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For the past 5 years, we've done a New Year's Day ride. We take the bike path along C470 and stop in to many of the breweries along the way. In Colorado, January 1 can be 50 degrees and sunny or it can be a brutal winter day. One year we made it about 25 miles and hit 6 breweries. 1/1/19 was winter. And one of the roughest. New Year's Eve was frigid all day, 5 degrees and snowed all day and into the night. We woke up to 11 degrees and about 4" of snow. We were meeting at 10:30am for an 11am start to hit Halfpenny Brewing at noon.  All the stuff I wore for the ride. I set out all the stuff I wore just to try to stay warm. Upper Body
Feeling like Randy from a Christmas story.  Ready to Ride! I don't have a fatbike, and the ice ruled out the CX bike. I decided to ride my mountain bike. A BH Lynx 4.8. Earlier this summer, I put Hutchinson Squale 2.35 tubeless tires on it, and figured that would be enough of a footprint.   One new addition to our casual rides has been the JBL Clip 2 speaker. Having tunes makes things just a bit better. Here's a link to our Spotify playlist that day.  The route. The cold was absolutely punishing. Never rose above 15 degrees. The bike path was plowed and an easy ride, but any underpass / tunnel - and there were several - had thick ice on entry and exit. We had a few crashes. A flat tire killed most of our body heat.
Then, the sidewalks along Colorado were buried under the snowfall and the splash from the plows - wet, mashed tater snow - about 6 inches. Just a slog. I don't have any ride pictures - between not wanting to deglove and the dicey conditions - the phone stayed away. The breweries we hit were:
We rolled out at 11am, and arrived back at Grist as the sun was going down over the Denver foothills - about 430pm. As we sat at Grist, we felt like we had been skiing all day. Just wiped. But a great start to 2019.
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 This week's episode features Siobhan of Women's Kit, one of the best cycling feed on Instagram. She takes us through starting her cycling life as an adult and growing her confidence and skills. Just a great chat - enjoy.
Listen here on Soundcloud!  This week's podcast episode takes us to Durango Colorado, where we talk to Kristin Carpenter-Ogden from her company, Verde Strategy. She takes us from being an outdoor and climbing journalist to starting her PR firm, and discusses in detail why and how brands need to truly connect and engage with their customers.
In this week's episode, we talk to Jonathan Dunsmoor of Dunsmoor Law and some of the legal things entrepreneurs need to be thinking about as they start and grow a business.
soundcloud.com/burntheboatspodcast/burn-the-boats-dunsmoor-law Our latest podcast episode features the owner of Mercury Wheels. We talk about what led to starting a business, shutting down an apparently successful sales channel, and why you add rosemary to a gin and tonic.
Listen now on Soundcloud! Our guest on the Burn The Boats podcast takes us to Australia, where we talk about turning his passion for travel and search for great outdoor gear into the Tyres and Soles website.
Listen here on Soundcloud! We first heard about this book from Seth Godin on the Tim Ferris podcast. Al Ries and Jack Trout published the edition we have in 1993 - before the internet.
This book and the Laws contained inside have been at the heart of designing, implementing and ending some of our marketing efforts. Most impactful sections:
My friend kyle flipped over the handlebars in front of my house. Twice. WE had a sign made.6/18/2017 About a month ago. my friend and neighbor - let's just call him "Kyle" - had posted on the Interwebs that he had crashed on his bike. Thankfully he was OK - just a mild concussion and now in the market for a new helmet. We stopped by for a visit to check on him and asked Who/What/Where/When/Why/How, and "Kyle" informed us that he flipped right in front of our house. Which got us thinking... About 2 years ago to prepare for cyclocross season, we planned a ride on the bike path from our house to our local CX park and back. We rolled out, and were turning off the street onto the trail and heard the unmistakeable sound of a bike locking up cantilever brakes and hitting the deck. I looked back to find Kyle sitting in the street, with his bike perfectly balanced on the stem and seat, wheels spinning. Something like this:  Artist rendering. Not the actual bike. We confirmed with our friend Nic that this in fact did happen and we weren't imagining this. Apparently "Kyle" didn't see we were turning, looked up and grabbed ALL the front brake. The story on Crash 2 was that my neighbor was mowing the lawn, and Kyle being a friendly guy waved to said neighbor. At this point "a rock" made contact with his front wheel and his hand missed the bar. We are in the process of conducting neighbor interviews. We then started running some analysis. Google Maps calculated the distance between our house and the CX crash, #1. About 466 feet away, and the yellow arrow indicates direction of travel, sign indicates approximate location.  Location of endo #1, and direction of travel. We then plotted the approximate location of crash #2. See below, direction of travel indicated by yellow arrow.  Location of endo #2 and direction of travel. Clearly a cyclist named Kyle was having issues bicycling on this street. We asked the Google for "bicycle crashing signs". Which led us to MyParkingSign.com. We inquired if the signs could be customized with the official Highway C font, and much to our delight yes, yes it could. Marcus at x7152 was so helpful. He had a proof delivered within an hour, and delivered the completed sign in 5 business days. We also ordered the Stainless Hose Mount Kit to properly mount the sign to the light pole in front of the house. Sunday, June 4th was the day to mount the sign. We had a few friends over for Sunday Funday, and were in the garage getting the ladder ready when, guess who rides by? And didn't crash! It was "Kyle" riding by on a grocery run. Discreetly, I put the sign down, made some small talk, and after he departed we quickly set up the ladder, mounted the sign to the light pole. (Note: The worm gear on the mounting kit is really easy and efficient to use.)  Sign now officially and properly installed.  A quality piece of stainless steel, flawless printing. Should last for years. Tuesday, June 13th was the official date that Kyle's wife noticed the sign. There was much rejoicing. And from the Coincidence File, my friend Nic who was present on Crash #1 - sent me this pic of his tattoo. I hadn't seen this ink until now. The world is truly an amazing place.  Nic's tattoo. The best part of this company is seeing pictures and reading stories from our customers. This post is from Rachel and Roger. How did you meet? We met when I was in grad school at UF, and Roger was finishing up his engineering degree. I had just moved to Gainesville, and as a cyclist, my priority was to find some nice routes in the area - and other cyclists, too! One day, driving back from class, I just *happened* to see a rather handsome cyclist riding into my neighborhood. I promptly pulled him over (yes, I was still in the car, and probably terrified him), and asked if he would go for a bike ride with me. The rest is history. P.S. - After 10 years of being married, he still has the piece of paper with my phone number on it, that I gave him that day. What was the most challenging ride / run? Why? Our most challenging run was the first ultramarathon we did together. It was a North Face Endurance Challenge Series event, outside of Washington, D.C. It was only a 50K - not too far - but we had no idea what to expect. In particular, I'd underestimated the importance of training for downhill running. Within the first 5 miles, the steep downhills got the better of me, and my quads started seizing up. It felt like knives stabbing into my legs, and I could barely walk. It was painful, but I was also mad at myself, and determined to finish...so I did. I had to stop and stretch after almost every downhill, and it took much longer than anticipated. Roger was there with me every step of the way. It was a learning experience for both of us - and it also got us both hooked on ultrarunning. Because as painful as that experience was, we loved the beauty of the trails and scenery, the friendly and welcoming running community, and the challenge. ...as a post-script: we've come a far ways since then! we regularly finish top 5 in trail and ultra-running events in NorCal, behind pro racers and the top finishers in Western States. There's still a lot of room for us to improve, though! What's on your event calendar this year? This year is about continuing to build a solid base of trail running events and training. This means a few select local races, like the Toro Loco 30K in August, and the Mt. Tam 50K in November. Our long-term goal (maybe for 2017..?) is to qualify for Western States. That's a bucket list item for us both. Describe the perfect day... Any day outside exploring is a perfect day. Whether chasing new trails along a skyline ridge, or riding our bikes across mountain passes, California has lots of opportunities for perfect days. The first photo is from June 2016, and was taken at the summit of the Haleakala volcano in Maui (it was a pretty tough, 35 mile climb from sea level to 10,000 ft!) The second photo is from September 2015, and was taken during our cross-country trip from NYC > San Francisco. This was at the top of the(in)famous Manitou Incline in Colorado Springs, CO. The third photo is from January 2016 and was taken at the top of the Franz Josef glacier in New Zealand. We took a helicopter to the top of the glacier, and hiked around it - it was gorgeous. Why is layering important? Weather is unpredictable. Take a look at what Bicycling Magazine has to say. A Warmfront is the high-tech, moisture-wicking thermal layer - that easily removes and stashes in your pocket. Don't leave home without it.  |
AuthorThoughts and hopefully inspirations from the Warmfront. Archives
January 2019
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