Yesterday afternoon was my last show in Maine, and it was a public show, and it took place in the Camden Opera House. This beautiful venue was perfect for the event which included the showing of Manifesto, Trial and Error, and Crux; then a live demo, and a Q&A session to follow. The whole event was about 2 hours long; that’s a whole lotta Ryan time!

 

The best part of this trip was meeting and hanging out with so many great people. From Chris Christie the owner of Bikesenjava who thought of and organized the whole tour, to Ian who built all the demo obstacles, to Andrew who took care of the bike shop while Chris took me around, to Karl and John who both took a week of holiday to help set up and tear down, and drive the trailer; Chuck, Tanya, Gabe, Andy, Woody, and Steve for also helping with set up, Jeff at the snow bowl for helping with the Opera House venue, and Kaarie and Hayden who hosted us at their house; hopefully I didn’t miss too many names! The capacity of these Mainers to give their time for this tour was incredible; and I think it ultimately says a lot for a community that is willing to put others (in this case the students of the schools and cycling enthusiasts) ahead of their own needs that brings a community together, and ultimately creates a friendly neighborhood where good things can happen. For instance, it was rare that I saw anyone lock their vehicle, even if it had a bike in the back. The pace of life is rather laid back in mid coast Maine, yet everyone certainly knows the value of hard work. No trip to the Maine coast is complete without eating some local lobster, so Chris got the whole crew together for a cook up, very nice!!

 

I arrived home last night, (Caryn and I counted six Starbucks from gate to gate during our layover in the Chicago airport) and now sit in a hotel after a seven hour drive up to Revelstoke, BC, where I start the next week of schools which will consist of nine T.O.L. presentations and one bike shop show, whew!!

 

Go Barak, Peace Y’all,

 

Ryan

My new friends at Bikesenjava in Maine have gone all out for my demo tour. I put together a little video of the obstacles they made for my visit because they are just amazing, right down to the details. If you live in the Maine area, please do come out to the public show they have organized on Saturday.

I have just arrived home after a month on the road, a fantastic month of shows that took me through Northern BC, down to California for the Sea Otter Classic, across to Toronto for demos at The Green Living Show, then finally to Ottawa for a shop show. After mixing in some very early morning photo shoots, breakfast TV shows, and late nights, and not enough yoga, my body decided it had had enough, so now I am at home in bed, sick with either bronchitis or pneumonia, and strep throut. Have you ever gone through an exceptionally busy time and right at the end, when all commitments were done, got really sick? Our bodies way of giving us a forced rest.

For me though, it’s tough, this rest is short lived, I have to pick up my trailer and get ready to perform on Saturday. Hopefully the antibiotics kick in in time, because it’s hard to cancel a show that is being advertised on the radio, and in the newspaper, some people make an extra effort to see me, and I have known people that travel a fair distance to do so. Even if it is just one person, or one kid that is bummed, that is enough for me to grit my teeth and make it happen. One worry is being contagious, but as I understand, after two days of antibiotics, people around me should be in the clear; or is that an old wives tale? Robin Coope, hopefully you can come announce for me buddy, like the good ‘ol days where you couldn’t get a word out of my mouth!

So the last demo in Ottawa  (well technically Gatineau), my symptoms were starting to show. The weather was cold, but clear, and I had been up at 5am in Toronto, to get a photo shoot in. Of course traveling to the shop, and eating nothing but ‘Timmies’ and ‘Coffee Time’ didn’t help with my health. I then started setting up my old demo structures which live out in Toronto. I was at this shop last year with my ‘nice’ western demo set-up, so as far as the look and flash, it’s a step down. Managed to muster off the show, sign a whack of posters, and all was good, and my petty worries about performing on my old stuff was a non-issue. Friendly folk there, even took me out to Dinner, thanks JF!

Once I muster enough energy, I have a little video tour edit of the Green Living show to post, I was so excited to have been a part of that event, and wanted to share some of it with you.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out over the last month, couldn’t do these tours without all the great people along the way. 

Nice!! 

Ryan

 

Just getting ready to do some shows today, such a busy event!

I saw The Collectives new film last night called “Seasons”, beautiful film that takes you on a journey through the seasons with six riders. It is a blast to watch, so much fun, and of course the cinematography is unreal. I also like the ‘vote Obama’ at the bottom of the credits, nice one guys. 

No more time to keep writing, so I wish you all a great weekend!

Ryan

Just some video clips from my recent Northern BC Tour….I’m now southward bound (in a hotel close to Portland) on my way down to the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, CA.

 

Hello! Just a quick hello from the Seattle Bike Expo; thought I would leave you with this little video blog instead of writing too much, check it out….

Peace, Ryan

June 10thMy visit to Peterborough Ontario was such an amazing experience. I met up with the the Cops for Cancer, Pedal for Hope crew, they were my hosts for the first few days of the visit. The police officers raised $140,000 for cancer research on their 3 week tour, where they visited 50 schools by bike. I donated my Trials of Life presentation to the top four schools in the area that raised the most money. The great team of cops and their tour volunteers helped me at every school, I even got a cop escort all over town!  Shimano Canada is also located in Peterborough, so their manager, Greg Hammond, also came out to all the schools to help. He organised a press conference at the Shimano headquarters on Friday for the official cheque presentation from the Pedal for Hope team to the Cancer Foundation. I then performed a private show for everyone in attendance and had a great time. Saturday was a visit to the local bike shop, Fontaine Source for Sports. That afternoon, I went out to Cottage Country where one of the ‘token’ Pedal for Hope riders has a house. He’s not actually a cop, but an ex NHL’er, John Druce. So the whole crew of us went tubing behind the boat and had a BBQ. I think I’m more beat up from the tubing than I am from all the shows!! Huge thanks to John Townsend and the rest of the Pedal for Hope team, congrats guys and thanks again! Just finished up another shop demo in Whitby Ontario today, and am just relaxing before another BBQ, I’m sure getting spoiled on this tour!!

April 13th,It’s been hovering around freezing all day with a mix of snow and rain, heavy at times. Recovering from the deep down chill that I got while setting up my demo obstacles was next to impossible, until my first show that was. I’m in Whistler village, my first day of 10 days of demos for the World Ski and Snowboard Festival. It would have been so easy to say, “Oooh, it’s just too wet and cold to ride, it’d be dangerous, no one is going to watch, they’re all rushing toward the next warm cafe!!”. But I buckled down and kicked a show off anyway, just one person watching. One move in to the show, babbling to myself on the microphone, I see that at least 20 people are now watching; where’d they come from!!! Kept riding, and before I new it, I had a crowd standing there in the freezing cold sleet, watching me slip and slide around on my demo stuff, cool!! Second show went even better, and now that I’m part way done a cup of tea, and warming up in my hotel room, the third show should be just as good…and wet. So I had two Trials of Life presentations this week, one in Squamish, and one in Deep Cove, North Vancouver. Two incredibly beautiful places, I truly am fortunate to be a BC resident, and I am striving to do my best to learn about what I can do to help reduce my impact on it, not in terms of tires landing on roots, but in the amount I pollute ;-).I had an awesome meeting with the David Suzuki Foundation, and am proud to announce that I’ll be an ambassador for the Foundation, and will do my best to spread the word at all my school shows and regular demos. Please do take the time to visit The David Suzuki Foundation and also, sign up for the Nature Challenge.Well, I’m looking out the window at the snow, and looking at my watch, putting the two together, equals Snow Demo. Yeehaa, here we go!!!Peace,Ryan