Author Archives: josh

Tom Donhou’s Experiments in Speed

Posted on July 25, 2013 by josh| Leave a comment

Experiments in Speed is a mini documentary about going very, very fast. Tom Donhou, the frame builder behind Donhou Bicycles in Hackney, London, was inspired by the old land speed record attempts at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The film chronicles Donhou’s fascination with speed, the bike’s build, and his attempts at pushing the machine to its limits. It is beautifully shot and exciting to watch and a reminder that bicycles are amazing feats of engineering. A simple frame design and one gear enable a human to ride 100 miles per hour. That’s incredible.

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Posted in Cycling Media, Everything Else, Frame Builders

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Kyle Dempster: A Climber’s Ride on the Backroads of Kyrgyzstan

Posted on July 11, 2013 by josh| 10 Comments

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Kyle Dempster is one of the top alpine climbers in the world. The 29 year old has pioneered new routes on some of the tallest mountains including Baintha Brakk in Pakistan and K7 in the Karakoram. He has won two Piolet d’Ors and several Golden Pitons, awards that recognize mountaineering’s greatest accomplishments each year. In 2011, he spent two months on a solo expedition, bike touring the backroads of Kyrgyzstan and climbing in its many mountain ranges. The video footage he gathered on the trip was recently turned into a short documentary, The Road From Karakol. I had the opportunity to speak with Kyle about his Kyrgyzstan trip, combining biking and mountaineering, the highs and lows of solo touring in remote and rugged terrain, the future of bikes in the climbing world, and much more.

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Posted in Bike Touring, Interviews

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Some Inspiration For Your Weekend Adventures

Posted on June 28, 2013 by josh| 1 Comment

It’s Friday. It’s summertime. It’s time to plan some awesome bike adventures. These three videos showcase incredible trips that kickstart wanderlust and make me want to get out and explore.

The Road from Karakol is about professional alpine climber Kyle Dempster’s solo biking and climbing tour through Kyrgyzstan. He spent two months biking (and sometimes dragging, pushing or carrying his bike) 1200km on remote roads to climb Kyrgyzstan’s massive peaks. There were times when he didn’t see another human for a week straight.

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Posted in Bike Touring, Cycling Media, Everything Else, Mountain Biking

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Thom Parsons: Racing, Interviewing, and getting Boston onto Bikes

Posted on June 20, 2013 by josh| 3 Comments

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Arguably, Thom takes cycling as serious as it needs to be taken.

Thom Parsons plays a lot of roles in the New England cycling world. The self-proclaimed dirtbag mountain biker is a former professional racer, co-founder and primary content producer for DirtWire.tv, and works as Operations Manager for Boston Bike’s Roll it Forward and Youth Cycling programs. Thom and I discussed his history as a racer, the opportunities he’s had to travel far and wide as a video interviewer, his work with and eventual departure from Cycling Dirt, and his experience trying to get more kids and low-income residents into biking.

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Posted in Advocacy, Cycling Media, Cyclocross, Interviews, Mountain Biking

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Getting Away With Weeknight Bike Camping

Posted on June 4, 2013 by josh| 2 Comments

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There is an undeniable romance to bike camping. Escaping the everyday routine under your own power, sleeping outside, the sense of adventure; even the easiest S24Os are thrilling. I’ve experienced this romance on plenty of weekends and holidays, but it had long been my fantasy to sneak in a work-night bike camping trip.

Thanks to a recent spate of unseasonably dry and sunny weather in Seattle and two gung-ho coworkers of mine, I was able to make fantasy reality.

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Posted in Adventure, Bike Touring, Everything Else

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