One of the highlights was meeting Sean, the owner of Rawland Bicycles. He had his Rawland Drakkar on the ride and I even got to ride it later in the evening. I got to talk with him for a little while after the dinner and we discussed the differences between the Salsa Fargo and the Drakkar. On appearances they look similar, but they are really very different bikes.

The route took us up and over a couple hills and around every turn was a photo op.

One of the stops was Battery Townsley. A World War II fortification.

At the bottom of the 2nd to last climb I came across this sign. Road closed? Really? We’re on a Rough Riders Rally though, so I decided to take my chances. I was rewarded at the top with a great view.

My trusty Salsa Fargo and me at the top.

At the top of the final climb of the day I took some time to rest and soak in the scenery. I only had one descent left and then the weekend was soon going to be over. Best to savor it.

Later that night we all got together for some socializing and some food. Everyone put their bikes on display and we voted on the our favorite bike. Sean from Rawland won 1st Place with his Drakkar. Here’s a couple of the bikes that were there.

Jacquie Phelan’s Chris Cunningham built bike.

Ebisu

One of the best bikes there, a Surly Long Haul Trucker!

Huge thanks to AdventureCorps for putting on this event. There are many more pictures on the AdventureCorps page to check out. I’ve got more pics here as well.

It was really interesting to see all of the different bikes that people brought for this event. Everyone had a different idea on what is the best bike capable of going “anywhere”. I would say that the most popular style of bike was a “Cross bike”. There were some mountain bikes of course and even a couple of tandems. I brought the Fargo up, and I left the knobbies on from last weekends ride.

Friday’s ride was a 35 mile pavement ride. Billed as a warm up ride, it still had 3500 feet of climbing. Something that I’ve learned is that that if you show up for an AdventureCorps ride, prepare to be challenged. That’s exactly what happened to me. The knobbies were a poor choice for the pavement loop and the Fargo was slow going. I tried to keep up and I pushed my heart rate too high too fast. After about 20 minutes I realized that I was carrying my Heed, but I forgot to add it to my water! I was not off to a good start. I decided to pull over, let the group go and fill up my water with Heed. It also gave me a chance to ride at my own pace and not try and keep up. I was pushing myself to hard, and this was only the warm up day! Here’s the Garmin stats.

The road from Fairfax up to Alpine Lake is a steady climb in the sun. I’d already done enough damage I guess, so I really struggled. Once at the dam I was able to enjoy the cool air coming off the water and the views surrounding the man made lake.

Time to get pedalin’ again. From here it was another climb up to the ridge and views of the ocean. The road climbs through the forest, switch-backing up and up. The shade of the trees kept the temps down and there were even wet spots on the road. I climbed all alone and right as I reached the summit I saw Bruce about to pedal off. Luckily he heard my yell and we were able to ride together.

We rode up towards the top, with amazing views of the coast popping up the higher we got. I pulled over to take some pics and while walking through the weeds I noticed Jacquie Phelan lying there in wait. Jacquie had pulled over to wait for Bruce, knowing that he was behind her, so we joined her and hung out for a while. She told us stories about the area and we were very lucky to have her as our personal tour guide. Thanks Jaqcuie!

The Salsa Fargo and Jacquie's Charlie Cunningham-built Croclo-zeiss

From the top we rode down towards Mill Valley with Jacquie and she took us on a special tour that was not on the route. This was a highlight of the trip for both Bruce and I. Watching Jacquie ride the trail while I walked was worth the drive alone. Everything else was going to be extra. Tomorrow the Saturday ride! Single track, two-track and fireroads. Oh yeah, amazing views too! Make sure you stop by tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

I asked a million questions and was able to test ride a couple of bikes. The first I rode was the Roadeo. It’s their traditional road bike, all lugged steel of course, and very basic. If I remember right it doesn’t have any braze-ons. It’s probably one of the lightest steel frames around. I was pretty impressed with the weight.

Next up was the A. Homer Hilsen. This is a 650b framed bike, with all the braze-ons you could possibly want. The best part about it was that it weighs pretty close to the Roadeo. Slightly more of course because of all the braze-ons and the kickstand plate, but nothing that’s going to be a deal breaker. This is really a do-it-all bike and they had one outfitted with front and rear bags and fenders.

Between the the two bikes I preferred the A. Homer Hilsen. I wish I was able to borrow it for the ride that we were heading out to do. I love the color and the ride was super smooth. I think it would be a perfect Rough Riders bike. I’m going to finish building the Kogswell, but since it’s a 650b frame, I’m going to keep the A. Homer Hilsen as a backup frame choice. I don’t think you can go wrong with it.

The next stop was to Jitensha Studios in Berkeley. I don’t know much about this studio except that there are two or three frames that can be special ordered from here. One is the Ebisu and the other is the Toei. The Ebisu frame is very nice, but the Toei was the one that I really liked. Of course, the Toei is much more expensive. What can I say? I have good taste! From what I understand both bikes are designed with the geometries of the classic french touring/randonneuring bikes. You can tell just by looking at them, that they are something special.

A sample of the Toei

After checking out the shops we drove over to Mill Valley. That will come tomorrow, so be sure to check back. I’ve got a ton of pics to sort through.

Erik’s friend Andrew had laid out a route that would take us out to the Marin Headlands and up to Mt. Tamalpais. This was great because I’m heading back up there this coming weekend for the Rough Riders Rally. So I was going to get a sneak peek of what to expect.

Andrew took us on a beautiful route that was up and down and up and down. The route started in the city so we got to ride across the Golden Gate bridge, a first for me! Once across the bay most of the route would be on dirt. A real mixed terrain ride, perfect for the Fargo. Around each corner was a photo op. I stopped quite a bit to take some pics, which slowed our pace. Then there were the climbs too. Steep climbs. I was able to ride up most of them, but some were either too steep or I was too tired. I’m not to proud to say that I had to walk a few of them. Oh yeah, I should say that Erik and Andrew both ride single speed bikes, and they are strong riders. Really strong. Andrew rode up all of the climbs, no matter how steep. These guys have me dreaming of a single speed MTB.

This is just the climb up to Mt. Tam. 2,224 feet in 6.86 miles! You can see that the lower part is much steeper, that’s where I did some walking. It was very rewarding to make it to the top though. Made my weekend.

The entire ride was 51.5 miles with 6000 feet of climbing. About 50% was on dirt. Perfect. I took way too many photos and tried to edit them down, but admittedly I failed. So if you want to see them all, click here. I’m going to post only a few here.

Yeah, we just climbed that!

Huge thanks to Erik and his family for their hospitality. Huge thanks also to Andrew for leading us on an amazing ride.

Also, help me get the news out about this. Adventure Monkey Magazine #2 is out now. Ready for download or you can order a paper version. It’s all put together by Eric Benjamin, an ultra cyclist and finisher of this year’s Dirty Kanza 200. Issue #2 is called the “Mountainous Edition”, but there’s plenty of bike stuff. Including an article on Erik’s Single Speed Fargo and a photo essay by Gnat of Gnatlikes.com. Please help to spread the word about this great magazine.

Have a great weekend!

In anticipation of the event I changed the bars to the Salsa Woodchippers. These bars are a different shape than the Salsa Bell Lap that came stock on the bike. They are wider, and they provide more leverage. I’m looking forward to trying them out on my recon trip to the Bay Area this weekend. I’ll be joining fellow Fargo rider/blogger Erik and his friends on a tour of the area. I hope the weather is cooler up there, as it’s been very hot here lately.