XVII

This is Andrew, Block Bikes shop rider, Lancaster local, and a young guy who likes to have fun on wheels, and sometimes off wheels.  I met him when Rich Bartlett, the Block Bikes owner, took me along up to Woodward West about a month ago.  Andrew came with us, to session all the good stuff at Woodward for a long evening.  Rich and I didn't know it, but Andrew was on a mission that night, he wanted to land a solid backflip into the foam pit.  It was buggin' him, it was stressin' him out.  His first one got kinda stuck upside down and didn't go well.  But he got it together, took a deep breath, and hucked one all the way around.  Progression.  In the last minutes of the session that night, Andrew got his flips pretty solid into the pit, and the stoke was evident.  Mission accomplished.

In this edit, which he shot himself,with a couple added camera people (I shot the flip), and thought out and edited, Andrew tries out a bunch of fun things.  He sessions the trampoline, a scooter, his BMX bike, a quad ATV, a motorcycle, and a side by side.  More than anything, I realized Andrew's having a lot of fun (between the inevitable bails) when he's not here in the shop.

Hey, tomorrow is Friday, the weekend is near.  I hope you have as much fun this weekend as Andrew had in this video.  It may give you an idea of what to spend some time doing the next few days.  I need to keep an eye on this kid, I have a feeling there's more cool videos on the way.

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Fat bike tour of Death Valley and Las Vegas desert area

OK, this one looks totally fun to me. Yeah, I'm weird and I like the desert.  I try to find a wide variety of bike tours, trips, and treks from all over the world, to share in this blog.  Today I wanted to see what videos there were from the American West.  On a personal level, after ten years in the humidity of The South, I'm back in California, and living in the desert town of Lancaster, north of L.A..  So I went looking for a cool bike trek in the Western U.S. today.  Fat biking Death Valley and the Las Vegas area desert through Arizona and into California, is definitely not for everyone.  It's not for many people at all, but that's the whole point.  I love the old sign that says, "Nothing."

The deserts of the American West look so wide open and desolate, but it's amazing how much is going on in them, how much wildlife there actually is in the deserts, and how many human made ruins there are all over.  So there's your bike trip inspiration for the day, have a good one.

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Desert backcountry trek: plane, bike, rock climbing and rafts

Here's another adventure trek, with a guy named Steve "Doom" Fassbinder.  Would you go into the backcountry with a guy nicknamed "Doom?"  Apparently that wasn't an issue for his friend.  He's had is eye on a first ascent of some remote rock towers.  "First acsent" is climbing lingo for being the very first person, ever, to climb something.  This adventure starts with a small plane flight into a remote area, followed by fat bike riding, then they do the climbing, and then raft their way out of the region, then more fat bike riding back to civilization.  A little bit of everything in one adventure.  It's a short and cool little video that makes you want to head out into the desert.  Somewhere.

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