we get into the maps...

When I contacted Ryan Stoyer about coming on the podcast it was with the idea that we would talk about his unique lifestyle and how it allows for him to life a more fulfilled life. I still like that topic, but Ryan had other ideas. After the official BoD instagram invite was sent, his reply was an enthusiastic yes, followed by a suggestion, "how about we go bikerafting?". My response was equally e...

Today's episode is with a true living legend. Rebecca Rusch has had a long and successful career spanning many different sports, but in the past 15 years has dominated the mountain bike scene, which as spilled over into bikepacking and gravel racing as well. She's been referred to as the Queen of Pain since at least 2004 and she was inducted into the MTB Hall of Fame in 2019. Here list of accolade...

Happy 420 everyone! My guest on today's episode with John Watson is one that I've been looking forward to for a while. We had plans to record this one a while ago, but covid put it on pause. On my recent trip to AZ and NM I was able to meet John at his Santa Fe office where he runs The RADAVIST . His office is quaint and simple with merchandise bins tidily lining the walls and stacked to the ceili...