Bikes or Death

The first episode of 2021 is with the very inspirational Jacob Hora. At only 15 he's accomplished more than most regardless of age. I didn't know who he was before watching the Trackleader dots of Jay Petervary's Fat Pursuit. The first place finisher was Jacob, so I clicked on his profile and was immediately intrigued when I saw he was only 15! You may remember that the first episode of 2020 was with, 15 year old, Alana Rose Parent. I thought that was such a great way to start off the new year, with a inspirational story from the younger members of our community. Hearing their enthusiasm for cycling and the outdoors truly makes me feel good about the future of this sport and community we love. I knew very little about Jacob going into the interview; which I always enjoy. I got to be truly surprised by him, his accomplishments, goals, and perspectives. What I heard from him was nothing but positivity, excitement, and love for bikepacking. But as you'll hear, accomplishments don't just happen, Jacob has already learned the value of hard work to accomplish goals. There are no shortcuts here, he's putting in the work and making the sacrifices to do the thing he loves and to pursue his goals. He's currently training for the ITI 350 in February, so make sure to follow his dot and send him some love. You can follow him on instagram @jacob_hora To listen to the FULL version of the BoD Theme Song (Cover) by Ian Cherry Click Here.

On the morning of Christmas Eve 2018 Kait Boyle was at the height of her ultra endurance racing career, having won the 24 hour World Championship in 2018 and set a new record on the AZT 300. Her life would take an unexpected turn later that day when she was involved in a horrific vehicular accident that left her with a long list of injuries and a long path to recovery. Like many of you, I watch her social media feed for months as she dedicated herself to rehabilitation and ultimately back to fitness. Almost a 2 years, and a pandemic later, she finally found herself at the top podium again. This time in the form of an FKT on the Kokopelli Trail. On Nov. 6th, 2020 Lael Wilcox, Kurt Refsnider, and Kait all met in Moab at the start line of the Kokopelli, each of them on ITT's with FKT's on the mind. Kait was able to finish with a time of 13 hrs, 7 mins, which was good enough to beat the long standing time set by Rebecca Rush by 25 minutes. In doing so, she answered 2 years of questions and uncertainty. She was equally rewarded for her hard work, perseverance, and PATIENCE. As a personal fan, I remember cringing seeing the gruesome pics from her crash and injuries. It was hard to watch, I can't imagine how hard it was to live. Pictures courtesy of Rugile Kaladyte In addition to her accomplishments on the bike she is also the Co-Founder of Bikepacking Roots, which supports and advances bikepacking, the growth of a diverse bikepacking community, and access to and the conservation of the landscapes and public lands through which we ride. Her contributions on and off the bike are both impressive and valuable to this community that we all love. It was great to share in this milestone with her and hear about her journey over the past couple of years. Kait, congrats on the FKT, and we look forward to rooting for you in future races. You can learn more about Kait on her website or follow her on social media. Episode Sponsors (check them out as a way to thank them for supporting this podcast) ~ GOODR Sunglasses ~ KUAT Racks Did you know? 1% of all store sales go to the Bikepacking Roots BIPOC Adventure Grant Program

From 2006 to 2016 Ted King was a professional road cycling before switching to gravel where he took 1st at the DK200 in 2016 and 2017. Earlier this month he completed the 1,000+ mile Arkansas High Country Race in first with a time of 4 days, 20 hours, which was good enough to snag the FKT set by Jay Petervary in June of this year. The ARHCR is no walk in the park either. It may be easy to have your guard down when you see that the highest point on the route is only 2,745 ft. elevation, but in the words of friend and route creator Chuck Campbell "The valleys are low and the grade is steep". I got to preview a portion of the route in February and I got a first hand taste of the steepness. The route is littered with sharp grades going both up or down. There is very little flat sections, in most cases you're either going up or down. On Oct. 31st 2020 twenty ultra-endurance cyclist started from Fayetteville, AR. Racers can choose to go either CW or CCW, but regardless of which direction you go there is still 1,037 miles and over 80,000 ft of climbing through the Ozarks and Ouachitas in NW Arkansas. Of the 20 that started only 7 finished, which in itself is a testament to the toughness of this route. This was Ted's first attempt at an ultra endurance bikepacking event. He didn't have much experience bikepacking either, but that didn't stop him from signing up to tackle a very challenging course. Like many of you, I followed his dot closely to see if his wealth of experience in other disciplines of the sport would transfer over, or if the local Andrew Onermaa would be able to keep the crown away from King. In the end Ted would ultimately grit it out to win by beating out all previous FKT's, but for much of the race Andrew was on his heels never taking the pressure off. He recorded a video shortly after scratching that's worth watching. If you want to know how hard it is, this video scratches the surface of what it takes to compete at a high level against one of hell of a professional cyclist. Ted, congrats on your FKT, welcome to bikepacking! I can't wait to see what you set your sites on in the future.

I caught up with Aaron 4 days after he finished becoming the *first person to circumnavigate Texas on a bike! In total he rode 3,014 miles in 58 days and he wrote weekly articles about his journey that you can read on Texas Monthly. In 2019 he rode every street in his hometown of Austin, TX, but towards the end of that project he started thinking bigger. Like the whole state of Texas bigger! In the fall he started planning a route, starting first by connecting towns that were about 60 miles away. By January he had a completed route and all he had to do now was convince his employer to allow him to do it! Aaron's laid back approach to these endeavours is refreshing. No KOM chasing or FKT attempts here, just fun, maybe silly, reasons to go ride your damn bike! *Maybe the second, but who's counting?

Erik and I met at a Bikes or Death group bikepacking trip right before the world shut down thanks to a coronavirus. Since then he's been wholed up in his Austin apartment in lockdown. With some extra time stuck indoors he's been finding ways to stay active and engaged with the cycling community. Early on he rode 1,000 miles on his training in a month, then he gave himself a stick and poke tattoo, but his latest project really caught my attention, along with many of you I'm sure. You may have seen his animated film "Studio Ghibli Campout" featuring a bearded wizardy looking character riding through a Studio Ghibli Film. Erik is the creator and stars in the film that was made with the assistance of Alison Mae Bonham. It is a uniquely beautiful film that fills you with emotion. For me I watched with a tinge of somberness as it felt like Erik was reaching out to the cycling community and saying "I really wish I could be out riding with my friends, but here's a beautiful gift that I made from my apartment instead". I found myself longing for simpler times and looking forward to group rides again. Like his film, Erik is a beautifully unique person and our conversation is a reflection of that. We talk robots, hacking, pokemon go, bikes, padded vs non-padded, riding with diabetes, and lots more good stuff. Erik, it was great to catch up again, stay well my friend, and we'll ride again some day soon!

Chris Burkard has become a personal source of inspiration for me and it was an honor to have him back on the podcast. He was first on way back at Episode 17 to tell us about his WOW Cyclothon Record that he set in 2019. That episode really fired me up and motivated me to push myself in more ways than just on the bike. Chris' passion for life is contagious and I highly recommend you go back and listen to ep. 17, although you don't need to listen in order to enjoy. After setting an Icelandic record in 2019 he started on his next project, the first ever traverse through the interior of Iceland via bike! First means, he had to hire a cartographer to sketch out a route, then take some super jeeps out to test parts of it, and then convince a few friends to try it! Those friends were Pro XC racer Emily Batty, Eric Batty, and Adam Morka. You'll have to listen to hear how it went, but check out these pics to see the diversity of terrain they covered! Shortly after he was back at it on a bikepacking trip in the Sierras with Lael Wilcox, Rue Kaladyte, and Erik Nohlin. This adventure included a 30ish mile pack-a-bike using custom made transformer packs that Erik designed specifically for this trip. Routes and films are going to be published from these trips, but get a sneak "listen" now! In this episode I also took the opportunity to talk to him about his successful photography career and work/life balance before we got into his two most recent bikepacking adventures. It's his ability to manage successful career, be an involved father/husband, and still go on these epic adventures that I'm really inspired by. It's not an easy path, so I was eager to find out some of his thoughts and perspectives. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did!

In July Talib Abdullahi created and organized a Black History Ride in Austin, TX. Motivated by the BLM movement he wanted to create a positive event that would both be education and fun. Originally, he was thinking it would be him and maybe 20 of his friends, but word quickly got out, and within a week he was leading his Black History Ride with 400ish cyclist in tow. In August I met up with Talib and a few of our friends to ride the route and record a podcast. The format for this show is much different from past episodes. We met on his route at The Quickie Pickie and recorded an intro and then we stopped at various locations along the route and recorded segments at each one. This is just a preview of the route, you'll have to get on your own damn bike if you want to give yourself the full tour! I believe it was in Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers" that he says, "The world is starved for leaders". Talib's actions shows what happens when you turn your passion into action. He lead a ride that he created and 400 cyclist showed up in support. Hopefully, many more people will do his route in the days and years to come. Follow THIS LINK for all the ride/route info, go Ride Your Damn Bike and learn something! Talib, thank you for leading and being a positive example and helping to educate me and many others.

This week I'm in the hot seat as my friend Ryan ask me YOUR questions! He interviewed me once before on Ep. 8, but a lot has changed in 48 episodes and thanks to your questions we had plenty to talk about. If you've been listening for a while you've probably heard me talk about my lack of expectations for the podcast. Not in a self-deprecating way, but in the way that you do something that you're passionate about for a community you love without expectations. I didn't tell anyone about the podcast or promote it outside of an obscure post on a small instagram account, but that didn't stop me from quickly realizing not only the popularity of Bikepacking, but the desire for these types of interviews and stories. Admittedly, there is a part of me that wanted this podcast to remain small and obscure. That part of me is insecure, self-conscious, and it can be riddled with anxiety and doubt, but I've tried my best to produce the show authentically and to the best of my abilities with the time and talent I have. In the process I've grown considerably as a person, and while I'm still not 100% comfortable in this roll and feel like I have so much to learn, I am ready to fully embrace this opportunity and take it to the next level. In the past few months I have been working in the background to shift my focus on Bikes or Death from a hobby to a career. I will be announcing many new and exciting changes in the coming months, but for now I'm excited to share that for the first time ever I'm partnering with companies that believe in BoD and are equally committed to its success. I'm only partnering with brands that I dig and believe my listeners will benefit from, and most importantly aren't going to silence or censor the show in any way shape or form. We discuss this topic more in-depth on this week's episode, so give it a listen won't ya?! This week's episode was supported by Rockgeist, who wants you to know about their monthly raffle benefiting organizations committed to promoting diversity and inclusivity in bikepacking and the outdoors. Learn more, and enter for your chance to win a CUSTOM Mudlust Framebag, at Rockgeist.com. I'm also stoked to share with you my new favorite sunglasses from Goodr. When I lost my expensive ass sunglasses a month ago I sought out to find an affordable alternative that didn't sacrifice on quality or style, blah blah blah....sunglasses. Check out some of my favs at Goodr.com/BikesorDeath.

This weeks episode I chat with Dave Nice who is known on the interwebs as @fixiedave. His username gives away the fact that he rides fixie, but it says nothing about his completion of the Tour Divide in 2012 after attempting it 5 times before. I have to assume it takes a determined person to ride a fixie, but what adjective should I use to describe the determination of someone who takes on such massive route, fails 5 times, before ultimately accomplishing said goal? Dave was originally inspired by John Stamstads 1999 ITT run on The Tour Divide. By the time that Ride the Divide was being filmed in 2008 Dave was there lining up for his 3rd attempt as many of us were just hearing about this race/route for the first time. He's been at this far longer than most of us. He went on to attempt the divide 5 times before finally completing the entire route in 2012 in 33d, 14h, 4m. Since then he attempted Route 66 fixed, but had to scratch after 1,863. These days you'll find Dave working at Kids on Bikes in Colorado Springs where he is passionately working with kids to inspire the next generation of cyclist. Dave doesn't own a car, he uses a flip phone, and rides fixed. Simple. I can dig it.

Two things that intimidate me are the Colorado Trail and YoYo'ing the CT, but nothing kept Katie and Andrew Strempke from being the first people to Yo-Yo it. By the numbers they did a total of 1,080 miles, 140,000 ft of elevation gain, with maybe 200 miles or more of hike-a-bike, and one slumber party in a vaulted camp toilet. They completed it in 16d, 14h, 20m which is made more epic by the fact that they were both on Singlespeed!! Katie wrote an article for her blog that was published on Bikepacking.com that is well worth the read. In this episode we dive into important topics like "what is it with bikepackers and sleeping in toilets?". Have a listen for this inspiring story and many more. One of my favorite takeaways was Katie's mantra "Growth>Comfort". Stay uncomfortable my friends, nothing great was ever accomplished in an abundance of comfort.