Leave it on the Road Mixtape - Side A
This is the second year Mettle has been able to participate in the Leave it on the Road ride. Before you dive deeper into this post you should get to their site, read their story, maybe even purchase something. Drop $5 for cancer. It's not just about riding the bike, after all.
This year, we doubled the distance, added a few riders, and broke up the ride into two parts. Here's the first part in words and images... mostly images:
The John Day Fossil Beds.
Best Sunset ride of all time
Photo by Natalie Starr
Cat 6 w/ Merino Kit
When the first stop is Dinner and not the showers.
What is the bike ride equivalent of a mixtape? Some of you may be old enough to remember the hours put into crafting a cassette with two perfect sides. Do you start with a banger or do you ease on in and blow it out later? Is the mix full of hits or are you digging for those unknown gems that simply must be shared? How do you transition from Side A to Side B? The countless decisions and directions and planning and curating and recording and erasing and recording again. The consequences you face if you make a wrong decision. The pride you feel when you've fucking nailed it and you have a perfect mixtape that you listen to again and again and again. And of course, the whole time you have a person in your mind that the mixtape is dedicated to. Swap music for roads and you can see where we are going with this. One more adventure to fight cancer begins next Saturday 8/27. You're going to want to listen in to this one. Sponsors and details to come
What is the bike ride equivalent of a mixtape? Some of you may be old enough to remember the hours put into crafting a cassette with two perfect sides. Do you start with a banger or do you ease on in and blow it out later? Is the mix full of hits or are you digging for those unknown gems that simply must be shared? How do you transition from Side A to Side B? The countless decisions and directions and planning and curating and recording and erasing and recording again. The consequences you face if you make a wrong decision. The pride you feel when you've fucking nailed it and you have a perfect mixtape that you listen to again and again and again. And of course, the whole time you have a person in your mind that the mixtape is dedicated to. Swap music for roads and you can see where we are going with this. One more adventure to fight cancer begins next Saturday 8/27. You're going to want to listen in to this one. Sponsors and details to come
THE MIXTAPE RIDE:
The 2013 cross-country route, planned by Andrew and Mike, provided a foundation for the roads that were picked for the first leg of the 2016 ride. "Side A" sampled 2013 and remixed it into 2016. Mike's description below was an exact description of what would come - a prophecy. This side of the mixtape had a longer history than any of the other tracks we were going to hear:
What is the bike ride equivalent of a mixtape? Some of you may be old enough to remember the hours put into crafting a cassette with two perfect sides. Do you start with a banger or do you ease on in and blow it out later? Is the mix full of hits or are you digging for those unknown gems that simply must be shared? How do you transition from Side A to Side B? The countless decisions and directions and planning and curating and recording and erasing and recording again. The consequences you face if you make a wrong decision. The pride you feel when you've fucking nailed it and you have a perfect mixtape that you listen to again and again and again. And of course, the whole time you have a person in your mind that the mixtape is dedicated to. Swap music for roads and you can see where we are going with this. One more adventure to fight cancer begins next Saturday 8/27. You're going to want to listen in to this one. Sponsors and details to come
SIDE A
96 miles / 6,529 feet
121 miles / 2,208 feet
109 miles / 4879 feet
110 miles / 7612 feet
111 miles / 4940 feet
95 miles / 6157 feet
100 miles / 6646 feet
Jackson, WY was our starting point. The entire goal of Side A was to find the best B roads possible and Idaho was the jackpot. We utilized several transfers in the Adventure Wagon and ran into more than a few obstacles, including well guarded government property, roads made entirely out of goat heads and some roads that didn't really exist at all...
No half-wheelin'
RIDE IT! RIDE IT!!!!!
VYNL Bikes x LIOTR FTW
This image of the bike above is another opportunity to have someone tell their own story. GO LOOK AT VYNL BIKES. Look at them! An honest, American made racing machine... that I rode across centuries of gravel and rough terrain. Padded only by my groin and a set of Gravel King 28c's, this monster and I trailed the pack down long sketchy-as-fuck descents but blasted down the road ahead when the gradient turned negative. VYNL orchestrated this entire build as a donation to the cause and it was auctioned off after Side A was complete. The cherry: HiFi donated their MixTape Aluminum Clinchers.
The rest of this gallery is a small percentage of what Side A brought. Nearly 40 hours of actual riding and about twice that time spent in kit (chamois time is training time, right?) produced memories for the crew but hopefully a bit of inspiration for our followers and maybe even a bit of funding for the cause. Thanks for the support, encouragement, and donations.
Just holding onto a wheel...
Pink Steele
