Extreme nature biking

I just wanted to share with you the link to a ride that a guy called Eric Parsons did recently with a friend of his.
Eric makes amazing bags for adventure cycling and has kitted out the majority of racers in the Iditabike style adventure races.
He makes the bags that inspired me to make mine for my Brooklyn.

He's no stranger to extreme terrain and long rides, he lives in Alaska, and has completed some amazing rides in the past...this one involved taking their bikes on rafts to reach certain parts of the ride....the scenery in the photos is absolutely breath taking....Eric was riding singlespeed...his buddy was riding fixed.
I hope you enjoy reading it.

http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,309.0.html

Just to give you an idea of what's in store...

Here's a shot of Eric riding to his local post office to post the bags he's made to his customers...it's safe to say that they're a little more hardcore over in Alaska. :)

awesome!

link don't work? I wanna see them photos!

Really makes me feel inspired to do some proper riding. Hence why i'm kitting out the brooklyn like i am.
I'd love to get another Surly pugsley again too and go and do some proper adventure stuff.
I'm 34 and i've never even had a passport...how ridiculous is that! it's time i left this country :)

Link works for me?

works now! weird. is it possible to fail at clicking?

my god, fantastic. this is really inspiring. enjoyable account too, thanks for posting. I've also been feeling the urge to get out and see the world for myself and although I'm nowhere near up to this yet I really hope I'll one day be able to do something so amazing. I can totally understand how it would make you so emotional... I could feel it just looking at the pictures.

Cheers.

Wow, that picture where he's riding through the multicolored heather with the mountains in the background...wow

agreed, a favourite here also.

Wow.

epic adventure

One of my New Years Resolutions this year was to stay in the UK more this year and have adventures here, there is so much potential for great rides here. Not really done any yet as I've been doing loads of road cycling but once I've done the etape I'll try get some done.

Did a 3 day MTB ride in the outer hebredes a few years ago that was amazing, cycling offroad between bothies. 5 of us started, 3 bailed out after the first day as the weather was grim and my planning had taken us up a hill that was uncyclable and took us 2 hours to push up. I think the thing that really annoyed them though was most of them couldn't cycle down the other side so had to walk down! Me and another made the whole route though and the weather was great for the rest of the time apart from a freak 10 minute hail storm that we had to hide in a ditch from.

Awesome link - there's a few more stories like that on mtbr that have got me and tommy inspired! I may well want a frame bag actually so might give you a shout!

Great link, I did a ride across Mexico a few years ago which was brilliant. I did it with http://www.exodus.co.uk who I would recommend for a first trip out. It's not cheap - over 2k all in, but they look after routes, food, accomodation etc and so all you have to do is ride and enjoy yourself. They do it all over the world and it's usually in groups of about 10 people I think.

Cool stuff. Quite the adventurer.

Great link, wow

bummer.. my work pc doesn't show the pictures.
are these the bags that get mentioned on the surly blog?

I enjoyed reading the article, as it is certainly impressive stuff. However, they seem to do a lot of walking rather than riding, so I was curious as to whether or not they were using SPDs. But then when I tried to find the SPDs in the pictures, I noticed I couldn't see any pedals in any of the pictures. Then I looked further and couldn't see any brakes either.

Anyone have any explanation for this?

bummer.. my work pc doesn't show the pictures.
are these the bags that get mentioned on the surly blog?

Yeah they will be....Eric makes bags that are wider to work perfectly with the pugsleys wide stance....he's a great guy too....but then all us bag makers are :)

They both ride a lot....stupid distances, but because the places they go to have such varied and harsh terrain they also have to hike, climb, and raft a lot too....Eric has brakes on his singlespeed but his buddy is riding fixed so has no brakes as most of the riding is at a slower pace so less need for a front brake.
The reason there's no pedals in certain pics is because there are certain sections with a lot of hiking, carrying, pushing....so if you're pushing your bike for an hour then it makes sense to remove the pedals to stop them smacking your legs...especially on the fixed bike as in the picture above.

Ah I thought that might be the explanation for the pedals. Didn't think in a million years they'd be doing this brakeless fixed.. but legends are legends.

Do they have separate hiking shoes and riding shoes as well?

Yeah they will be....Eric makes bags that are wider to work perfectly with the pugsleys wide stance....he's a great guy too....but then all us bag makers are :)

i like reading that surly blog, it really makes me want to get out of the office and city and build a stove..

Ah I thought that might be the explanation for the pedals. Didn't think in a million years they'd be doing this brakeless fixed.. but legends are legends.

Do they have separate hiking shoes and riding shoes as well?

I doubt it...most hiking boots have slightly stiffer soles anyway...most snow bikers and adventure bikers use hiking boots for more comfort and protection...the last thing you want to do is slip on ice still clipped in and sprain your ankle out in the frozen wastes of Alaska. :)

http://www.redspokes.co.uk/

I have always fancied the laos/thailand tour, great company.

Scott,you actually make your own bags?.That's amazing,really nifty workmanship on your Brooklyn.