Hiatus - over

Hey guys,

I wanted to quickly apologize for the delinquent nature of this blog.  Those days are over.  A few things to report and then on to teasers for upcoming posts.

1.  I was briefly quoted in Momentum magazine in their Growing Up Velo article as well as KBD getting mentioned.   Pretty awesome.
2.  We've moved to Montana.  Our family biking adventures are about to get a little more... interesting.
3.  Due to the new climate challenge we're faced with, I'll be exploring the world of winter bicycling, and how and if that's possible.

In the meantime, I've been getting really inspired by the past few books I've read, am reading, and have yet to read:

You Can't Ride a Bike to Alaska, It's an Island
Don't let the fact that the title sounds like Sarah Palin said it... this is a fun adventure about a guy (who with no prior training, conditioning) decides to ride his bike from Missoula, MT to Alaska.  I was a little impatient with the beginning of the book as he endures a knee injury and hitch hikes a lot of the way (he was riding with a group).  But to his credit the author gutted it out and made a fun little adventure of it.  Takeaway from this book - I probably don't want to do one of those paid group rides.

Joyride
I'm halfway through this book and I must say I'm enjoying it.  Full disclosure, it's written by the CEO of my company so I guess that does skew my view a little bit.  The tone is very casual and conversational, making it approachable.  What's nice about it (thus far) is that it provides some much needed perspective as to how Portland became so bicycle friendly.  In my profession, most of us tire about how great Portland, Davis, Boulder is... because it just seems so unrealistic that ______ (name the city you live in) will ever be that way.  Joyride paints a very interesting picture of Portland, making it seem like every other city out there.  This gives me a lot of hope for the cities I love that have yet to embrace bicycling for every day transportation.  Recommended for bike planning nerds, community development scholars, and sustainable community advocates.

Mud, Sweat and Gears
Momentum is Your Friend
Both of these books were written by Joe Kurmaskie and detail his adventures of bike touring with his family.  While I have yet to read them, just knowing that a regular dad out there trekked his kids across America and Canada, on bike seems so awesome.  While I don't know if I'd ever be able to commit the time to pulling off such a grand expedition - it does make me think doing a pretty big (like, 2 week?) bike trip with my family is very possible.  When I finish these I'll have more to report.  Right now, family bike touring is my big obsession in concept.

Lots more to come in the weeks ahead.   The weather is still beautiful in Bozeman so hopefully I won't have to dust off my newly acquired mountain bike for the winter commuting ahead.  Rest assured, there will be lots to talk about.  Hope all of you are enjoying the waning days of summer and are ready for a wonderful fall full of riding with your family.

Ride safe,

David